Thoughts after week two

Some great games this past weekend, capped off by an instant ESPN Classic in Ann Arbor under the lights as Notre Dame and Michigan traded blows over the last two minutes before the Wovlerines won it at the end.  I thought for sure Irish coach Brian Kelly was going to turn purple with rage this week, but he kept it under control.

Arizona State...I'm still not sold on you.  Yes, you have a lot of returning starters.  Yes, your quarterback seems to know what he's doing and your offense seems legitimate.  But you still make the same stupid mistakes, still commit way too many penalties and still struggle to put teams away, as you proved again on Friday night with Missouri, needing overtime to finish a game that you were up 14 in the fourth quarter.  As for your fans in the stands, well, I've been sold on them for a long time.

Penn State has issues, first and foremost is that they're boring.  Alabama beating them was a surprise to maybe 14 people in the whole country, but it's the way they were beaten.  They did nothing on offense and there never appeared to be the threat of anything happening on that side of the ball.  One of the two quarterbacks needs to take charge and get the offense moving.

South Carolina is going to be fun to watch this year.  Marcus Lattimore is an NFL-caliber back, Alshon Jeffery is a pass catching machine and defensive players Jadeveon Clowney and Melvin Ingram are game changers.  If quarterback Stephen Garcia can keep it together for a full season and Coach Spurrier can figure out what happened to his secondary, and with no Alabama or LSU on the schedule, this could be a very special year in Columbia.

UCLA has problems.  Losing to Houston on the road is one thing.  Having San Jose State trailing only by 3 with under four minutes to play is quite another.  Yes, the Bruins won, and a win is a win, but Rosy Cheek Rick's job security sure seems in jeopardy.  I'd love for them to seriously look at Mike Leach.  First, it would bring offense back to UCLA.  Second, it would get Mike Leach out of the broadcast booth.  Win-win.


Garrett Gilbert is out as Texas' starting quarterback.  I'm a little surprised it took them this long to make the decision.  He seemed completely overmatched in his first real game experience (granted, it was in the BCS Championship against Alabama's nasty defense), but he didn't seem to improve much last year as the starter and the first two games this season weren't looking much better.  Another quarterback I'll put in that same category is Miami Hurricane Jacory Harris.  When he's good, he's pretty good.  But when he's bad, he is terrible and will lose the game for you.  Based on backup Stephen Morris' performance against Maryland in the rain, I won't be surprised to see Jacory on in the same spot Garrett is in right now.

Matt Millen is an idiot, was a terrible judge of collegiate talent when he worked for the Detroit Lions, and I'm still stunned that ESPN would hire him as an analyst since he's such an obvious failure at judging talent.  South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore is an absolute beast and helped take the Gamecocks to their first SEC East title last year.  Millen believes he has a chink in his armor because "He can't take it to the next gear."  Lattimore then proceeds to score a touchdown two plays later and Millen can't gush enough praise on how well he runs.  Please fire this idiot.

As another week rolls by, another team decides to mess with their uniform.  Michigan State unveiled their new Nike Pro Combat uniforms, which leads me to add another rule to the uniform guidelines:

6. You cannot add a color to your uniform that is not part of your normal color scheme (black and white being the occasional exception).  Adding bronze to the traditional green and white of the Spartans makes no sense.  They even have a cheer, "Go Green, Go White".  After a hard day of tailgating, consuming adult beverages and years of practice chanting those four words, you expect fans to be able to now add "Go Bronze" on the end of it?  What makes it worse is when I first saw them I thought it was a uniform for South Florida.

Some big games this weekend with Oklahoma taking on Florida State (can the Seminoles avenge last year's beatdown and make a case for really belonging in the Top 5?), Michigan State vs Notre Dame (will the Irish start off 0-3? Will Brian Kelly blow a gasket if Sparty starts running them out of the building?), and Ohio State vs Miami (how many turnovers for Jacory Harris before he's pulled in favor of Stephen Morris?  I'll put it at 2 first half turnovers and he's out.).  And hopefully, we'll see the revival of what used to be a great game every year, Florida vs Tennessee.  The Volunteers seem to have found a bit of offense and the Gators seem to have rediscovered their defense.  Granted, both teams haven't really played anyone, but I have a feeling this one might bring back memories of yesteryear, when Spurrier was beating the Vols regularly and alluding to where Tennessee would be playing their bowl game after failing to beat the Gators again, delivered one of his classic quotes: "You can't spell Citrus Bowl without UT."