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Around The Country: The Big Games

Today was the opening of college football so lets look at some of the big games that occured this week.

#1 Georgia-45, Georgia Southern-21-For today Matt Stafford proved everyone wrong. In the solid, but not spectacular win over Georgia Southern. Stafford had one of the best games of his life going 13-21, with 275 yards and not 1 pick. Stafford really made every throw in the book, and had a great throw to hyped frosh A.J. Green, and a deep TD to Kris Durham. Knowshon Moreno left the game with an apparent hamstring injury, though it may be nothing. Moreno only had 10 touches, but had over 100 total yards and 3 rushing TD's, and was solid. Redshirt Frosh  Caleb King showed what all the fuss was about running for 95 yards, and showing flashes of great potential. The biggest loss was the one of All-SEC DT Jeff Owens. Owens went down with an apparent knee injury in the opening quarter. It has been rumored that Owens is possibly is out for the season. For Georgia Southern, OSU transfer Antonio Henton was decent throwing for 1 TD and 1 pick and over 100 total yards. Still overall Georgia Southern was decent recording nearly 300 yards of offense. 

#2 Ohio State-43, Youngstown State-0-It was a mixed bag for Ohio State, as they dominated, but lost their workhorse and star player, Chris Wells. In the first half it was all OSU, with Wells goinig 43 yards on a 4th-1, scoring a TD, to put OSU ahead. Then OSU clocked in 4 field goals, and a pretty TD pass from Boeckman to Robiskie, 30 yards out. It was 26-0 at the half. Obviously the moment of the second half was Beanie's fuumble/injury at the goal line. It appears he is OK, as the x-rays were negative and Beanie came back on te sideline, with nothing but a brace on. Terrelle Pryor made his debut and was impressive. Throwing for 35 yards and running for 52 and a TD. Overall the OSU "D" was dominant holding YSU to 4 first downs and 74 total yards.

#3 USC-52, Virginia-7 -To me the most impressive team this weak was SC. They steamrolled a clearly outmanned Virginia team, in a game that wasn't even as close as the score indicated.  Mark Sanchez, may have put himself in the heisman discussion with an exceptional day, throwing for 338 yards, and 3 TD's. Virginia had only 178 total yards, while USC racked up over 550.  Another telling stat is 5 running backs scored for SC. Cj Gable had 73 yards and a TD on 9 carries Joe McKnight had 84 yards on 10 touches and 1 TD, Allan Bradford had 11 touches for 56 yards and 1 TD, and Mark Tyler had 2 touches for 15 yards and a score. I think maybe what impressed me was the fact that for the first time since Dwayne Jarrett left it appears this team has a big-time wideout in Damien Williams who had 91 yards receiving on this day.

#4 Oklahoma-57, Chattanoga-2- This was the most lopsided matchup of the day, and the Sooners showed why they stakeda claim as national title contenders. Sam Bradford threw for 183 yards and two touchdowns, Chris Brown ran for three scores. Bradford continued his great accuracy going 17-22, and DeMarco Murray added 2 TD's and 124 yards in the blowout. The Sooners were up 50-0 at the half.

#5 Florida-56, Hawaii-10- Florida was nicked up missing 2 of their top 3 players in Brandon Spikes, and Percy Harvin, but still rolled. Tim Tebow showed what we may see more of this year. He was 9-of-14 passing for 137 yards and a touchdown. He ran nine times for 37 yards, and no scores, really staying in the pocket and letting the other playmakers touch the ball. Hawaii didn't have the speed to match up with Florida and it showed. Major Wright returned an interception 32 yards for a touchdown. Brandon James returned a punt 74 yards for a score. Chris Rainey got loose for a 33-yard TD run. Jeff Demps followed with an even more impressive 62-yarder. Tebow hooked up with Louis Murphy for a 48-yard score. And Ahmad Black returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown, so the big plays sent Hawaii packing, and Florida rolled.

