boomboomsroom

And, quickly, five weeks are in the textbooks in college football.  There is a lot to chew on.  Let’s go straight to the nuggets.

1.  Bama rolled.  Georgia keeps chugging right along.  THE Ohio St. came back with a vengeance to make Happy Valley (The “Happy Valley” is a nickname for the State College area. Apparently, the term was coined during the Great Depression when the town was not hit as hard by the economic situation due to Penn State University’s influence.) not so happy.  And Clemson struggled but survived at home.  Despite that struggle these are the four highest rated teams in the new AP Poll and rightfully so.  At the moment they seem a bit separated from the others.
2.  Clemson wears orange, but the Orangemen from Syracuse nearly peeled Clemson from any title aspirations as unwelcome visitors.  Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence should be ready to go this week after a brutal hit Saturday.  Syracuse has become the Power 5 team that no one wants to play anymore.  They will “scrap you for a ball” as Les Miles once said.
3. There are about 4 or so “want to be’s” below these four teams.  One of them is Notre Dame.  They sent Stanford, the Cardinal, and it’s Tree back to Cali rather rudely.   How good is ND?  Good enough to beat now #14 Stanford and now #15 Michigan.   They head to Va Tech Saturday.   They have an opportunity to climb as those above have a tougher stretch run.
4.  Another one is Oklahoma.  They scored 1.1 points per minute, 66 in all, in demolishing Baylor.  This week they get resurgent Texas in the Red River Shootout, er Showdown, er Rivalry.  Depending on how politically correct you are, you can call it what you want.   ESPN College Gameday will be there.  If Coach Lee Corso picks Oklahoma as the winner, DUCK.
5. West Virginia is yet another.  They went into Lubbock and took care of a team that contenders must take care of in Texas Tech.  They held on at 42-34 after owning a 35-10 halftime lead.  They are undefeated, ranked 9th, and have both Red River Rivalry teams still ahead.  The opportunity is there and the strength of schedule would make for a good case if they ran through it.  Do they have enough D? We will see.
6.  Perhaps LSU is the fourth other.  The boomboomsroom.com staff sat through a constant light rain to see them throttle Ole Miss 45-16 to up their season mark to 5-0.  They say it never rains in Tiger Stadium.  They fibbed.  Ole Miss isn’t good.  Their defense is offensive.  Vegas isn’t sure that LSU is that good either.  As we write Vegas has LSU with a less than 50% chance in each of the following upcoming games- Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and A&M.
7.  Here is a quick quiz.  Who is undefeated since the end of the 2016 season, has had a game cancelled in 2017 and 2018, and has scored 56,38,56, and 45 points in a 4-0 start in 2018?  If you said the University of Central Florida, or UCF, you know yourself some college football.  Unfortunately, for them, they probably aren’t one of the “others.”   Their strength of schedule isn’t a strength on their yearly resume’.  Bonus question.  What’s their nickname?  The Knights.  Who knew?  No wonder they held a “championship” parade for themselves last year.

   

   As Rodney used to say, “NO RESPECT.”

8. Someone who is starting to get some respect and quickly is Kentucky.  The Wildcats followed up their 28-7 Miss St. beat down with a solid take down of South Carolina, 24-10.  The Bulldogs and Gamecocks might not have great O’s, but 17 total points allowed to two SEC schools is what it is.  Kentucky has but one important thing to do to climb from AP #13.  They need to keep winning.
9. Spots 21-25 in the poll are much like a revolving door.  Welcome in this week Colorado (the lone undefeated PAC 10 school), Florida, NC State and Oklahoma St.  Welcome back Virginia Tech who had a very nice road, bounce back win over Duke.  A week earlier Va Tech lost at home by 14 to…..remember………Old Dominion!
10.  Some early lines are out.  LSU is -2 at Florida.  Notre Dame is -4.5 at VaTech.  Texas A&M is -6.5 at Kentucky. and OU is -8 vs Texas.   Our first glance favors the home dogs and Texas in Dallas.

Until week six.

PS.  Two great tiebreaker MLB games play off today.   Enjoy.