The second week of college football is upon us, with not as many great match-ups as there were to open the season a week ago. Still, there’s plenty brewing, and here are three important things to keep an eye on as you digest football this weekend:
Big Ten Schools In Marquee Match-Ups: The oft-maligned conference gets a second chance to impress on a national level after Wisconsin managed to give up third quarter 24-7 lead over LSU in Houston last weekend.
Ohio State against Virginia Tech, Michigan against Notre Dame and, perhaps most impactful of all, Michigan State against Oregon all have the power to vault Big Ten schools into national prominence. A win for the Buckeyes, albeit on home turf, will be big because they’re without star quarterback Braxton Miller (out for the season) but road wins for Michigan against what looks like a very good Notre Dame team under lights in South Bend – it’s the final game in this storied rivalry, at least for the foreseeable future – and for Michigan State against an ultra-good Oregon team in a very hostile environment, will be giant.
Then there’s the flip-side: if the Big Ten schools lose – and, worse, if they’re embarrassed – it’ll be another week of anti-Big Ten sentiment, and another opportunity for so many pundits who don’t believe the Big Ten is a real power conference to have another moment in the sun. For mine, this is a giant opportunity for the Big Ten to reverse the perception. Whether they can is the big question.
Got a feeling the Buckeyes will win, but the two Michigan schools face an uphill battle. Not that the Spartans and Wolverines aren’t without a chance, though.
Can Oregon Move The Football On Michigan State: You look at Oregon’s recent struggles against Stanford and you look at Michigan State’s style of football and there are some definite similarities between Sparty and the Cardinal. Both love to run the football down a defence’s throat and, when they don’t have the ball, play a fierce, physical brand of D.
Doubtless, Michigan State has pored over the game tape of the last season’s Stanford vs. Oregon contest, and it figures to help them up in Autzen Stadium, where there’ll be upwards of sixty thousand fans trying to disrupt them. They’re going to need a few breaks to go their way, but if there’s a team in the nation who could potentially pull an upset against such a high-flying offense, Michigan State might be it.
I can’t wait to see whether Oregon’s explosive offense can break the shackles MSU will be trying to keep tight around them. Mark Dantonio is a brilliant defensive mind, and you can bet that he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve for this one. That the Spartans have had a lot of the summer to prepare for this one – I doubt they spent too much time watching film of their week one opponent, Jacksonville State, this past summer – bodes well for them, and presents an interesting test for QB Marcus Mariota and Oregon.
We’ve seen the Ducks struggle against very good defenses, and a loss here will make for an interesting narrative, particularly given it’s a home game and a chance to impress the nation against a tough non-conference opponent. leading into a potential berth in the college football playoff. We’ve always wanted to see this sort of contest: the potent Ducks offense against a really good defense, and Saturday’s contest has the feel of being a real battle in the trenches.
I tipped Oregon, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it go the other way.
The Stanford-USC Rivalry: Yeah, it all really started bubbling hate with John Harbaugh and Pete Carroll – neither of whom are currently the coaches of these two Pac-12 combatants – but there’s a healthy rivalry between Stanford and USC, which the Cardinal’s had the better of for the last half-decade. In fact, Stanford had won 4 straight before the Trojans shocked them last year, a standout win under caretaker coach Ed Orgeron at the Coliseum. It was probably the Men of Troy’s best win all year.
Now, USC heads to Paolo Alto to take on a revenge-minded Cardinal team who retain the look and feel from last year. Both sides looked good last week, and the Trojans appear to have settled well under new head coach Steve Sarkisian, after some consternation throughout the summer as to whether they would gel under the guidance of Sark, after clearly playing hard for the beloved Orgeron.
Sanford will have to play solid defense because it appeared last week that the USC offense, under a rejuvenated-looking QB Cody Kessler, had an arsenal of weapons, many talented freshmen, to call on. Fantastically-named JuJu Smith and Adoree’ Jackson are lightning-fast players, who’ll need to be well contained by the Stanford defense, and there’s the cool head of veteran Nelson Agholor. The combination might well be lethal.
USC also boast a nice stable of running backs, who combined for 277 yards rushing against Fresno State last week. Leading the charge is now-established starter Buck Allen, who had a century’ worth of yards against Fresno and another talented runner, Justin Davis. If the USC offensive line can get some traction against a tough Stanford defense, there’s a chance Allen could replicate his productivity.
A key battle will be between hulking Southern Cal defensive end Leonard Williams and the Stanford left tackle Andrus Peat. We’ve seen Stanford QB Kevin Hogan make critical errors under pressure, and if Williams can get around Peat and into the Cardinal backfield, there’s any number of things that might happen, none of them particularly good for Stanford.
As much as it pains me to say, Stanford will win this, just.
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