6 Things I Saw This Week
John's back with his weekly take on college football, and adds a favorite and worst team of the week.
John is back with his weekly column of what he saw and observed this week in college football. So, without further ado, here is John’s 6 Things:
1. Texas is really good. Michigan is going to have to rebuild.
Texas QB Quinn Ewers was brilliant on Saturday, dissecting a Michigan secondary that was not up to the challenge. I do question what happened in the second half though. They scored just 3 points and it seemed like they called off the dogs and didn’t try very hard.
Michigan on the other hand may be in store for a long season. QB1 will be a struggle it seems, but Davis Warren was getting no help from his receivers. Donovan Edwards is a terrific player but when you are the only weapon a team has, you’re the target and you can be nullified.
Ultimately though, Michigan’s vaunted defense was exposed. The secondary was mediocre at best. The defensive line was poor. Maybe that’s a result of Texas just being better than them, but it’s concerning and something to watch going forward.
2. Notre Dame doing Notre Dame things.
Wow! Irish, you didn’t even make it a week before you keeled over.
They were exposed offensively for the second week in a row. Northern Illinois is a good team but they had no business hanging with ND. Thankfully for the Irish, they play a cream puff schedule so they can work at getting better, but it seems like it could be a roller coaster season in South Bend.
3. What the heck is up with Oregon?
Another mighty scare from a good Boise State team, but two weeks into the season and they have just scraped by. It’s weird. It seems like Dillon Gabriel is doing well but is not meshing with the team? Do they just have no leader? Whatever it is, they better figure it out fast because Big Ten defenses are coming and they are going to run out of luck sooner than later.
4. The top tier SEC teams are proving themselves.
Except maybe for Alabama, which struggled Saturday for three-and-a-half quarters with USF. Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Missouri, meanwhile, were dominant. Texas and Tennessee played ranked teams and made their opponents look silly. The real question is, will a truly dominant team stand out once the SEC teams start to play each other?
5. The Deion tenure at Colorado is about to take an ugly turn.
Nebraska was the better team going into the night and they were able to stay the course. But Colorado is about to face a lot more questions.
They knew their offensive line was a weakness and went about fixing it primarily through the transfer portal. To say that hasn’t worked would be an understatement.
Deion has acknowledged he would rather be a “business man” and create a team through the transfer portal and has let recruiting go the wayside, except for kids he can convince that through his name brand and pedigree alone that he can make them stars.
Unfortunately, a collection of stars doesn’t make a team and never will.
He’s made Colorado relevant for the first time in 20-plus years, but the limelight is starting to fade and the cracks are starting to truly show. This could get ugly as the season goes on because their schedule is brutal.
6. More close games for ranked teams.
Penn State (sorry Gary), Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Arizona and the list goes on, all faced tough, hard-fought battles this week. They all escaped, but an interesting question to ponder is, are all these teams just that close in talent and maybe missing a piece or are we seeing overhyped teams being who they really are?
Truly a mixture of both I believe.
Another truly entertaining week of college football though!
Favorite team of the Week: St. Francis (PA)
Who the heck is this?!?! Well, the Red Flash of the Northeastern Conference are a tiny school that is usually playing teams like Mercer or Duquesne, but this week pulled the upset on Kent State 23-17. Kent State is usually a pretty decent MAC team. But that wasn’t too daunting for my favorite team of the week.
Worst Team of the Week: Notre Dame
The Irish just had to win and they probably assured a playoff spot. Not now. Sorry, they won’t get another look. And the worst part is they paid Northern Illinois $1.4 million dollars to eliminate them from the playoffs too.
Can’t wait to see what next week brings. The schedule is light, which means we will see more unexpected fireworks than you can imagine!