Week 2 Games

[LegendaryGT]

Week two is the new week one. Thank goodness we have a game this week or we'd basically be thrown right back into the offseason. No Thursday games, no weird Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday games. Trying out a new format for this week.

Friday, September 9

Night games -
7:30 PM, Maryland at FIU
8:00 PM, Louisvile at Syracuse.

Football reasons to like these matchups: Maryland is actually travelling to FIU to play a game, so you'll get to see FIU stadium. Um... yeah. Syracuse gets to showcase the genius of Dino Babers, the guy who made Bowling Green look pretty good, against what appears to be the golden age of Petrino football. Babers, whose team outgained Colgate by more than 400 yards in their opener, promised his fans after the game that it "would be the slowest game you ever see us play." This, despite running 79 plays, 45 of which were passes with an astounding completion rate of 86.9%. And if you think that sounds impressive, I won't even tell you what Louisville did. Sound fun yet?

Non-football reasons to like these matchups: FIU's mascott is a golden panther. Um... yeah. A google search for "louisville syracuse -football -flights -basketball -train -bus -chiefs -soccer -facebook -ACC" reveals that, according to http://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/louisville-ky/syracuse-ny/127000 "Syracuse is 2% cheaper than Louisville." Uh oh, them's fighting words.

Saturday, September 10

Noon games -
12:00 PM, NCST at ECU
12:00 PM, Penn ST at Pitt
12:00 PM, UCF at Michigan
12:00 PM, Boston College at UMASS
12:00 PM, Wyoming at Nebraska
12:30 PM, Charleston Southern at FSU

Football reasons to like these matchups: NCST is going to lose to ECU. It is inevitable. South Carolina is up next for ECU as well, so the pirates are really raiding the whole area, and hitting soft targets is the way to go. Penn St at Pitt is an interconference game, and looks winnable for Pitt. UCF is in the debut season of head coach Scott Frost, of former Oregon fame. UCF is going to get destroyed, but it could be fun if nothing else is happening. Boston College gets to take on a UMass team that just played most of a game with UF. Either UF is bad or UMass is good, and BC is going to tell us which. Science! Wyoming is Craig Bohl, the guy who started up NDSU's current run of titles coming off a win in triple overtime over a favored opponent. NIU is no Nebraska, but Nebraska is Mike Riley, the guy who sometimes managed to get Oregon State to a bowl? Nebraska's performance dropped immediately as they fired Bo Pellini, including some embarrassing losses to Purdue and Illinois, so if a massive upset is on the table, it could reasonably happen here. Last but not least, Charleston Southern just played a good game with NDSU, a team known for upsetting the FBS very recently, then demolished the Kentucky State Thorobreds (a front for gambling, probably), and runs the TO. They may score all of two field goals.

Non-football reasons to like these matchups: Pirates are cool. Pitt will be playing a cancer survivor at RB while PSU brings in a rape-enabler at the head coaching position. Truly, a battle of good versus evil, if I've ever seen one. UCF and Michigan is a battle of men with statues. Harbaugh's statue stands in the Cradle of Coaches at Miami of Ohio, while Scott Frosts's stands at Oregon and is actually a statue of Marcus Mariota. UMass plays its home games in Gillette Stadium, the home of the Patriots, and is just over 20 miles from BC's own Alumni Stadium. This is pretty close, but the campus of the University of Massachusetts is actually only 4 miles from Alumni stadium, in the opposite direction, meaning that UMass will have to travel further to this game in its own stadium than BC will have to travel to get to this "away" game. I'm sure everyone is sort of wondering why they didn't just meet in the middle. Wyoming is the 2nd least densely populated state with 6 people per square mile, and is the least populous state of them all, total, with 584,000 people. If Wyoming brings 5,000 fans out of the state, it would be enough to decrease the population density of the state by 16% over an area roughly the size of Connecticut. If you were to reduce the population density by 16% in Connecticut by moving them to an away game, you'd be moving 574,805 people, which is very nearly the population of Wyoming. Doesn't that make you want to tune the hell in?

Afternoon games
3:30 PM Mercer at Georgia Tech
3:30 PM Wake Forest at Duke
3:30 PM Western Kentucky at Alabama
3:30 PM SMU at Baylor
4:00 PM Middle Tennessee at Vanderbilt

Football reasons to like these matchups: Georgia Tech is playing. Wake Forest and Duke are both ACC teams. Western Kentucky can outscore USC against Alabama. SMU features Chad Morris of Clemson fame against the remnants of the Art Briles empire. Last year, in Chad Morris' first game at the helm, this game was 28-21 at halftime, so we could see a pretty fun half of football if SMU makes any improvements in year two. Middle Tennessee is going to tell us just how bad South Carolina is.

Non-football reasons to like these matchups: Mercer University is a charter member of the Dixie Conference which disbanded along with the school's football program at the beginning of World War II. Resuming its football program in 2013, before joining its current FCS conference, Mercer spent one year in the Pioneer Football League, which according to the wiki "is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the East, Midwest, and California of the United States." I prefer operating in the Georgia of the United States, personally. Western Kentucky's current head coach, Jeff Brohm, was named an All-XFL first teamer at quarterback for the Orlando Rage, the first team in the history of professional football to successfully execute a three point conversion after a touchdown. Brohm went undefeated in his games during the Orlando Rage's, and the XFL's, first and only season. If you think Justin Thomas has seen it all, then this guy has seen beyond. Imagine the madness that lurks behind his gaze if you catch him on camera, and try not to scream out in horror. Famous music artists Meatloaf and Vanilla Ice are both from Dallas, the home town of SMU, while Baylor boasts the Waco fame of pop prognosticator Benjamin Dover (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2089769/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm). Appropriate, I think. Middle Tennessee State boasts entire individual academic departments for Recording Industry Management and Concrete Industry Management, and also has one alumnus who went on to be a Nobel laureate. They also claim the affiliation of two more, Al Gore and Muhammad Yunnus, both of whom are actually Vanderbilt alumni. I say to the winner go the spoils!

