Week 2: Ten games to watch for college football

1103953 The long opening weekend of college football is now complete, and not without surprises and storylines. From LaGerrate Blount punching a Boise defender to Bradford leaving the game near halftime it has been an exciting weekend. For me, week 1 was a mixture of success with some epic failures. Most notably picking Notre Dame to lose by 4, then watching them beat the wolfpack by 35. I think it is safe to say after last year's Hawaii bowl and this year's opener the Irish would do well in the WAC. For me week one went Overall:6-4 Against the spread: 5-5. Could have been worse but not making a whole lot of money either. Week 2 again has some intriguing matchups.  10. Fresno State @ Wisconsin: This is the second year in a row these teams meat on the same day as the USC-Buckeye showdown and if it goes anything like last years game we should be in for a good one. Coach Bielema and the Badgers are coming off a disappointing season, and a less than stellar opener against Northern Illinois. Meanwhile in Fresno Bulldog fans are fed up with coach Hill's constant talk of busting the BCS while unable to win the WAC. It's kind of a put up or shut up year for him and the Bulldogs. Fresno's special teams play could be a factor in this one. Last week against UC Davis Fresno blocked their 45th punt since 2002, the most of any team in the nation in that time period, and had 2 blocked kicks in last year's contest with the Badgers. I don’t think that will happen though. Prediction:Wisconsin 16 Fresno State 10 9. Iowa @ Iowa State: Their have been grumbles from Hawkeye fans about discontinuing the series with Iowa State. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz isn't having it. He insists this instate battle for bragging rights is here to stay pointing out the Cyclones have been to 5 bowl games this decade. More than Illinois or Michigan State, and Ferentz is currently 4-6 against ISU. Rivalry game aside the Hawkeyes have something to prove. After last weeks block party, in which Iowa needed 2 blocked kicks in the final seven seconds to beat Northern Iowa, people are wondering whether the Hawkeyes are on their way to a losing season. The time to prove them wrong is now Prediction: Iowa 24 Iowa State 10 8. Purdue @ Oregon: Has anyone ever had a worse first day on the job than Chip Kelly? He took the job at a program with a preseason 16 ranking and Pac 10 championship asperations. In one night he was 0-1, out of the rankings with a PR disaster on his hands and his starting running back gone for the season. You know you've had a bad day when the fact that your team couldn't get a first down until mid way through the 3rd quarter is the last thing on your mind. Meanwhile the Boiler makers under first year coach Danny Hope had an impressive rushing attack against Toledo. They will look for that momentum to carry over against the Ducks Prediction: Oregon 34 Purdue 20 7. Stanford @ Wake Forest: Coach Harbaugh is beginning to turn things around at Stanford which is evident considering the schools decision to fork over a lot of cash for his new bathroom. Last week the Cardinal opened up Pac 10 play with a convincing win over Washington State, but this week they travel all the way across the country to take on ACC foe Wake Forest who has had success under coach Jim Grobe but lost a tough one last week to Baylor. Prediction: Stanford 27 Wake Forest 24 6. #19 North Carolina @ Connecticut: North Carolina was dominate defensively in their opener. They're going to get a tougher test this week when they face a Connecticut team who despite losing their top rusher, has potential to be a dominate running force. This will also be a revenge game for the huskies. Then #24 Connecticut was upset by the Tar Heels last season. The start of a 2-5 stretch to end a promising season which began 5-0. Prediction: North Carolina 28 Connecticut 21 5. East Carolina @ West Virginia: Skip Holtz has built a team capable of upsets at ECU, and no program knows it better than West Virginia. Last season the Mountaineers were embarrassed 24-3. This year it will be interesting to see how WVU fares against a Pirates team returning many players from that contest. It will also be interesting to see how West Virginia fares in the post Pat White era. They still have a talented and speedy running back in Noel Divine that could get East Carolina trouble. I think the Pirates will be able to overcome though. Prediction: East Carolina 30 West Virginia 27 4. South Carolina @ #21 Georgia: The post Matthew Stafford era did not get off to a good start last week. The Bulldogs were beat by a better cowboy team in Boone Pickens new stadium. Meanwhile the ol'ball coach won a hard fought defensive battle against North Carolina State. Prediction: Georgia 16 South Carolina 7 3. Clemson @ #15 Georgia Tech: Paul Johnson enters his second season running the Triple Option offense at Georgia Tech. Although not thrilled with his team's opening victory he is confident they can improve and contend for the Coastal Division title. Jonathan Dwyer the 2008 ACC player of the year will need to have a big game if the Yellow Jackets want to hold off Clemson. The Tigers have some injury questions from their running back C.J. Spiller who tweaked his hamstring in the second quarter and did not return in Clemson's 37-14 victory over Middle Tennessee State but Clemson coach Dabo Swinney insists that Spiller will be ready to play and could have returned in last weekends game but didn't want to risk further injury. Prediction:GT 17 Clemson 10 2. #18 Notre Dame @ Michigan: I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong. Last week I was embarrassed by Notre Dame. I was convinced that ND was the same Irish team from the last 2 years, and the media was to blame for their absurdly high preseason ranking. I know they were playing Nevada, but they shut down a really good offense with an outstanding qb for 4 quarters. I'll admit that they deserve their ranking. They face an interesting challenge this week from the wolverines and second year coach Rich Rodriguez in one of the underrated rivalries in college football. Rodriguez and the Wolverines got by Western Michigan last week with solid defense play and a good game from freshman quarterback Tate Forcier who went 13 of 20 for 179 yards and 3 TD passes. They're going to need another good game out of him as they face a defense who shut out one of the nations top rushing offenses from 2008 who were returning 3 1000 yard rushers. Prediction: Notre Dame 27 Michigan 13 1. #3 USC @ #8 Ohio State: At last the game of the week if not the season. The premier non-conference match up of the 2009 season, and the game the Buckeyes have had circled on their calender since September 13, 2008. The Buckeyes will get their chance at revenge for the 35-3 beat down they took at the hands of the Trojans last year at the coliseum. This is more than just 2 top 10 teams squaring off in the regular season. This is 2 of the 4 of 5 premier BCS programs meeting for a larger than life showdown. They have a combined 14 BCS appearances, 10 BCS victories, and 2 1/2 national championships between the 2 of them in the BCS era. This is also a must win for the Big 10 conference. There is a national perception that the conference is week due mostly to OSU's inability to win big games. Also the Big Ten's inability to beat USC. The Trojans have beaten everybody the Big Ten's thrown at them by double digits the past seven years. To make matters worse it was all against the Big Ten's top teams Ohio St., Penn St., Mich, Iowa, Illinois. They need to find a way to make the game close and get their reputation back. They have a shot, Terrell Pryor is a tremendous quarterback and is facing a young defense but I don't think it will be enough. Prediction: USC 31 Ohio State 17 true

2009-09-10T21:37:07Z

93868 24 Week 2: Ten games to watch for college football

2009-09-17T18:02:27Z