The second week of the season throws up plenty of story-lines. Here are just four things worth keeping an eye on this weekend:
Malik Zaire: After his scintillating debut in prime time against Texas last week, there’s going to be even more eyes watching the Notre Dame quarterback. The Irish travel to play the Virginia Cavaliers on Sunday morning (Australian time) and, based on how he performed last week, the ceiling really is the limit for Zaire.
With the news that lead Irish running back Tarean Folston is done for the season, there’s precious little in the way of experience in the backfield, which means that a lot more offensive responsibility shifts over onto Zaire’s shoulders. Based, at least, on the way he shredded Texas, those are some broad shoulders. Virginia in Charlottesville is another chance to embed himself deeper in Brian Kelly’s offense.
It’s good to see the on-field product matching the hype with Zaire, and the reality of the situation is that he’s likely going to have to carry the Irish through what is a brutally tough schedule in 2015. The Irish go to Clemson and Stanford, two tough places to win, and welcome USC and the tricky Georgia Tech to South Bend. If Zaire can win all those games, and see Notre Dame through to an undefeated season, you’d be hard pressed to not hand him the Heisman at the end.
Ohio State’s quarterback situation: Cardale Jones was the somewhat unlikely starter against Virginia Tech – the popular school of thought was that J.T. Barrett had his nose only sightly in front – and now, as we progress into week two, I’ll be watching with interest to see what Urban Meyer does in terms of possible rotation.
Barrett threw one pass, which went for a touchdown, to really ice the Virginia Tech game, but when the Hokies were right in the game, it was Cardale Jones. Even Braxton Miller, the quarterback-turned-receiver had taken a snap, albeit out of the wildcat formation, before Barrett got a look.
Messing with a good thing might be something at the forefront of Meyers’ mind, too. Jones looked like his old self on Monday night, basically picking up where he left off in the National Championship Game win over the Oregon Ducks, and it might be tempting fate to pull him out of a game situation early on. That Buckeye offense hummed nicely with him at the controls. Meyer would be loath to fix what isn’t broken.
Michigan State: the Spartans went on the road to Eugene, Oregon and were thoroughly beaten by the Ducks, whose second half performance blew the Big Ten hopefuls pretty much off the park. Worse of all, the vaunted and celebrated Sparty defense gave up 46 points.
Saturday is a revenge opportunity for a squad who probably feel like they let one slip away, after leading Oregon 27-18 before having Marcus Mariota and the Ducks score the final twenty-eight points of the content. Of course, Oregon are now without Mariota, and many are favouring the Spartans in East Lansing.
It’s a massive game for Michigan State, who can wipe away bad memories from a year ago whilst ensuring they’re right in the national semi-final conversation. Oregon are missing two very good cornerbacks from last year’s squad, and MSU quarterback Connor Cook returns, probably pretty pleased to see what Eastern Washington did to the Oregon defense in the passing game last week: they completed passes at 67% for 438 yards and five touchdowns.
This is one of those early-season games with reality check written all over it. How the Spartans react to pressure – actual and perceived – will be fascinating.
Teams adapting to life after star player injuries: We saw far too many good players went down with either season-ending or long-term injuries in the first week. From afore-mentioned Notre Dame RB Tarean Folston to Brigham Young QB Taysom Hill and Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright, there are a lot of teams who’re moving into something of the unknown in week two.
It’s easy for coaches to say that injuries are a part of football and that coaches always have some sort of back-up plan, but there’s no doubt that head coaches in South Bend, Provo, Tempe and elsewhere – including Pittsburgh, where the Panthers lost a Heisman hopeful in RB James Conner – have spent plenty of time this week readjusting things and thinking about how cruel football can be, and how fragile the human body is.
Take guys like Hill and Conner, the absolute centrepieces of their team on offense. As good as their replacements will probably be, the likes of Taysom Hill and James Conner are particularly special players, and will never really be replaced. You just hope that the next man in can shoulder some of the load, and hope that the entire season isn’t dead in the water after one game.
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