E-mail Pete Fiutak Follow me … @PeteFiutak I tried to make all sorts of excuses for Ohio State. I assumed J.T. Barrett would be more than fine in place of Braxton Miller, and he someday might be, but it’s hard to tell with a slew of Hokies sitting on his head all game long. I assumed the Ohio State running game […]
E-mail Pete Fiutak Follow me … @PeteFiutak Michigan State is going to get lumped into the upcoming national The Big Ten Really, Really Sucks narrative, but it doesn’t – it’s not fair. It’s not fair to the Spartans, and it’s not fair to an Oregon team that stepped up its game at home. It’ll get totally lost in the aftermath, […]
E-mail Rich Cirminiello Follow me … @RichCirminiello Two games. That’s all it took Steve Sarkisian to earn his first monster signature win at USC. I had my doubts about Sark’s return to Troy. I felt the school could have done better with its successor to Lane Kiffin. While it’s certainly too early to hand out any grades, the coach is […]
Virginia Tech (1-0) at Ohio State (1-0) Sept. 6, 8:00, ESPN Here’s The Deal: This first-ever meeting between Virginia Tech and Ohio State—and Frank Beamer and Urban Meyer—will warrant a primetime audience this Saturday night. The Buckeyes return home after a sluggish performance in Baltimore versus Navy. Yeah, the top 5 program survived, but a close call with a […]
Ole Miss (1-0) at Vanderbilt (0-1) Sept. 6, 4:30, ESPN Here’s The Deal: It’s hard to come up with a worse start to a coaching era than Derek Mason had last week. Not only was he taking over for the energetic and popular James Franklin, but with so many nasty games on the slate, his Vanderbilt team needed […]
Colorado (0-1) at Massachusetts (0-1) Sept. 5, 3:00, ESPN3 Here’s The Deal: Colorado is making a rare trip to the East Coast, to Massachusetts of all places. It could be worth the trek for the Buffaloes who’ll travel anywhere to get a win these days. The team is still smarting after squandering a fourth-quarter lead to rival Colorado […]
Colorado State (1-0) at Boise State (0-1) Sept. 6, 10L15, ESPN2 Here’s The Deal: Utah State should have something to say about it, but this might be the battle for the Mountain division. Colorado State roared back with 24 unanswered points after getting down to Colorado 17-7, making it the second game in a row – counting the […]
BYU (1-0) at Texas (1-0) Sept. 6, 7:30, Fox Sports 1 Here’s The Deal: Mack Brown did phenomenal things for the University of Texas football program. He brought it back from the doldrums, made it a perennial Big 12 and national title contender, and he made the school gobs and gobs and gobs of money. But for all […]
Howard (0-1) at Rutgers (1-0) Sept. 6, 12:00, BTN Here’s The Deal: Rutgers couldn’t have started out with a more entertaining win, holding up against the high-powered Washington State offense to pull off a 41-38 thriller to give the Big Ten a big non-conference victory and the program a terrific start. With the Big Ten opener up next, […]
Pittsburgh (1-0) at Boston College (1-0) Sept. 5, 7:00, ESPN Here’s The Deal: A couple of former Big East rivals, who are now members of the ACC, will renew acquaintances for the first time in a decade. Pitt and Boston College won as heavy opening day favorites over Delaware and Massachusetts, respectively. But now the programs are […]
Michigan (1-0) at Notre Dame (1-0) Sept. 6, 7:30 pm, NBC Here’s The Deal: Michigan and Notre Dame will play again and the series will someday become special again. It might not happen for years, but there’s too much history and there’s too much greatness for the two historic programs to not square off in early September on […]
E-mail Pete Fiutak Follow me … @PeteFiutak I was only half-joking throughout last season when I called Jared Abbrederis the most valuable player in college football, and Wisconsin’s loss to LSU showed exactly why. Wisconsin wasn’t the better team in Houston, and it certainly wasn’t the more talented or athletic team, but it found itself in a […]
E-mail Pete Fiutak Follow me … @PeteFiutak Okay, Florida State. This was fine, but you had better go all 2013 again against Clemson on September 20th. It’s still August, and considering the Seminoles pulled it out, this game doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of the world. 13-0 Florida State is in the College Football Playoff no matter what, […]
E-mail Pete Fiutak There we go, Georgia. That’s what we’ve been waiting for you to look like. Healthy, spry and rested, this looks like a much, much better team than the one the limped across the finish line last season, and if it can stay in one piece, look out. This is a deep and talented team with a […]
American Athletic Aug. 29 BYU 35, at Connecticut 10 And You Care Because … BYU cranked up 513 yards of total offense, getting up early on a seven-yard Taysom Hill touchdown run and two scoring passes for a 21-0 lead. UConn turned the ball over on its first play from scrimmage, and failed to get into the game until […]