Signor Ferrari's College Football Report: Buckeyes and Big Ten Roll.An impressive Buckeye win and the Big Ten replacing the Big East in my conference rankings are the big news of the week. See those discussions below along with my disappointment of the week (think MAC) and what to watch for this upcoming week (think BCS busters).
BCS Conference Rankings
In my season preview, I gave the nod to SEC as the top conference in America, with the Big Ten and the ACC close behind. As discussed below, the Big Ten has surged to the top after one full week of action. Also, there is a race for the sixth spot between the Big East and non-BCS Conference USA.
6. The Big Least, I mean East. In my season preview, I suggested that the Big East, while one of the 6 BCS conferences, might not be one of the 6 best conferences. After week one, however, it looks like only one Mid-Major conference that can compete for the 6th spot is Conference USA. The upper echelon of the MAC got demolished this weekend (see below). The WAC is only a two team conference (Fresno St. and Boise St.). While both of those teams would have a shot at winning the Big East, the overall conference depth is clearly below the Big Least. The Moutain West is ok, and Utah might be better than any Big East team, but the drop off after Utah is too steep. The Sun Belt is the worst conference in America. Conference USA, however, is loaded. Louisville shut out Kentucky, Memphis beat Ole Miss (that’s two wins over the SEC), UAB destroyed Baylor and TCU beat Northwestern (though they did get out played at home as the favorites and got a lucky win). Each of those four teams would have a shot at winning the Big East. Additionally, Cincinnati and Southern Miss are teams that could play in the Big East. As for the Big East itself, West Virginia looked good, Rutgers continued there rise with an upset over Michigan State, Boston College struggled with a crappy MAC team, UCONN looked solid, Temple still sucks and Syracuse got obliterated by Purdue. A possible litmus test game between South Florida (CUSA) and Pitt (Big East) was rescheduled due to Hurricane Francis. Pay attention to the next couple of weeks, with some big wins, Conference USA could slide into the 6th spot.
5. Pac-10. Barring some shocking turn of events, the Pac-10 will sit in the five spot all season. Oregon State almost pulled the huge upset over LSU, but this is still a conference with only one top tier team and a few middling teams…it can’t compete with the Big Four.
4. Big 12. No big news, other than that Texas A&M showed that they might be as bad as they were last year (and if they aren’t, Utah is damned good) and Kansas St. struggled with Western Kentucky.
3. ACC. Even less to report. Maryland narrowly avoided being upset by Northern Illinois again, but no big surprises otherwise.
2. SEC. The SEC lost some luster last weekend. LSU got outplayed and should have lost to Oregon State (3 missed extra points and a bad call late in the game that would have given Oregon St. the ball at midfield with less than 5 minutes to go with an 8 point lead) and Georgia struggled with and gave up 294 rushing yards to Div. 1-AA Georgia Southern. Additionally, Mississippi lost to C-USA Memphis and Kentucky was crushed, 28-0, by C-USA Louisville. No, this doesn’t cause alarm bells to go off, but it is enough for the SEC to slide behind the Big-10.
1. Big 10. Michigan won by 33 over Miami, OH, who was still trying to ride the wave of last years top 15 ride (though the game was closer than the score indicates) and Ohio State looked solid polishing off Cincinnati. But it wasn’t the play of the big 2 that gives the Big Ten its boost to top conference dog, it was the rest of the Big 10’s big six. Minnesota, playing against pre-season MAC favorite Toledo, simply destroyed the Rockets 63-7 in a game that was only made that close by two garbage time Toledo touchdowns and Purdue matched a smothering defense with its always explosive offense to route Syracuse 56-0. Wisconsin and Iowa also crushed lesser opponents (though the Badgers lost Anthony Davis for a few weeks, which will hurt). Additionally, Penn State tried to make the claim that I should be referring to a big 7, rather than a big 6 by routing Akron ― we’ll see how they do against Boston College next week. Even lowly Indiana and Illinois won easily. Michigan St. losing to Rutgers was a disappointment. Rutgers is an up and coming team, but they are still Rutgers. Also, Northwestern lost to C-USA TCU, but the Wildcats were big underdogs, outplayed tough mid-major TCU and only made one of six field goals (including two OT misses) in a game they should have won. All in all, after one week of college football, the Big Ten looks like the toughest conference top to bottom.
Disappointment of the Week
This one is easy. The Mid-American Conference. The MAC had a great year last year. Northern Illinois knocked off a bunch of BCS teams, and they were only about the 5th best team in the conference. Marshall knocked off Kansas State. Bowling Green beat Purdue. Toledo was better than both of those teams and Miami of Ohio finished in the top 15. The MAC was hoping to claim the title of best non-BCS conference, but last weekend eliminated that possibility. Bowling Green and Miami of Ohio did not get embarrassed, but both were outclassed by Oklahoma and Michigan. No big deal, the Sooners and Wolverine will beat teams in their own conferences worse. However, pre-season favorite Toledo getting utterly destroyed by Minnesota and Marshall losing to Troy, turned the weekend sour. Northern Illinois almost upset Maryland again, but couldn’t quite pull it off, giving the MAC no major victories. The MAC is still a nice little conference that deserves respect, but when only 3 of 14 teams have winning records after week one, you can’t claim to be playing with the big boys.
