Spread Hope Like Fire

5WR = <3 September 10, 2008

so, maybe we can roll with some thoughts on the college football season, two weeks in…..

What about the potential “BCS Busters”? In the past few months, most of the preseason prognostications put their money on either BYU or Fresno State as the front-runner, with some others throwing Utah in as a dark horse. I’m not sure that any of them knew just how inspired East Carolina’s play would be to start the season. I mean, holding the Mountaineers to three points?? That’s some serious let’s-kick-things-up-a-notch stuff. But let me propose the same (admittedly unlikely) scenario that Pete Fiutak of CFN did earlier today: say ECU runs the table. Do they go to the national championship game over a one-loss Big XII champion, or a one-loss Pac 10 champion? I mean, yeah, I know that’s a reach and that there’s pretty much no way, but remember: West Virginia could absolutely still win the Big East, if they can get by USF, and Va. Tech could still win the ACC, because that conference apparently sucks even more than the Hokies offense does. ECU running the table would also involve them beating two other ACC teams (NC State and Virginia) on the road, the defending CUSA champion (UCF), also on the road, and a decent Southern Miss team on the road.

BYU, Fresno State, and Utah all have potential feathers in their caps, as well. The Cougars already (juuust barely) took care of business at Washington, have UCLA on deck this week, play at TCU, and close the season at Utah. The Dawgs made Rutgers really, really mis Ray Rice, and get Wisconsin at their place this week, which should be a really good game, and I’m calling for Fresno State to take it. Mark it down. They also go to the Rose Bowl to face the Bruins of UCLA in a few weeks, get a dangerous Nevada team at home, and go to Boise State to close out the season, in what will double as the WAC championship game. Utah? Well, we all know what happened at the Big House, and they also have Oregon State, TCU, and BYU all coming to their turf. Who do you give the edge to, out of those teams, as far as strength of schedule is concerned? Starting with the toughest, I would go with ECU, FSU, BYU, and then Utah.

Now, what would be FANTASTIC, is if Tulsa could run the table and get in – the amount of talent they have at the skill positions is just completely absurd, and I would love to see my boy Brennan Marion break something off in the Fiesta Bowl against some terrified Oklahoma DB. I mean, have you SEEN his stats from last year? 1,244 yards on THIRTY-NINE RECEPTIONS??? THIRTY-TWO YARDS PER CATCH???!! This year, they return THREE 1,000 yard receivers, another of which was a FULLBACK that also happened to be a freshman. Just total insanity. While we’re on the topic, something you should know: I have been known to occasionally (and by “occasionally”, I mean “constantly”) develop bromances with teams that feature wide-open, high-octane passing offenses. They’re like my kryptonite – whenever I start hearing things like “shotgun”, “empty backfield”, and “spread the field”, I usually have to just stop whatever I’m doing and go throw some water on myself.