Early Season lessons

So, Week 1 in the college football season is now fully behind us, and it's time for a bit of reflection. First off, I'd like to echo the vast majority of what my co-author here said. We've learned an awful lot, I believe, for a week 1, far more than the normal week 1 would teach us in any sport under normal circumstances, including college football. I'd like to amend and add to our previous post in a few ways though:

(1) The ACC not only sucks, it is going to be worse than the Big East, and MIGHT even be as bad as the WAC. Yes, the WAC. Fresno State, Nevada, and Boise State should all be solid teams this season, and Hawaii might be OK (although they looked pretty awful in the smashing they took from Florida this week). That's more than I can say for the ACC. The only ACC team I can say is still competitive is Clemson, and that's only because they played an opponent who appears to be much better than most people thought. This will be the WORST year in the history of ACC football.

(2) The SEC will dominate again in 2008. Florida, LSU, Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama ALL looked not just good, but DOMINANT in their Week 1 victories. LSU looked great playing two QB's and had a dynamic running attack to go with a great defense, Florida lit up the scoreboard as expected, Georgia and Auburn put away their opponents early, and Alabama looked like world beaters against Clemson by all accounts. It is very possible, perhaps even likely, that the SEC has FIVE of the best ten teams in the nation this season.

(3) Tennessee and UCLA are both garbage. While their game was one of the more entertaining pieces of football action this weekend, neither team looked good at all. Kevin Craft had a great second half, but threw four ugly picks in the first. Which Craft will come to play next week? Crompton looked like he has all the talent in the world, but no pocket presence whatsoever. Tennessee does have a huge amount of talent yet again, but didn't seem to make very good use of it on Monday. And things will not get any easier in the brutal SEC East for the Vols.

(4) Get ready for CHAOS! Upsets of Virginia Tech by East Carolina, Michigan at the hands of Utah, and Bowling Green over Pittsburgh show us that we are in for chaos yet again in this college football season. Get ready to expect the unexpected sports fans, because we'll have another story like Kansas pop up this year. We'll have top teams losing weekly (probably in the SEC, but only because the level of competition is so high), and we'll have inconsistent performers like UCLA get the job done from time to time.

Can't wait to see what Week Two has in store for us....