What to Watch For This Week
Miami vs. Florida St. on Friday night is obviously the game of the week, but pay attention to the mid-majors this weekend. Utah travels to Arizona, Boise St. hosts Oregon St. (Friday), Fresno St. travels to Kansas St., Troy hosts Missouri (Thursday) and Southern Mississippi goes to Nebraska. Utah is a big favorite over Arizona and should roll, but that will still be another BCS scalp for the Utes. Also, Arizona might be the only team standing in the way of an undefeated season for Utah. The rest of those match-ups are potential statement games; however, Boise St. is a surprising 8 point favorite on Oregon St., considering State’s performance in Baton Rouge last weekend. If Fresno St. and Boise St. can win this weekend, look for the winner of their eventual match-up (they play October 23rd), to go undefeated and make some BCS noise.
The Buckeye Report
Ohio State looked good against Cincinnati and pretty much how I expected (hoped) they would look. Let’s start with the defense. OSU had seven new starters, so some in the media had questioned whether this year’s defense would be as strong as last years. But that stat is somewhat misleading when you take into account transfers, guys who were injured last year and guys who were all but starting last year, so I was not surprised when the defense was, again, dominating. The Bearcats only mustered 6 points (both FGs helped by OSU turnovers), and had no sustained drives, no big plays and just over 200 yards in total offense. Critics will say that Ohio State had no turnovers and no sacks; however, that was largely the result of conservative play calling by Bearcat head coach Mark Dantonio (who was OSU’s defensive coordinator last year). Teams often avoid playing the Buckeye’s defense “straight-up”, relying on short passes, roll outs and misdirection, but don’t worry, the sacks and turnovers will come. Still, if I am looking for weaknesses, I’d like to see better push by the defensive line. Our linebacking situation is better than last year and the secondary is probably close and might be better as the season goes on, but, as of now, the D-Line is not “as” dominating as it was last year. Overall though, it looks like the Buckeyes have one of the top, if not the top, defenses in the country yet again.
On offense, I saw a lot to be excited about. Justin Zwick made some passes that Craig Krenzel could only dream about making and looks like he could be a great one. However, he also made some mistakes (fumbles, interceptions) that Craig never would have made. But, it was his first start and I suspect he will be able to iron out those issues. Of course, Troy Smith saw time as well and some are calling for him to be the starter based on his beautiful fade pass to Santonio Holmes. Unfortunately, Tressel otherwise kept him under raps so it is hard to get a read on Troy, but he looks to be more than serviceable if anything happens to Zwick. I don’t buy into the QB controversy that some are suggesting, it looks to me like Zwick will be the man, but Tressel will give Smith some chances as well, which is fine by me. I’d love to see some misdirection and fancy plays involving Troy this year.
The running game put up big numbers, with both Lydell Ross and freshman Antonio Pittman rumbling, but I still have serious questions about our running game. It did not look good early in the game. In fact, it looked awful up until Lydell’s 68 yard rumble. The offensive line was not opening holes, Lydell Ross was not creating holes and he wasn’t finishing off runs strong. I am not sure if things opened up later because our execution got better or because we simply wore out the Bearcats. Frankly, I don’t think we’ll find out until at least the N.C. State game if Ohio State can run the ball with authority on a good team, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I don’t see this being a dominating offensive line and Lydell Ross is, at best, a decent running back. If the Buckeyes have a solid running game this year, we should be happy with that.
Turning to the wide receivers, Holmes looks like he will pick-up where he left off last year, Bam Childress was a pleasant surprise and it is great to see that Zwick seems able to find him. He could pile up a lot of RAC this year. Down the road, Ted Ginn will hopefully be doing much the same and game one shows that Tressel and Co. are serious about working this guy into the offense and throwing more. Hamby looks solid at tight end. The one guy that needs to step-up and show me something is Roy Hall. The one thing the Buckeyes offense is lacking is the big, tall go to receiver (well, leaving aside Maurice Clarett). Hall needs to try and become that guy, but he may not be able to do it.
Kicking game looked solid. Only one punt, so jury is still out there, but Nugent is a weapon as a placekicker.
Overall, things look just like I expected. The Ohio State defense might just be as good as last year, maybe even better. The offense will be more productive, but it will also be more accident prone. Ohio State should be better than every team on its schedule until Michigan, but N.C. State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Purdue are all teams to be reckoned with. My concern is that we will lose one of those games because of offensive mistakes ― it will certainly be a lot harder to beat those three with a -3 turnover margin like we had against the Bearcats. Krenzel may not have always moved the ball well, but over the last two seasons, he didn’t cost us any games by giving up points. If Zwick can figure out how to do that AND keep throwing for 200+ yds a game, look for us to be 10-0 when the Maize and Blue come to Columbus.
Go Buckeyes!
