College Football Thoughts And Musings From Early Games October 25

The day started off innocently enough. Did you miss any of the early games? I have you covered!

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This is the kind of offense that we expected to see from Wisconsin this year. Newly reinstated Joel Stave had a good game against an average-at-best Maryland defense. And of course, RB Melvin Gordon carved up the Terrapins. The real story of this was the Badger defense. Wisconsin dominated the Maryland offense. QB C.J. Brown was just 13-29 for 129 yards, and only amassed 14 on the ground on 13 carries. Maryland only turned the ball over once, but with the way that the Wisconsin offense was taking them apart, a punt was as good as a turnover.

East Carolina did not look good at all against Connecticut. That is not a good thing for a team that doesn’t have any good teams remaining on the schedule. Style points will likely count. They probably lost some here.

This was a statement game for Miami. They completely shut down a struggling Virginia Tech team. Miami’s defense has improved almost as much as freshman QB Brad Kaaya over the course of the season.

Kansas State‘s defense shut Texas out in a dominating performance. This was the first time that the Longhorns have been shut out in ten years. The Texas defense played a good game, but when your offense can’t get anything going, it puts an extra burden on the defense.

Oregon’s offense put on quite a show again, but Cal got their points on the Oregon defense. That is what hurt the Ducks against Arizona. If they run into a team with a really good offense and a pulse on defense, they could be in trouble again.

It may as well have been Ameer Abdullah day in Lincoln on Saturday. Nebraska’s do-everything back racked up 341 total yards, which is the best in school history, and third in Big Ten(14) history. Abdullah also became the first Nebraska back to rush for over 1,000 yards in three seasons. Think about all of the good or great backs that have come through Lincoln. Johnny Rodgers, Ahman Green, Roy Helu, Lawrence Phillips. None of them ever did that. If they would give a Heisman to a running back ever again, it should be Abdullah. WR Kenny Bell also set a school record for most career receptions with 167. For Rutgers, this game got out of hand when Gary Nova left the game with an injury just before halftime. Honestly, Rutgers was so undersized on both lines, they really had no chance. They wouldn’t have won this even with Nova. Backup Chris Laviano played a solid game.

What an ugly, ugly game by Minnesota. They were sloppy again, and this time it cost them as Illinois returned a fumble for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Minnesota’s inability to move the ball consistently hurt them again, as they weren’t able to recover.

It was fun while it lasted for Massachusetts. Still, they hung with Toledo who is in the upper echelon of the MAC. The Minutemen aren’t there yet, but you can’t deny just how much they have improved over the course of the year.

North Carolina finally finished a game. Marquise Williams is a dangerous player, and has this offense playing very well. If the Tarheel defense can hold up, they could still win seven games.

Georgia Southern continues to have few, if any, growing pains during their transition. They now have six wins, and they racked up 69 points with that option offense on Georgia State.

UCLA’s defense is not good enough for them to win the Pac 12 South. There, I said it. I’ve been thinking it for a while. but there is simply no excuse for needing overtime to beat an average at best Colorado team.

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