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Week 2: Seeking Competition
The first full week of college football opened with a bang, in a stunning upset of North Dakota State university which my wife successfully predicted with a snow globe. Despite declaring that the first honorary FBS upset by an FCS team, we did actually get at least one of those, as Kansas' QB couldn't figure out how to use his arms and legs all-of-a-sudden and failed to spike a ball, and Mike Leach, what happened man? That may or may not have also been in the snow globe.
Hopefully the theme of the next full week of college football is just as good: getting some non-sloppy games that are truly competitive. Seems like just about every matchup was pretty one sided last week, even in some games that finished with close scores. Hopefully everyone has worked out the kinks, but if they haven't we're still going to delight in their glorious derp. Without further ado, your most interesting games of week 2:
Thursday, September 10
8:00 PM - Louisiana Tech at Western Kentucky
Louisiana Tech dominated Southern in their tune-up game and Western Kentucky capitalized off 3 Vanderbilt turnovers and stopped yet another game tying 2 point conversion to give the SEC what feels like its only loss of the weekend*. These two opponents should be much better matched for eachother than their previous matchups, and it's the only thing on a Thursday night. Louisiana Tech looks like they've stayed in explosive form, and Western Kentucky didn't look great, but against an opponent with superior athleticism. Should you actually happen to care about the C-USA, this game has the added bonus of being between two programs that are widely expected to compete for the conference crown, making this a pivotal matchup in the running. Catch it on FOX Sports 1.
*because it was
Friday, September 11
9:00 PM - Utah State at Utah
Watch some 9/11 tributes and what will probably be a pretty one sided football game. Utah is still pretty good, and Utah State, well, maybe that was a trap game? Anyway, it'll be better than Miami at FAU, even though they did play a fun overtime game against Tulsa last week.
Saturday, September 12
11:30 AM - 30 minutes of USF at FSU
Since this is on ESPN, Gameday will probably lead into it, so you'll miss Corso's hat pick if you aren't tuned in. Then you can watch tens of thousands of bleary eyed FSU fans in their stadium collectively psychically chanting "It's way too early for this crap!" until the real games kick off.
12:00 PM - Oregon State at Michigan
The first FBS on FBS contest of the day, and another Harbaugh-cam. Oregon State didn't look fantastic against Weber State last week, which probably makes them wolverine food in this contest.
Bowling Green at Maryland
Bowling Green looked decent against top 25 SEC team Tennessee, and Maryland looked shaky early before pulling away from FCS Richmond. This could be a good one for those interested in close games. We all know who we're rooting for, though, wink wink nod nod say no more.
Buffalo at Penn State
James Franklin and Christian Hackenberg are probably looking at this game going "thank goodness it isn't Temple", since Temple is basically following Franklin around like the Terminator causing massive damage everywhere it goes. How wrong they might just be. Enter Lance Leipold, the first year coach of the Buffs, who has installed a system beyond human understanding and intends to go 12-0 for the rest of time. He's got the pedigree, his career W/L is 110-6, including his game yesterday against Albany in which he looked about as competent as any other FBS team playing any other FCS team. That alone could be sufficient to upend Franklin in Penn's current State. Franklin and Hackenberg will seek to desperately plug all of the holes in their game that they sought desperately to plug over the offseason, which might just result in them fielding an offense made entirely of plugs. Will it be enough to get back on track? Could be a good one.
3:30 PM - Minnesota at Colorado State
Minnesota took TCU to the wire, and CSU demolished Savannah State (who doesn't though, amirite?). CSU is running with first year coach Mike Bobo, and doesn't seem to have missed a beat since going 10-3 last year and getting its coach hired at Florida, which makes it a respectable opponent that Minnesota shouldn't overlook. Minnesota should probably win this one, but it could be fun.
Washington State at Rutgers
One last chance to see Mike Leach, the man, the myth, the legend, before he's fired from Washington State. Maybe he can take advantage of Kyle Flood's depleted by felony secondary and make this a game?
