Knee-jerk Reactions: College Football's Opening Weekend

Taking into account everything I saw in college football this weekend, here's what I found...

1) Sam Bradford is the most important player (to his team) in college football: Have you ever seen a team fold as quickly, and as badly, as the Sooners did the minute Sam Bradford left the game? Most teams would have rallied around their injured star and fought twice as hard to earn the win. Not Bob Stoops’ squad. They more or less gave up when true freshman Landry Jones went under center. Oklahoma had just started to let Bradford off the leash with the passing game (with great results mind you) when he went out. Take nothing away from BYU; they did exactly what they had to do to win the game. But you can’t help but feel things would have gone as planned for the Sooners if Bradford’s shoulder held up.

2) USC is going to dominate Ohio State next week: The Buckeyes showed the nation something on Saturday that they may have wanted to keep quiet until USC comes to town; they’re not ready to be National Champions. Ohio State committed a terrible sports sin by looking past their opponent on the field to the next week’s opponent, and almost paid dearly for it. Sure, they won the game; but the Navy performance showed that this team is not ready to compete with the elite teams in college football right now. One thing Pete Carroll does better than almost every coach in college is keep his team motivated on the task at hand, no matter how overmatched the other team is. Say what you will about the strength of the Big Ten, but if the Buckeyes get caught looking ahead to Penn State or Iowa they may not be able to avoid the upset a second time.

3) Penn State will be in the National Title game: Yeah, it’s only one week into the season but hear me out. This team is very similar to the one that went to the Rose Bowl last year, but they have something this year that will put them over the top. Joe Paterno. He didn’t go anywhere last year, I know, but having his presence on the sidelines will be huge for this team. Add in the fact that I would give the National title nod to an undefeated Nittany Lions squad over a team like Texas, should they run the table. Sorry Longhorns, games against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State don’t cancel out scheduled executions against UTEP, Wyoming, Louisiana-Monroe and UCF in the title picture.

4) If Mark May picks against Notre Dame all season, Lou Holtz will crush him in the standings: Great hindsight from ESPN’s resident Irish-basher Mark May following the day’s games. Pick Nevada and their gimmick “pistol” offense that dominates defenses in the WAC to beat Notre Dame, then backtrack and bash their FBS-worst pass defense when the Irish put a man-sized beatdown on the Wolfpack. Seriously, Mayday; not even a little credit to the performance by Notre Dame’s offense? Jimmy Clausen has a passer rating north of 350, and Michael Floyd averages 45 yards per catch with three touchdowns and it’s still not worthy of some praise? What about the defense; it must be the fact that the pistol offense is ineffecti…wait, never mind. Whether you want to admit it or not Mark, the Irish are for real this year.

5) Frank Beamer really needs a pocket quarterback: Note to whoever is in charge of Virginia Tech’s recruiting; find a quarterback who doesn’t scramble at the first sign of trouble. On third and goal with a chance to take the lead, Tyrod Taylor decided to scramble out of the pocket and into the waiting arms of a containing lineman. If he would have stayed in the pocket and followed his progressions, he would have found his running back wide open in the right flat for an easy touchdown. The biggest question going into this season for the Hokies was if Taylor could shake his Michael Vick instincts and develop his passing to go with his scrambling talent. Maybe a brutal Alabama defense isn’t the best litmus test of his abilities early a season, but if he has dreams of playing on the next level he really needs to show he can keep cool and make his reads under pressure.

6) Steve Sarkisian will do great things for Washington: The Huskies lost their home opener to LSU but it was a lot closer than everyone thought (myself included, check my Streak for the Cash account). Sure the Tigers are breaking in a new QB but you can pretty much say the same thing about Washington’s Jake Locker who missed most of last season with an injury. Locker showed why he was so highly regarded as a dual threat QB coming out high school, managing the offense against a very talented defense. Showing you can compete with high level teams will do wonders for Sarkisian’s recruiting efforts.

7) Maybe Lane Kiffin can back up his preseason talk: Western Kentucky is not Florida, Georgia or LSU but did anyone expect the Vols to score at will like they did? Maybe, just maybe, coach Kiffin knew what kind of talent his team has when he went on his one man Tennessee hype trail this off season. If Jonathan Crompton, David Oku and Bryce Brown can play like they did this weekend, the Florida-Tennessee match-up could be the game of the year. I could be game of the year but…….

8) USC vs. California will be the best game in college football this season: My first “big prediction that will more than likely be wrong” this season. Judging solely by their performances in week one, that game will be a serious slugfest. Jahvid Best’s athleticism was prominently on display against Maryland, and Joe McKnight made the San Jose State defense look like…well, San Jose State’s defense. Cal’s defense looked stout in stopping what little offense the Terps brought to the table, while Matt Barkley showed why Pete Carroll has so much faith in him as a freshman. For the first time in years, this game looks to be very evenly matched and should lead to an incredible game.

9) College Gameday's choice of music makes me sad: Kenny Chesney - good; Dave Matthews Band - great; Kenny Chesney plus Dave Matthews Band - awesome; Kenny Chesney plus Dave Matthews Band plus college football - epic fail. Sorry, neither of these two artists really scream "college football" to me. You know what does; college marching bands! Why not have the host school's band put together something for the broadcast. Use the fight song, I don't really care. Just please spare me having to go through another year of this.