Baseball fans make a big deal of "Opening Day" so why can't we for college football? It was a Thursday evening which doesn't do the most for build-up, but there were a lof of games and some of them didn't even involve FCS (I-AA) teams.
What we learned (or, What was reinforced): USC's defense is, again, not very good.
Most of the media accounts of the USC's 49-36 win focused on Matt Barkley passing for five touchdowns and not the elephant in the room, that Hawaii managed to score 36 points against Southern Cal, hardly the kind of lock-down effort that Lane Kiffin wants from the team. While I concentrated on the more important (and competitive) Utah/Pitt game and admit I didn't bother to watch any of the 2nd half of Kiffin's coaching debut, there are a few disturbing moments in the box score:
Bryant Moniz passed to Kealoha Pilares down the middle for 56 yard gain (Scott Enos made PAT)
Shane Austin passed to Kealoha Pilares down the middle for 65 yard gain (Scott Enos made PAT)
Shane Austin passed to Kealoha Pilares down the middle for 30 yard gain (2pt attempt failed, Shane Austin pass to Alex Green)
Wow, USC is getting burned deep a lot (and always by Kealoha Pilares). Here was our take on USC's secondary from our 2010 preview:
The secondary is in shambles as all four starters depart, including of course Taylor Mays (#1 tackler last year) as well as Will Harris (4 int.), Josh Pinkard, and Kevin Thomas who combined for 24 pass breakups. Freshman Byron Moore was slated to start but he, like several others, transferred.
However we should point out that:
- only the first of the 3 plays occurred before the fourth quarter
- the game was essentially over at 20-3 early in the second quarter
- Hawaii had the #4 passing offense in the nation last year (adjusted for competition)
Still, it's troubling that USC is letting that happen regardless of opponent, game importance, or circumstance. Maybe because it happened three times last year no one blinks any more when a team scores more than 35 on USC? Before 2009, it happened in 2005 (both Fresno State and Texas) but before then you have to go back to the year 2000.
That's right: in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 nobody scored more than 35 points on the Trojans. Now Hawaii is doing it in the opening game. That's not good, and it reinforces our opinion that USC is not a Top 25 team this year.
Biggest Early-Season Disappointment: Once again, the Pitt Panthers, losing 20-17 to Utah in overtime.
Every year Pitt fans are cautiously optimistic that this might be THE season. Each season keeps getting a little bit better under Dave Wannstedt, but the common thread is that the Panthers lose a game early and Pitt never has a chance to ride a wave of excitement. This year they didn't even make it to the showdown with Miami in game three. Win that and they would have had a big game at Notre Dame, which would have been HUGE if the Irish also were undefeated.
Pitt hasn't been 4-0 since 2000, and even having records of 9-4 and 10-3 haven't allowed them a fair winning streak to start the year: they were 3-0 last year before being upset, and lost the opener in 2008.
What should them hope, I guess, is that those teams rallied to have a good year. And it was Utah that beat them, not N.C. State or Bowling Green. But now not only is the Miami game going to be a tough task, but one wonders if Notre Dame will be too much for them. With their tough preconference schedule there was the risk that the Panthers would start 2-3; now it looks like it might happen (they have New Hampshire and Florida International too).
I'm not writing off Pitt year due to an overtime game against a tough team, though. If Utah can upset them, then they can upset Miami. And they can still run the table in the Big East. But not if they don't get some better red zone play.
Tests that failed: Northern Illinois, Middle Tennessee lose against BCS opponents
Two game I was watching closely (not literally as they were on at the same time last night, but in the sense of "paying attention to") were Northern Illinois vs. Iowa State, and Middle Tennesse State vs. Minnesota.
SportsRatings has Northern Illinois the favorite to win the MAC and MTSU the top team in the Sun Belt. Both of these games were designated as basically "toss-ups" that would tell a lot about whether these teams could beat mid-to-low-level representatives from major conferences. Both failed.
The first was not a surprise, as Minnesota beat Middle Tennessee who was without Dwight Dasher, 24-17. Though the game was played in Murfreesboro the team isn't the same without Dasher. Still, they made a good game of it and didn't embarrass themselves, suggesting that they could still win the Sun Belt particularly if Dasher is really only out four games (which is an open question).
The other was less competitive. Northern Illinois visited Iowa State and came back 27-10 losers. NIU might not be the team we thought they could be. Or maybe they just had a bad game. Or perhaps Iowa State is better than we think they are.
Anyway, hats off to Minnesota and Iowa State for being willing to schedule top teams from the non-major conferences instead of playing FCS opponents on the first weekend.
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