Tulane at Georgia Tech
Tulane got demolished by Duke and Georgia Tech demolished Alcorn State, so tune in for a double dose of demolishing if you can't make it to Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Notre Dame at Virginia
This will probably look exactly like that game against Texas, since UVA apparently has a decent defense and no offense to speak of. Mike London isn't scared of anything, though, and that includes the Irish (football or otherwise). This will be a useful game for the future of the national title discussion, as it will give us a point to compare two contenders in UCLA and Notre Dame. Take notes, armchair selection committee members of the world!
Georgia at Vanderbilt
We saw Greyson Lambert and Chubb look sufficient against a team approximately as good as Vanderbilt, and maybe even a little better. Now lets keep them in the reserve pile for the 3:30 games in case all the other ones are awful. There's really no other reason to have this here.
4:45 PM - Iowa at Iowa State
Together, these conferences are on average big and average 12 actual football members but only claim an average of 11 in their names. This seems like it should be a rivalry game, but I don't know that anyone can have a rivalry with either of these teams for-reals. Kirk Ferentz is still here, and he will outlive you while collecting millions of dollars from the University of Iowa the entire time, whether he wins or loses this game, which is why I'm forecasting the heightened possibility of Hawkeye schadenfreude at this event. When Kirk Ferentz does eventually die, hundreds of years from now, still the coach of Iowa football, I expect them to take the whole university and bury it with him.
6:00 PM - Oklahoma at Tennessee
Our first top 25 matchup of the weekend and a good power 5 out of conference game! This is the definitive game where we find out literally everything we need to know about these teams to 100% accurately forecast the rest of their seasons. We do this all the time, we're experts, don't worry. Could end up being one of the best games of the evening.
7:00 PM - East Carolina at Florida
Pirates, arr. Keep it on reserve in case piracy happens and/or Florida's new coach isn't all that and a bag of chips. This ECU team probably isn't as potent as last years rendition.
Memphis at Kansas
Let's answer the burning question inside all our hearts: is Memphis as good as South Dakota State?
7:30 PM - Kentucky at South Carolina
The second game in the race for the SEC East, this one may actually be a touch more competitive. South Carolina looked fairly uninspiring but somehow won against UNC, and Kentucky looked massively uninspiring but still somehow won against the Ragin' Cajuns of UL-Lafayette. If nothing improves, this game can be renamed the SEC Blooper Reel Week 2. South Carolina will probably be favored, but anything is possible here.
8:00 PM - Oregon at Michigan State
A top 10 power 5 non conference matchup, and a good one. Oregon takes Eastern Washington transfer QB Vernon Adams, who is apparently good, and their defense, which is apparently not, into Michigan State's house, which they haven't used yet this season because they were over at Western Michigan's house winning by just 13. We're going to call those previous games trap games and forget they happened, because what happens on this field will have nothing to do with any of that, for sure.
9:15 PM - LSU at Mississippi State
Top 15 LSU heads on over to Mississippi State, who just had their defense virtually embarassed at home against Southern Miss, in a win. Hopefully for them it was a trap game thing, as the announcers of the game speculated, but USM put on quite a show, gaining 413 yards, 20 first downs, and racking up 37 minutes of possession, leaving MSU's defense in a smoking pile of question marks. LSU only had a hard time getting on the field last week, sticking around for an entire day of lightning delays before cancelling the game at dang near midnight. So the nation still has no idea what their quarterback situation looks like. I don't think anybody knows what to expect from this game.
10:15 PM - Boise State at BYU
The Boise State Broncos vs BYU and Bronco Mendenhall: the Broncolypse. A rare night cap game between two non-P5 teams that could be every bit as good as any other matchup on this day. BYU is coming off a great game against Nebraska which came down to a 1 point margin with 1 second on the clock and an amazing hail mary, and Boise is coming off a defensive struggle in which it managed to outstruggle Washington by a field goal. There are other games on after this, but it isn't likely any of them are worth watching comparatively.
And as before, any likes, reblogs, tweets, shares, or social media manipulations of any kind are welcome for our website: cfbfanlife.duckycomics.com . We're having issues with our content scheduler at the moment, so neither the comic nor the article are available over there right now. Consider it a sneak peak bonus for ST readers.
