College Football Is Back
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 21:41
The first weekend of the college football season is complete! With games spread out over five(!) days, weekend might not be the right term for it–honestly, it felt more like bowl season! Not that I’m complaining. Throw in some Top 25 match-ups and even rivalry games, Week #1 of 2009 made for one of the most interesting ever.
The Ugly
No question, the LeGarrette Blount situation after the Oregon – Boise State game. A complete disaster. Byron Hout should not have grabbed Blount and said whatever he said, to be sure, but Blount was trash talking all week–if you can’t take it, don’t dish it. As bad as slugging another player is, one could even look past that reaction. Going after his own teammates, fans, etc… Blount was completely out of control. Completely unacceptable behavior.
Of course, what must be weighing more on his mind than any personal responsibility: how many millions of dollars did he throw away within just a couple minutes?
The game itself was ugly to boot. The second half was absolutely atrocious, with turnover after turnover. At least Boise State played halfway decently in the first half, even if struggled to put the ball in the endzone. Oregon was terrible throughout.
The Bad
The biggest news stemming from this “weekend” was the injury suffered by Oklahoma’s Heisman-Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford en route to huge upset by BYU. The Sooners are fortunate that Bradford does not need surgery and should return in 2-4 weeks, if they can weather starting a redshirt freshman even that long.
But with all the talk about what happened Bradford, people are failing to give proper credit to the Cougars. The QB’s injury did not cost the Sooners the game! The Cougs won it on their own merits. At the time that Bradford left the game, BYU had racked up twice the total yards as had Oklahoma. This was a Sooners squad that absolutely dominated in the first half (and particularly the first quarter) last year. The Cougars absolutely stifled them.
And then there was the injury itself. There are injuries, and then there are injuries. Bradford’s came on the second straight play (and third in a relatively short period of time) that a defender came from his left side completely unblocked. BYU found a huge weakness in Oklahoma’s offensive line and exploited it to the max. This was not simply some freak occurrence that cost the Sooners there quarterback, but superior recognition on the Cougars’ part that they either had a huge mismatch or that Oklahoma was blocking poorly. If the Sooners had made the same realization, Bradford would not have been hurt.
But BYU would still have won the game. Called that one!
The Good
A lot, actually. Washington looked respectable against LSU, in a tough first step to recovery after going winless in last year’s campaign. Miami’s upset over Florida State (a Week 1 conference rivalry game!) likewise was the beginning of that program’s return from controversy ignominy. Navy scared the heck out of Ohio State. And BYU and Boise State’s victories despite their negatives, are great for the game as a whole, landing a couple more slaps in the face of the BS that is the BCS.
NCAA College Football Houston Miami Washington Iowa Penn State Cal Tim Tebow | Deep Into Sports says:
September 29th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
[...] It would be easy to point to Cal’s drubbing at the hands of Oregon as the ugliest. After all, it was an absolute slaughter of a Top Ten team by an unranked opponent. Doesn’t Cal do this every year? The Bears get off to a great start, everyone whispers in hushed voices, “Maybe this is the season Cal can run the table? Maybe this really is their year?” And then the Bears suffer an embarrassing defeat and everyone realizes it’s the same ol’ Cal Bears. (This is not to downplay the remarkable turnaround of the Ducks after the season opening loss to Boise State and subsequent LeGarrette Blount fiasco.) [...]