#6 Missouri-52, #20 Illinois-42- In this good old fashioned shootout we saw some big time players step up. At halftime this game appeared over as it was 31-10, but much like last years battle Illinois behind Juice Williams this time led them back into the game. I think the real story was the much improved Juice Williams. williams went 26-for-42 for 451 yards with 5 TD's and 2 picks. Williams kept an Illinois team with no running game in the game. Chase Daniel went 26-for-45 for 323 yards with three touchdowns and an interception, putting his heisman campaign in full force. Behind him and Jeremy Maclin (234 total yards, 1 KR TD), and Sean Weatherspoon (2 takeaways), Mizzou held on.

#24 Alabama-34, #9 Clemson-10- Yet again Clemson fell and it appears that unless Tommy Bowden can really step it up, he may be on the way out, in an especially weak ACC. Alabam, especially defensivly was dominant holding Clemson to 0 rushing yards, and shutting down Cullen Harper, to some extent. While Bama' was dominant. JPW had 180 yards, and 3 scores, along with a great ground game headed up by Mark Ingram, (97 yards, ), Glen Coffee (90 yards), Roy Upchurch(12 touches, 67 yards) the Tide really did roll, in a diminant effort that really marks Bama as a national title contender. The way Bama' dominated the trenches really showed that this is a team to watch out for.

Bowling Green-27, #25 Pitt-17-  I'll admit it I was dead wring this Pitt team appears to not be a contender in the Big East and didn't play like a top 25 team. Maybe most disturbing for Pitt was the fact that as the game went on they seemed to lose confidence in their running game. LeSean McCoy had only 71 yards, rushing, and Bill Stull went 29-51 with 1 TD and 1 pick. Bowling Green pulled the win behind 3 big time playmakers, Anthony Turner, Fredie Barnes, and tyler Sheenan. All took snaps at Qb, but Sheenan led BGSU down the fiel, and was consistent going 24-40, with 163 yards and 1 TD. Freddie Barnes had 78 total yards 1 TD, on 11 touches, and Turner who scored the game winner had 10 touches for 24 yards and a TD.

East Carolina-27, #17 Virginia Tech-22 - I wonder how Frank Beamer fels about redshirting Tyrod Taylor now. VT got stunned at the hands of ECU, though many did see it coming.  Tech struggled offensivly, especially Sean Glennon who only went 14-23 with 0 TD's and 2 costly INT's. The running game was decent, but was not expected to be good after the transfer of Brandon Ore. ECU stayed in the game behind Patrick Pinkney who had 2 TD's, and 0 int's going 19-23, and recording 235 total yards. It was a great win for ECU, down by 2 with about 2 min to play, and they blocked a punt returning it for a TD, and stunning Va Tech.

Utah-25, Michigan-23-The RichRod era got off on the wrong foot for Michigan, but o be honest, this was not a game Michigan was expected to win. Michigan was not as close as the score indicated and was helped by 15 penalties for 137 yards by Utah. Brian Johnson was great, and the vaunted Michigan "D" really struggled in my opinion. Johnson ripped them apart throwing for 305 yards. Michigan seemed to be unable to get their defense off the field in the first half, and really struggled, but showed life in the second half. The Michigan running game was inefective, but Threet and Sheridan each played solid, but not spectacular performences. Michigan had a chance to tie after McGuffie's running TD, but Threet overthrew Toney Clemons in the endzone.

Cal-38, Michigan State-31-In maybe the day's best game Cal held on to win behind Kevin Riley, and Jahvid Best. Cal jumped out early on long passes from Riley, and was up 17-7 at the half, but the second half was crazy.  Riley allowed Cal to win, throwing for 202 yards, and 2 TD's without a pick, while Nate Longshore threw 2 pick, both to Otis wiley, and one went back for 6. Cal used a great running game, as Best, and Shane Vereen each had a TD and over 100 yards. Michigan stayed in it with Brian Hoyer(320 yards passing), Javon Ringer(81 yards rushing, 2 TD's), and Mark Dell(202 yards receiving), but in the end they were no match for Cal.