College Football Diary- Week One

[ThadFilms]

College Football Diary is a week-by-week analysis of the weekend that was with an emphasis on regional teams especially SMU, the team I love, and Texas, the team I love to hate.

College Football Diary represents the opinions of its author. Feel free to disagree- but you’re wrong. That was a joke.


College Football Diary: Week One

Dear Diary,

It is week one of the college football season and college football fans could not be happier. One hundred and seventeen teams began the week undefeated. Fans of one hundred and seventeen teams still had hopes for a national championship. Even the most “realistic” fan of a the most bottom of the barrel team still walks into that stadium and thinks to themselves “Wouldn’t it be great if we could win ‘em all?”

Wouldn’t it be great? More correctly, in these trying times, sixty-four teams enter week one with national title hopes. However, this article is not going to dwell on the flawed BCS system. We will simply move forward on the hope that if a team like, say, Texas Christian wins all their games- as some pundits say they might- that the BCS system puts them in the championship game. Of course most of those “pundits” live in Ft. Worth and the Horned Frogs will not go undefeated because the Iron Skillet will be returning home to Dallas this year.

One hundred and seventeen teams… and then there were fifty-nine. With week one drawing to close in the cavernous confines of the New Orleans Super Dome some are left with bitter pills, some are left with doubt, and others are more certain then ever.

KICKOFF

Kansas Stave vs. Cal

Is last season’s success at Cal an aberration? Yes. Where’s Kyle Boller? Starting at quarterback for Baltimore Ravens.

K. State came in guns blazing and looked every bit the MNC contender everyone has been talking about. Ell Roberson threw for 295 yards to prove he has a gun to go with his wheels. Roberson’s 2003 campaign has the Manhattan faithful going full on Heisman crazy.

Ever been to Berkley? Football there is about as important as teaching multiplication to hyenas. My father went to school at Cal, and though he tells me about all the great experiences at football games (M-I-C-K-E-Y M-U-C-L-A), he is the exception rather than the rule. It’s funny, really, because take for example the University of Colorado. The towns of Boulder and Berkley share a similar free-spirit-granola attitude, yet they are football crazy in Boulder. What’s the difference? This one’s easy. Admissions. Cal Berkley admits the same kind of people that end up staying in Berkley or the kind of people who never leave the library (they can be one and the same). Colorado admits people who might stay in Boulder and everybody else- including football fanatics. Thus the true answer lies in alumni. Alumni interested in football will pay and pay and pay to keep their football program competing. At Cal most of the alumni are more interested in the upcoming contract with Lockheed Martin or cold fusion or the molecular biology of rhododendrons. Sure Cal is a massive state university, but their football takes a back seat to education, which is- I guess- as it should be.

Of course I went to a school that paid its football coach more then their president and a good chunk of the faculty combined, and that was during the Great Depression. Yet, still that same university prides itself as an academic institution first.

Now back to football. Bill Snyder’s job at K. State must be applauded. His defense never seems to miss a beat. What do they say about Miami? They don’t rebuild- they reload. The same can be said about the Wildcat defense. Even after losing their best player and arguably the best player in last year’s draft, the D was dominant. On offense the shift at quarterback from Michael Bishop to Ell Roberson has been so seamless that some people have to take a moment to even remember Michael Bishop (no disrespect to Bishop). For almost a century Kansas State football was a joke- what Snyder has done in a few short years is nothing short of a miracle. Every struggling D 1-A program is given hope by the K. State turnaround that has seen Wildcat football rival Jayhawk basketball (still not really even close, because in Kansas you can’t mess with the “rock chalk”). The Kansas State question is, can they keep it up if Snyder ever decides to leave?

Oh yeah, Kansas State also beat Troy State this week. Or maybe it was McNeese State- no that’s next week. You got to love scheduling the early season pushovers.


Miami vs. La Tech

The analysis by the ESPN Game Night crew was spot on. Hey, K-2? What were you thinking? The correct answer is that he wasn’t. But for a brief shining moment we were reminded why we used to hate Miami in the past- they were not simply hate-able because they were good (like now) but they used to be a bunch of jerks. It’s hard to say who was more hate-able the old Hurricanes or the run and shoot Houston Cougars of the late-eighties/early-nineties. On a national level, it has got to be the ‘Canes but, personally, I would put the Cougs right up there (perhaps a 95 to 21 “run up the score” drubbing biases my opinion- Andre Ware are you now?).

