boomboomsroom

Well, if week one was crazy, then week two was cray, cray, as they say.

We have a few observations as you might imagine.  Ten to be exact.

1.  Alabama had mercy on Mercer.  After leading 31-0 at halftime, Bama cruised to a 48-14 victory.  Predictably, this made Nick Saban unhappy. His rants are fun to watch unless you’re sitting in front of him.  If you’ve seen this movie before you know it’s purely using the press to motivate his team into how good he thinks they can be.  Like him, or not, it’s vintage stuff from the legend that he is.
2. Oregon provided the PAC 12 with another big statement going into the Horseshoe and taking Ohio St. down with malice. The score was 35-28, but Oregon was in control from the first snap.  Though, UCLA’s week one win v LSU looks a bit less shiny after the Tigers mailed in at home in week two beating a terrible McNeese St team 34-7.  Oregon won the line of scrimmage against a major contender for the playoffs in their house.  The “not physical enough” knock on the PAC 12 might be waining a tad.  Mario Cristobal take a bow!
3. Fifth-ranked Texas A&M lost their starting quarterback, then nearly lost to Colorado.  An 11 play 77-yard grind late in the fourth quarter saved the Aggie day, 10-7.  The Aggie D is playoff-level good.  The O, and especially without Haynes King, isn’t.
4. Clemson scored only three last week vs Georgia. They held South Carolina St. to only three this week.  But, like Jimmy, who cracked corn, nobody cares.  The Tigers 49-3 win is meaningless.  And, their schedule is weaker than Biden’s defense of the way he pulled out of Afghanistan.  No team currently ranked inside of the top 25 is on it.  A trip to Pittsburgh looks like their only possible road bump from here.  But, will 11-1 against fish wrapping paper be enough to get to the final four?
5.  Notre Dame is replacing their leprechaun mascot with Houdini.  A week after surviving sudden death v Florida St., the mighty Fighting Irish got a last-minute touchdown in South Bend to overcome Toledo 32-29.  Wow.  Toledo.  And, Florida St. lost on a last-second hope and a prayer heave by Jacksonville St. this week.  Wow.  That doesn’t sound like the two-game resume of an eighth-ranked team.
6. Metaphorically, a “Trojan horse” has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place.  USC is no Trojan horse.  They invited Stanford into the Collisium Saturday and the Cardinal took what they wanted.  Stanford was a 17 point underdog and won 42-28, or straight up by 14. You wonder how much sucker money went to the Trojans’ side of the line in Vegas. So much for the return of USC to the national landscape.  The LA Times has seen enough of head coach Kim Helton.  We’ve seen this Hollywood act before, haven’t we?
7. Texas got a taste of the SEC that it will join in a year or two.  Arkansas was picked to finish last in the SEC West this year but worked Texas over and over.  Arkansas won’t finish last.  Three hundred and thirty-three rushing yards later, the scoreboard clock thankfully showed 0:00.  Arkansas rushed the ball 47 times for a hog-like 7.1 yds per carry average.  The scoreboard showed Arkansas 40, Texas 21.  The game wasn’t nearly that close.  Hopefully, Steve Sarkesian isn’t hungover this AM.  The Longhorn fans sure are.
8.  Last week Penn St. and Wisconsin set the game back 25 years with their three yards and a pile of dirt fight.  Iowa and Iowa St. one-upped the Big 10 mudders this week.  Iowa completed under 50% of its 21 passes and rushed 39 times for a 1.7 yards per carry average.  And, they WON 27-17!  ND isn’t good enough to be ranked 8th.  Iowa isn’t good enough to be ranked 9th.  And, Iowa St surely isn’t good enough to be ranked 10th.
9.  Cincinnati agreed to join the BIG 12 earlier this week.  On Saturday they took care of more business beating Murray St. 42-7 to go to 2-0 on the season.  Cincy is ranked a sneaky 7th.  BYU, Houston, and UCF also agreed to join the Big 12 after Texas and Oklahoma take their talents to the SEC soon.  The Big 12 only had ten teams, and are losing two, but gaining four.  Got that?  There really will be 12 teams one day once again.  But BIG?  Meh.
10.  We borrowed the following from ESPN, cause we think it’s an interesting gambling oddity at the least.  Air Force topped Navy 23-3 in the first game between military academies this season.  And the result fits nicely into one of the most consistent trends in college football. Since 2005, 39 of 49 military games have failed to hit the Las Vegas total. Saturday’s over/under was set at an impossibly low 39.5, and yet the matchup never came close to eclipsing that total. Air Force hosts Army on Nov. 6, so mark your calendars to bet on that one, too.

Jury duty for one of our staff members beckons.   It’s an honor, your honor!