First, recap of last week’s games:
Rooster went 7-4. Not bad for your first week.
Lawson went 9-2, a strong week.
I somehow went 10-1, missing only on the amazing UC Davis win over Stanford! Best week ever.
Overall, I’m in a slight lead, going 15-3 through the first two weeks for a percentage of 83% (we’ll round up by the way). Lawson is right there, 14-4, for 78% (77.7 rounded up). Rooster is 7-4 for 64%.
Even though the Cougs are in a bye, we’ll still pick Pac-10 plus a national game for this week. Don’t expect much coming from me via the blog this week, lots of work to do plus a bye week is always slow for anything. I think we are all on the same page, we are 3-0 but have no idea how good that 3-0 actually is. Oh, and on the national radar? Forget it. New polls out today, and guess how impressive a 3-0 record is vs. Idaho, Nevada and Grambling St? How about ZERO votes in all polls?? Oh well, it doesn’t really matter at this point, and if I was a voter I don’t know if I would vote them in either. It’s not necessarily the Cougs fault either, but the reality is a ton of middling BCS-conference teams would also be 3-0 with that schedule.
Some good stat stuff, though – Jerome Harrison still leads the Pac-10 in rushing with 399 yards and 5 TD’s, averaging 6.1 a carry. Young DeMaundry is still an impressive 6.9 per carry. Brink’s #’s look better every week, now at 63% for the season with 9 TD’s, 2 picks (both in the 2nd quarter vs. Idaho by the way). Brink is 3rd in the Pac-10 in QB rating. Hill has 6 TD’s as we touched on before, already halfway to his season record of 12 from last year. Start up those mock drafts with Hill in the upper-echelon of WR’s!
Doba said it best: “You think every run should go for 10 yards and every pass should be a completion,” he said, adding that such expectations are unreasonable against scholarship athletes. Division I-AA schools can offer 63 scholarships. Also, consider this – the last time we played a I-AA team, it was Montana at home in 2002. That Pac-10 champion team that beat Heisman-winner Carson Palmer and USC that year? 45-28! So I understand what Doba was saying and why the overall feel of that game wasn’t over the top WOW, but in reality, is there REALLY that much difference between a Grambling and a lower-tier BCS team? It’s just impossible to know for sure, but I do know this – there are many players on Grambling that are transfers from many BCS teams, including Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, etc. So, to suggest that players on Grambling are players all 119 I-A teams passed on is ridiculous! Maybe in reality, we should be impressed by being 3-0 right now? 3 more wins and we’re in a bowl game again, and to me, that’s the most important thing about 2005. Get back to a bowl, get on national TV, get those extra 20 practices, get another bowl game to put in the media guide.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