<A HREF="http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/heisman/flops.html" TARGET=_blank>http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/heisman/flops.html</A>

Perhaps we are returning to the days of the Miami Hurcajerks. What with Brock Berlin walking around campus like he’s the second coming of himself (or Gino Toretta)- Donna Shalala better watch out. And Mr. Winslow II, you had 35 yards receiving. Nice pose.

A much better showing should have been expected out of Louisiana Tech. They are just one year removed from a conference championship season that saw now senior quarterback Luke McCown post passing numbers that were among the nations highest in most categories. Louisiana Tech is not a bad team. Last year it was not McCown’s fault that the team did not produce offensively despite his 19 interceptions. La Tech’s inexperienced receiver core caused a lot of those picks by not hanging on to the football. Luke McCown will have a better pro career then Brock Berlin.

Speaking of Brock Berlin- Larry Coker has struck me recently as occasionally being a better coach then previously thought (or then he previously needed to be), but the decision to name Berlin as the starting quarterback baffles me. I believe in terms of raw skills and talent Brock is better then Crudup, but Miami have been grooming Crudup to take over for the last two seasons. The move does not seem to make sense. But then again we’ve never seen enough of Crudup to make any real assessment on his tools and prowess.

The success and failure of this season for Miami lies squarely on the shoulders of Brock Berlin. They will lose at least one game this year. Florida State?


Virginia Tech vs. Central Florida

Vick, Vick, Vick, Vick, Vick, Vick, Vick, Vick, Vick.
How many Vicks is that?
A lot.

Though Brian Randle is the starter (and a helluva quarterback in his own right) the real story from this game is Marcus Vick. When he did get on the field he was mighty impressive, it was like watching a mirror image of his big brother. Wow, now that’s a nice problem to have. Va. Tech won the game 49-28. However, there will be no Vick medicine this week as he and a teammate are suspended for this Saturday’s game against James Madison. Again, I love the early season patsies.


Colorado vs. Colorado State

I became an immediate full-fledged Colorado fan the first time I attended a game in Boulder. I had been a passing fan for a good long time- especially in the Rashan Salaam/Kordell Stewart eras. It really is one of the greatest places to see a football game. I enjoyed it even more because the first two games I saw there were against Texas. And Texas lost both times. (I also enjoyed the fact that the fans were equal opportunity- “We hate Texans.” “But I’m rooting for you guys.” “So wh

[i10pony]

God I wish big time football was back at SMU. Those Texas-SMU games must have been awesome. Anyway your diary is great man keep it up.

[Diehard Pony]

i10Pony they were awsome. Think about not being out of the Top 10 for 3 years running. It's a great memory.

With that said, I am living in the present and while I don't believe (at this point) that we can get back to that pinnacle, I do believe Coach Phil will get ultimately get us a long way toward that goal.

[This message has been edited by Diehard Pony (edited 09-05-2003).]

[ThadFilms]

Thanks for the encouragement i10. Sorry about the length, I just had more to say then I thought I would.

And in response to DieHard, if we do not believe we can get back to that point who will? And we are the alumni/sutdents who will become alumni. Look at our cross town rivals, they have been leaning on the alumni and look where they are today.

[Diehard Pony]

PonyExpress83, I would like nothing more than get to the heights we were in the 80's, but let me assure you the TCU today is nowhere near the level that we were then. We were consistently in the Top 10 against big league competition.

I hope for us to get there again, but just to achieve TCU's level of success would be a great achievement at this point.



[This message has been edited by Diehard Pony (edited 09-07-2003).]

[WreckEm16]

Excellent diary, thanks for the comments.

And I was very, VERY impressed with Ford last year. A much nicer stadium than I was expecting, in fact one of the nicer stadiums I visited all last year.

Looking forward to keeping up with SMU football from my new home (for the next 4 months) here in Ft. Worth.

------------------
And when I die
You can bury me
In Lubbock, Texas,
In my jeans.

-Mac Davis

[Corso]

That diary is FANTASTIC!
Keep it up. Look forward to reading each and every installment!

[ThadFilms]

Not so fast, Corso... Thanks. Oh and WreckEm there will be more on Tech in the future.

Week Two will be up tomorrow night (or Wednesday at the latest). Then Thursday or Friday I will post Part One of a special edition, The PonyExpress83 Big Football Trip.