Wow! Actual football talk! Thanks TB.
Here's my 2 cents; see what you think.
When I heard the scores during the day and then the final of BC-UConn, and then found out that BC didn't have a lot of turnovers, my initial thought was that this might be a much tougher game than anticipated.
I still think it might be somewhat tougher than we'd originally thought, but I've been sitting here analyzing it and I'm starting to get more optimistic that we should be able to pull away from the Huskies and control the game.
1. BC's D is pretty good. I think ours is roughly on par with theirs. UConn had 243 total yards against the Eagles, and that included only 40 rushing yards on 34 carries (though their RB had 62 yards on 17 carries, which is not that terrible). I don't think there is any reason why they should do significantly better against us.
2. Our offense is good. I think better than BC's. In particular I like our RB and WR situations more. They lost one William Green but we gained one Tony Hollings. I think we should be able to score at least 30 points on UConn. Possibly a lot more if things click or we get up early on them and they get demoralized. Their D-line is undersized and I expect some success running the ball.
3. UConn was hyped for the BC game, and spent the whole offseason looking forward to it and preparing for it. They hate BC, who is the big school in the local area. I think they may have shot their motivational wad. I tend to think they played at the peak of their ability similar to the GT-FSU game in 1999.
4. The element of surprise helps the less-talented underdog. When there are no surprises the underdog has less of a chance. You have to think that UConn pulled out all the stops in the offensive game. We are going to have much more of their offensive package and personnel on tape while BC was looking at last year's and vanilla spring scrimmage tapes.
5. UConn had some significant injuries. GT didn't have any injuries, and instead is actually getting about four players back that didn't play last week, including our best DT and several of our top WR's.
With 18 returning starters and a staff in place, and a sterling effort against a good BC team last week, UConn is likely a better team than Vandy. I guess we'll find out when they play the Dores.
However, UConn may be looking at a second-week slump after giving it everything they had against BC last week. Meanwhile GT did not show any signs at all of being vulnerable to teams with less size and team speed, as we have been at some times in the past. What I saw on Saturday night was a VERY well coached team.
One thing I'm worried about is the LACK of an atmosphere. Playing an unknown team in a tiny stadium on the road is not the kind of atmosphere our players are used to, and they will have to focus to take Connecticut seriously.
Though come to think of it, it's probably a much better atmosphere than last year's Duke game, which had a recorded attendance of ~10K but was probably less in reality.
I don't know if we'll manhandle them the way we did Vandy, but I think we should be able to pull away in the third quarter and win by three or more scores. I'll probably lay the points in my pool, just as I did against Vandy.
