NCAA Football 2011: Week One Review

Random thoughts and observations on the first weekend of NCAA Football for 2011:

Wisconsin are going to figure prominently in the Big Ten chase.Russell Wilson is going to get on the same page - really get on the same page - as his receivers and the Badgers are going to do what they've always done: ram the football down the throats of opposition. Montee Ball and James White are the best one-two running back combination in the Big Ten. It must be nice to be Coach Bret Bielema and have those guys in your backfield. That run game opens up Wilson for play action, something he didn't have at NC State, and it's going to make him that much more dangerous. Oh, and he can run.

Thursday night blues. The best game of Thursday night was Syracuse vs. Wake Forest, an OT home victory for the Orange. The bad news? It wasn't on TV anywhere. Instead, we saw either blowouts or snoozers. Something not right here!!

Kentucky might be in some trouble. Correction, they will be in trouble if their play last night vs. Western Kentucky is anything to go by. The Wildcats won 14-3 at LP Field in Nashville, but they had only 75 yards of total offense to three quarter time. Against a Sun Belt team who went 2-10 last year! When they get to SEC play, Kentucky are going to be mauled and humiliated. One hopes that this was just a case of early season jitters. If not, long season coming up for UK.

Baylor showed amazing heart. They had a lead vs. #14 Texas Christian, lost that lead, came back on a game-winning drive and then, on a night when offense had been the big story, it was the defense who picked off sophomore QB Casey Pachall late, to notch the biggest victory Baylor's had in many years. Their QB Robert Griffin III was sensational all night.

Auburn scored two late TDs to avoid defeat by the WAC's Utah State. Struggling to beat the Aggies may become a problem when the defending National Champions get into SEC play. It should never have been that close. We might not see War Eagle back in the Top 25 lists this season.

Same old same old for the Houston offense with QB Case Keenum back in control. Good win vs. UCLA during which Keenum was 30/40 for 309 yards and one TD, for a QB Rating of 148.1. Nice numbers for his first game back since tearing his right ACL early in a loss to UCLA last September. Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel is in trouble.

Notre Dame turned the football over far too many times, more times than the 16th-ranked team in the nation should. It lost them a game that they should really have won by double-digits.

Former Florida coach Urban Meyer makes a brilliant TV analyst. The question is, will he even be at ESPN next year?

QB Joe Bauserman looked good under centre for Ohio State. So did his new favourite target Jake Stoneburner. Highly-touted freshman Braxton Miller looked reasonable, mopping up after OSU went up 28-0. Still, Bauserman should be the starter this year.

The Pac-12 had a shaky start to it's life. USC squeaked past Minnesota, Oregon State got beaten by FCS opponent Sacramento State, Oregon lost to LSU and UCLA lost to Houston. Not a good day for Commissioner Larry Scott.

Even though USC barely won - 19-17 vs. Minnesota at the Coliseum - to begin their second season under Lane Kiffin, QB Matt Barkley had a record 34 completions and WR Robert Woods, a definite superstar in the making, notched 17 catches for 177 yards and 3 TDs. Just insane numbers!

Boise State's offense was good. Their defense was also playing lights-out. They hassled and hounded Georgia's Aaron Murray all night long. The Broncos are probably favourites in the Mountain West after TCU's loss at Baylor yesterday.

After their loss to LSU today, the Oregon Ducks are long shots at best to make it to the National Championship Game. But becoming inaugural Pac-12 champions and spending new year's in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl is a nice consolation. Chip Kelly just needs to hope that LSU didn't provide a solid road map for slowing down the high-tempo offense that Oregon runs.

LSU's defense is bad fast, they are mean and they're going to go a long way in the SEC if they play like they did tonight. They did a wonderful job of blowing up pretty much everything that Oregon tried at Cowboys Stadium. Nothing like seven months to pick apart that Darron Thomas-led offense.