CFB: Weekend Preview, VT at LSU
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by Suckatsports
College football weekend preview will run weekly, and will take a quick gander at some of the upcoming games. Quick breakdowns and predictions will be included, but don't quote it on SportsBook, they'll still take your money.
I'll apologize at the very beginning of this for being so late, life is just so hectic. On a brighter note, there's college football on Thursdays and Fridays now. And in all fairness, I probably should have started the preview on Monday or something, especially since once college football really rolls into shape, it'll be on just about every night - really shitty games too.
If you could watch one game this weekend, watch Virginia Tech at LSU. It's rare to see a non-conference match-up of two top-ten (can I hyphenate more?) teams, but we've been treated to some great ones in the last couple of seasons - OSU/Texas didn't disappoint twice and neither should this. Kudos to both of these teams to risk a loss this early in order to actually play someone. Virginia Tech is ranked high, but their effort against ECU didn't exactly inspire confidence in many people. Although that vaunted defense only gave up 10, that offense only put up 17. A win is a win any way you can get it, but it has to be concerning to have such a close game against a bad team on an emotional day at home. LSU may have looked too good, but they were playing an awful team in Mississippi State, here's hoping that this game clears things up on both sides. The LSU defense is far better against the Virginia Tech offense rather than the other way around, and it's hard to ever go against LSU at home, that place is insane. Frank Beamer is a much better coach than that idiot Les Miles, but even he won't be able to screw up this much talent deficiency - never say never? LSU's championship quest continues, but Virginia Tech's stumbles. LSU 34, VT 10.
Other games that need your attention.
- Miami at Oklahoma - Yeah, you don't see every day that the premier game of the weekend contains an unranked team. In all fairness though, we don't know anything this early in the year, maybe Oklahoma shouldn't be ranked, and Miami should - just look at what happened to Michigan (last reference, I promise). This isn't just any plain unranked team, this is a sleeping giant in Miami, that was on top of the world at the beginning of this millennium. How quickly we forget that they won 31 straight games, and were USC before USC. That being said, I do think Oklahoma is that good, but not 79 points good. Stoops has raved about his defense being the most athletic he's ever fielded, but doesn't every coach say that every year? This year, though, it looks to be fact, since they didn't allow a point last game. The offense seems to have struggled none with the loss of Adrian Peterson - the offensive line is supposed to be one of the best in the nation, and DeMarco Murray is all that. Miami is still a few years away, but Randy Shannon is the right personality, if not the right person to bring this program back in a hurry. Oklahoma 21, Miami 16.
- Oregon at Michigan - Yeah, another elite match-up between two unranked teams, consider this the one and only time this should ever catch your eye. Oregon runs a similar type of spread offense that ASU, OSU, and USC ran to gain advantage of that Michigan D, and they've got the talent to make it work even better than ASU. It's scary when the second game on your schedule is considered make or break. Oregon won, so they've got little to lose, but Michigan's season may be over if they hang a W. This may be the greatest collection of worthless coaches on one field: Mike Bellotti, Lloyd Carr, and Ron English. What a war of coaching attrition this would be, the winner screws up less. That being said, Michigan has everything to play for. Michigan 38, Oregon 31.
- TCU at Texas - Second time in as many years a ranked non-conference opponent comes to Texas. TCU is no pushover, in fact, used to play in the same conference as Texas, and wants to make a statement. However, like their history suggests, they don't have a lot of luck against Texas. The last game at home, Texas didn't inspire confidence themselves, as it took a recovery of an onside kick from Arkansas St. to even win the game. A bad secondary from last year lost their best players, that's not a good combination. TCU has a longer winning streak than Texas in the Big 12, but that's about to come to an end; Texas is too good to lose at home. Texas 17, TCU 10.
- Notre Dame at Penn State - This is only a game to watch because I like watching Notre Dame getting smacked around. They have no talent this year, and the genius of Weis isn't shining off those gold helmets, so get ready for a massacre - there's nothing good to be said about that team. Penn State on the other hand really lowered the hammer in their first game, even if it was only against Florida Atlantic. Penn State has the burners at wide receivers to make it miserable for the horrid ND secondary. Nothing to be said about that defense, except that it's always solid, but don't forget Happy Valley, that place is horrible to play at - Penn State in a laugher. PSU 38, ND 7.
Heisman Lookout. Brian Brohm didn't do anything to kill his hopes for taking back the bronze trophy, he put up another ridiculous game, and showed why he's the best pro prospect in this class. McFadden and Ray Rice are once again playing in dog games, so there's no reason to judge them until they go up against some real competition. How about a new dark horse this week, DeMarco Murray of Oklahoma. If he has a big game, which I think he will, against a stingy Miami D, he could vault himself into contention. Go Sooners.
Random Notes. The Big Ten Network finally found another suitor and nearly doubled its subscriber base by signing with Dish Network. In addition to that, there's rumors that they are close to signing Mediacom on for their ridiculous prices. This may be the pressure Comcast and Time Warner need to finally cave. Time Warner sent me a letter telling me how unfair the Big Ten is being charging these outrageous rates, and how much money they stand to make from this. Don't ask me to feel sorry for you, when you're charging me $100 for cable. You just lost your position. I hate cable companies.
Stewart Mandel's Mailbag [SI.com]
BTN picked up by Dish [AOL Fanhouse] '
Like what you read? This post is cross-published from We Suck at Sports.
