Thoughts on Day #1 of the 2008 Season

Day #1 of the 2008 college football season is over, and it was not very exciting, except in a couple of spots.

The SEC Continues to Dominate

South Carolina destroyed NC State 34-0, even though USC's quarterback threw four interceptions. The Gamecocks defense was outstanding. It looks pretty bad, though, when the ESPN announcers say at halftime, "I'm looking down the roster, and I don't see any players on NC State's side who can make the plays to get back into this game." Is NC State that bad, that it loses by 34 to a mid-level SEC team who has a bad day on offense.

Also, Vandy had a very impressive win over Miami Univ., who many picked to win the MAC. Thjis is a terrible result for the Big ten. The Big Ten has 13 games scheduled against MAC teams, and if the team who is supposed to win the MAC gets drilled by Vandy ... yikes. Even more fodder for the pundits who say the Big Ten is overrated.

The feel good win of the day was Stanford's 36-28 win over Oregon State. I don't like the team from up north, but I do have to say that Jim Harbaugh seems like a real stand-up guy. His win over USC last year was huge. It is good to see Harbaugh improving the Cardinal and leading them to a big victory.

A team that the Buckeyes will play on Sept. 20th, Troy went to Middle Tennessee State and defeated them without much problem, 31-17. Curiously, Troy had 4 turnovers to MTSU's 2, only led in the yardage category 300-284, and had less time of possession. Troy also was fairly inefficient on 3rd downs (4 of 13). With those kind of stats, Troy should not pose much of a threat to the Buckeyes (although, I never imagined they would anyway, but it is good to make sure).

All in all, a fairly ho-hum first day of college football. Today, Friday, August 29th is even more ho-hum. Temple-Army and Rice-Southern Methodist. Woohoo.

tomorrow, the real show begins.