Week 1 Musings

Somehow, the beginning of college football has managed to sneak up on us. It normally never sneaks up on me, but this year, too much annoying bullshit has occurred during my perparation phase, and I've caught myself scrambling. To be honest, there aren't as many games out there this year that set their nuts on a tee and ask you to hack away like in years past.

Quickly, has anyone seen the pictures of ND punching bag Jimmy Claussen this off-season. It's actually disturbing. He got into some trouble for competing in something called the "beer Olympics" which raised some eyebrows since he is still underage. I mean, who could ever predict that the starting QB at ND would be able to get his hands on some beer? The kid has already done several things that paint him as a douche bag...calling a press conference at the CFB Hall of Fame to announce his college choice being one of them...but this kid has grown out his hair, and maybe he went tanning or something, but he looks positively ghoulish. Kind of like 40 year old woman who just transgendered herself to live as a man. Google him for some recent pictures, and I guarantee you will not approve. I'm not a big ND honk, as you ma have guessed, but the ND quarterback should definitely NOT look like THAT!

As I mentioned, last year was an astoundingly great start to the season, as the numbered musings took home the cash on all but one offering. (I can't remember the total, and I'm much too lazy to check.)Of course, it was followed by a few weeks of mediocrity, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. Games begin Thursday night(tomorrow, or today depending on when you opened your email. Here we go.

1. Thursday Oregon St -3 @ Stanford: The task here is to try and figure out how much better Stanford is compared to last year. Our old pal Jim Harbaugh certainly did a credible job in his first season, most memorably knocking off USC in what remains the most astonishing win of the last several years in CFB. A lot of people actually would tab the Cards season last year as a success due solely to that game, and they might be right. However, I view progress when the team goes from being absolutely non-competitive to competitive in a sense that they can hang on the field with most teams without merely catching breaks, which they undoubtedly did against USC last year. They were outgained in conference by a whopping 175yards per game, worst of all BCS conference teams this side of Syracuse. Stanford is a possible play in spots where they are a double digit dog...where teams are not taking them seriously. This is the scenario in which they have won their games. Catching only 3 is really asking a lot of a team that was woefully outgained in almost every case last year, including the last time they were a 3 point home dog..v Washington. The Huskies rolled up 388 rushing yards outgaining the Cardinal 539-253. Remember, this is Washington we're talking about. Now they face Oregon St, who has been a generally solid team with a generally solid coach. They return the best players from their OL, and have a hotshot recruit at RB(name warning: Jacquizz Rogers.That will be my third son's name if we're so blessed) to replace Yvenson Bernard. They also return Sammie Stroughter at WR, who was banged up last year but has been a fantastic playmaker in the past. O D, hey have to replace their front seven, but Stanford's offense is not powerful enough to expose that. Their only chance is to be very effective in the passing game, and OSU has one of the best secondaries in the country returning. ( Stud FS Al Afalava is suspended, though>) IN short, I just think that it will be asking too much of The Dog to win this one outright. Oregon St is too solid. Their Samoans will be properly lathered for this one. It might take awhile, but I think Oregon St keeps the Cardinal at arm's length.

That's it for Thursday. I'm still looking at Friday, and I'll have Saturday's card before Friday. As for the rest of Thursday's card, Rice looks like a possibility, but it's foolish right now to even try to figure out what June Jones will do with that SMU squad. The NC State/ South Carolina game has reached 14 which might be a bit of a value for the Pack, but I can't get a handle on that one. I won't lay that much, and NC State just got hit with a couple injuries, so I could see them laying an egg. No real read on the other games.. As I mentioned...more later.