Nice opening week in college football. Six consecutive days of pigskin, filled with drama and intrigue even though many of the match ups were lopsided.
Right, UCLA? Someone needs to get QB Brett Hundley some help, and pronto! Oh, and someone let Coach Spurrier know that A&M left town and it’s safe for his defense to come back outside.
But enough about week one. What can week two do for an encore? Sounds like a job for the Reverse Barometer.
Refresher course: every opinion and prognostication below should be taken with caution. It’s actually safer to pick the opposite. Science and lots of Benadryl have proved it.
OK, this week features 74 games, including 29 with match-ups of FBS teams vs. FCS squads. At least that’s down from 47 last week (yeah, break that to Iowa State, who lost to North Dakota State).
Oklahoma travels to Tulsa, coming off a solid home win in Norman over Louisiana Tech. Tulsa can score some points but so can OU. Golden Hurricane QB Dane Evans goes off for 300+ yards and some points but Trevor Knight outscores him. Sooners 49, Tulsa 32.
SMU plays at North Texas. Is it OK to simply take the officials to have the best game on the field among all parties? SMU looked like a mess at Baylor last week while North Texas lost 38-7 at Texas. Take the home team here, for no real reason other than they’re the home team. That, and SMU looked like the Keystone Cops in Waco last week. North Texas 24, SMU 18.
Gotta feel for those Cyclones. First North Dakota State rolls in and beats you and now Kansas State comes to town. Looks like Iowa State’s season might be over before it really begins. Then again, it was probably over when they scheduled North Dakota State a few years ago about the time they changed their uniforms. Just because your jerseys look like USC doesn’t mean you play like USC. KSU 41, ISU 17.
Speaking of USC, the Pac-12 version goes to Stanford in one of the best games of the day. This might be the first meeting of two this season, considering they might play in the conference title game. USC’s offense is back, led by QB Cody Kessler. They’ll outscore the Cardinal, 34-23.
Game of the Weekend: No. 8 Michigan State at No. 3 Oregon. Realistically, Spartie holds the Big 10’s best chance to get in the four-game playoff. Win this game and they’re in business. But Oregon doesn’t lose at home too often and I don’t see it happening here. Michigan State’s only chance is to play some solid D. But D also stands for Ducks, and they take this one, 27-23.
Lamar at Texas A&M. Two interesting things about this game – 1) there’s a good chance that the Aggies will blow away the all-time attendance record for a college game in the state of Texas and hit six-figures. Versus Lamar. And 2) maybe it’s the all-new Chicken Fried Hot Dog that will pack them in, available at the newly renovated Kyle Field for a mere $14. Not sure what is more likely to spike up to 70 points – fans’ cholesterol level or A&M’s side of the scoreboard. Aggies 68, Lamar 13.
BYU visits Austin and the Longhorns would love nothing more than revenge from last year. Cougars QB Taysom Hill ran for 259 yards and three scores vs. Texas last year in a 40-21 win. No David Ash at quarterback for the Horns, as concussion symptoms have popped up again. Tyrone Swoops does a bang-up job and leads Texas to a close win, 28-20.
Michigan travels to Notre Dame for the last time in a while, and frankly, we’re kinda sad about it here at the Barometer. But we’re going to suck it up and enjoy the moment, as the scoreboard gets lit up like a Christmas tree. Wolverines 41, Irish 31.
And since we really can’t have a Friday Barometer without mentioning the Cowboys’ opener vs. the 49ers, we’ll weigh in. We can’t lie – it’s gunna be a long season in Dallas. Loss number one of 10 on the season comes Sunday for the Boys. Enjoy the Sunday tailgate, cause it all goes downhill after that.
Kind of like that Chicken Fried Hot Dog.
I never did get the word on the latest marble tournament as to who took home the whole bag of crystals shooters. There had to be
some beauties in there. By the way White wing dove hunting season opens for a few hours this Saturday afternoon, bag limit is 15, for today and tomorrow afternoon also.