 

[LegendaryGT]

Night games
6:00 PM Florida Atlantic at Miami
7:00 PM Georgia Southern at South Alabama
7:00 PM South Carolina at Mississippi State
7:00 PM Arkansas at TCU
7:30 PM Iowa State at Iowa
7:30 PM BYU at Utah
8:00 PM Virginia Tech at Tennessee
10:00 PM Texas Tech at Arizona State
10:15 PM Washington State at Boise State
10:30 PM California at San Diego State
10:30 PM Virginia at Oregon

Football reasons to like these matchups: Miami could be the third team to reach the 70 points in two consecutive games this season, following Ohio State and Louisville, which both play earlier in the day. South Alabama just beat Mississippi State, surely they'll be able to handle Georgia Southern for their second win in a row? Speaking of Mississippi State, did anyone really think it was going to be possible for Will Muschamp to start 2-0 at South Carolina? Because that looks like it is about to happen. South Dakota state was scoring nearly at will against TCU, so what kind of damage is Arkansas going to be able to do? By the same token, Arkansas narrowly edged Louisiana Tech and the former offensive coordinator for Boston College, so what on earth are we really expecting from this game? Iowa State just lost to Northern Iowa, which means one of these teams is going to end up as the third best team in a state that pretty much has only two teams. High stakes! Utah was tough last year and BYU looks decent, this could be a good close game. THE BATTLE AT BRISTOL!! Texas Tech takes one of the nation's most potent offenses on the road to Arizona State, who ain't bad themselves. California is the all offense no defense punt haters club, and it doesn't really matter who they play, you can count on them for touchdowns. Virginia just got waxed by Richmond. Will the Bronco Mendenhall era end in two games?

Non-football reasons to like these matchups: FAU has only been around since the turn of the century and they have already lost a coach to cocaine, which means this is about more than just football for the Hurricanes. They've either got to hide some evidence or reclaim some territory. South Alabama's coach hails from the Bear Bryant coaching tree as an all-decade wide receiver for the Tide, which is cool. Dan Mullen has never coached in a game where his team beat the University of South Carolina, and he never may. A Tale of Two Stadiums: TCU annually hosts the Armed Forces bowl in its stadium, and in 2003 became the first team to lose in it, while Arkansas doesn't even play all of its home games in its own stadium, being held hostage through bizarre Arkansan politics by the owners and supporters of War Memorial Stadium, which is just a 50,000 seat stadium in the middle of Arkansas that was built for no particular reason. Seriously. Today it is home field to an HBC, a high school, and an NPL soccer team, and Arkansas is forced to play 1 to 2 games there at a cost of up to $1 million to itself. Iowa State at Iowa is a rivalry game, technically, I think? BYU's wide receiver coach is a two time recipient of the Most Outstanding Canadian award, as well as a million other Canadian awards. As Canadians go, the guy is pretty swell. Especially since he was born in Utah. The quality of Utah's non-Canadian Canadians on staff is not even close to comparable. Advantage: Canada. JORTS!!

Did I miss any compelling football or non-football matchups?

 

[GruffyMcGuiness]

I like the old format better. Regardless, always enjoy these

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

 

[LegendaryGT]

I like the old format better. Regardless, always enjoy these

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

The new format is a consequence of trying to make something out of nothing for a lot of these, and not wanting to write a ten word blurb for half of them. It looked weird in the old format. Week 2 is really empty, but going forward there should be a lot more better games.

 

[majorQ9]

The silver lining from having such a weak slate means planning what to watch around going to the Mercer game is simple. Tailgate watching the Pitt-PSU game, attend the Tech game, and then head home and watch the Battle at Bristol.

 

[gespacho_the_slender]

Solid writup on lackluster material. How did Georgia swing a bye on week 2?? NM, they have Nicholls State.

Rule No 1 in Foobaw... If you are a "State" school that is not bearing the name of an actual state, you probably aren't very good.

 

[cyptomcat]

Babers is good, Louisville at Syracuse has potential.

 

[gth874t]

Babers is good, Louisville at Syracuse has potential.

I wonder if Babers is #softnosed or #hardnosed

 

[WreckRod]

Unfortunately our rivalry with Ugag has a lot more in common with Iowa-Iowa State than any other rivalry.

 

[clapper]

UMass plays its home games in Gillette Stadium, the home of the Patriots, and is just over 20 miles from BC's own Alumni Stadium. This is pretty close, but the campus of the University of Massachusetts is actually only 4 miles from Alumni stadium, in the opposite direction, meaning that UMass will have to travel further to this game in its own stadium than BC will have to travel to get to this "away" game.

I think you picked the wrong campus for UMass. The main campus is ninety miles west in Amherst. They have to travel even farther for the game.

 

[LegendaryGT]

I think you picked the wrong campus for UMass. The main campus is ninety miles west in Amherst. They have to travel even farther for the game.

Thanks for that catch. I have to assume you've got a UMass connection?

 

[clapper]

Thanks for that catch. I have to assume you've got a UMass connection?

Lived not too far from there for a while when I was growing up.