College Football Week 1

Week 1 of the college football season is in the books. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see many games since I was out of town, but I did get to see my Hawkeyes put a whoopin on Illinois State, 31-14! They started with an 81 yard touchdown drive, followed by a 99 yard drive for an early 14-0 lead. C.J. Beathard did a nice job running the offense, and LeShun Daniels looked great going over 100 yards on the ground. Drew Ott was an absolute monster on defense, and the secondary did a nice job. Illinois State couldn't get anything going offensively until the 4th quarter when the Hawkeye backups were in. The tackles and linebackers were big question marks coming into this season and I thought they all did a nice job, although the opponent wasn't Big Ten caliber, it still should give them confidence as the season progresses.

I watched Ohio State-Virginia Tech last night and it looked like early on it would be a blowout, but the Hokies got right back in the game. In the second half, the Buckeyes were too much and Virginia Tech lost their starting QB. Ohio State is going to be tough to beat, there is way too much talent on that team.

New Top 25
1-Ohio State 1-0 had a little bit of a scare against Virginia Tech before pulling away
2-Alabama 1-0 shut down Wisconsin's running game in an easy win
3-Baylor 1-0 played against SMU, but their offense is fun to watch
4-USC 1-0 easy win for the Trojans
5-Auburn 1-0 nice win against Louisville
6-TCU 1-0 close win against Minnesota, a tough opponent
7-Michigan State 1-0 knocked off Western Michigan, a team on the rise
8-Oregon 1-0 gave up a lot of points against Eastern Washington
9-Georgia 1-0 they've got some really good running backs, had no problem with UL-Monroe
10-Florida State 1-0 Everett Golson looked good in his debut
11-Notre Dame 1-0 Golson's old team dominated Texas
12-Clemson 1-0 easy win this week
13-Texas A&M 1-0 had no problem with a tough Arizona State team, kind of surprised me
14-UCLA 1-0 new QB looked solid
15-Ole Miss 1-0 put up 76 points in their opener
16-Oklahoma 1-0 easy win, but the running game struggled a bit, they need to fix that quickly
17-Georgia Tech 1-0 one of the funnest offenses to watch, Marshall's going to be a good one
18-LSU 0-0 game got cancelled due to lightning
19-Tennessee 1-0 had no problem scoring points, tough test with Oklahoma this week
20-Missouri 1-0 easy opening win
21-Arkansas 1-0 had no problem with UTEP
22-Boise State 1-0 narrowly defeated Washington
23-Northwestern 1-0 upset Stanford, held them to only six points, Justin Jackson is a stud at RB
24-Wisconsin 0-1 tough loss against Alabama, but should bounce back
25-Arizona State 0-1 got crushed by A&M

Top Games-Week 2
Last week I was 8-3 in my predictions, there aren't many marquee match ups this week, but there are a few good ones.

Oregon at Michigan State: This is one of the biggest games of the year. Oregon's offense had no problem scoring last week, but their defense gave up way too many points. Michigan State's defense will have their hands full. Michigan State 28 Oregon 24

Oklahoma at Tennessee: Both teams coming off easy wins against MAC opponents, can Oklahoma get their running game going? Tennessee 31 Oklahoma 27

Boise State at BYU: BYU came up with a huge win at the last second and stunned Nebraska on the road, but they lost their QB Taysom Hill again. If Hill was playing in this one, I'd pick BYU. Boise State 24 BYU 21

Tulsa at New Mexico: The Lobos are coming off of a huge 66-0 over Mississippi Valley State, where they ran for eight touchdowns, but they also looked decent in their passing game. Tulsa can score a lot of points, too, so this should be a shoot out. New Mexico 48 Tulsa 42

Iowa at Iowa State: Iowa State surprised me last week by beating Northern Iowa 31-7. They have a lot of talented WRs and could cause some problems for Iowa's secondary. Iowa 35 Iowa State 24

San Diego State at California: I really like Cal's QB, Jared Goff. He put up over 300 yards last week. Oh yeah, that was in the first half. He's good. The Aztecs are a solid opponent, but I don't think they can shut down Cal's offense. California 56 San Diego State 31

LSU at Mississippi State: LSU's first game was cancelled, so they're not faced with a road conference game to start the season, it won't be easy. Mississippi State knocked off Southern Miss last week. LSU 28 Mississippi State 21