Week 1 Viewer’s Guide
Posted by deaconcat08 on 29th August 2009
Only a few days away! Time to get excited for the upcoming season. To build further anticipation for next weekend and also to prepare everyone for watching next weekend’s games, I’ve decided to put together a viewer’s guide for all of the first week televised game. This is kind of a take-off on a column the Charlotte Observer ran every weekend about 10 years ago where they rated the quality of each locally televisied game. Don’t know why they stopped the column, but here’s my version. Please note that depending on your cable provider you get more or less games then the ones rated below
Best game not on television: Troy at Bowling Green- First the bad news… this quality interconference game between two perennial powerhouses will not be televised nationally. It’s a real shame no one picked this game up, especially since it’s on a Thursday night. ESPNU really should be showing this instead of the Ball State/North Texas game you see below
Thursday Games:
South Carolina at NC State: Grade B+ (7:00, ESPN)- Could be a great game to kickoff the season. Let’s just hope its higher quality than last year’s ugly, ugly defensive struggle in Columbia. The unpredictability factor is high here, as both teams have been ranked all over the place in various preaseason polls.
North Texas at Ball State: Grade C- (7:30, ESPNU)- Really wanted to give this game a failing grade, but the only thing mildly intriguing here is to see if North Texas is at all improved, like many are predicting. Plus there have been very few opportunities to see Todd Dodge’s failed Mean Green experiment. Still though, you’re an idiot if you watch more than 10 minutes of this game given the fact that ESPN has a superb 7:00 game and 10:15 game.
Eastern Kentucky at Indiana: Grade F (8:00, Big Ten Network)- This game should be graded worse than Derrick Rose’s real SAT score. It’s very difficult to find any half-way intriguing storyline coming out of this matchup. Maybe Indiana’s only chance at a victory this year?
Oregon at Boise State: Grade A+ (10:15, ESPN)- This the game of the week, without a doubt. Some will argue for the Bama/VT matchup, but that game won’t come anywhere close to determining a BCS spot like this will. If Boise wins, then I’d say they have an 80% change of going to their 2nd BCS bowl. If they lose, then there is an 80% chance that there will not be a mid-major team in this BCS this years. Can’t think of a season opener in this past with these kind of implications.
Friday Games:
Tulsa at Tulane: Grade C (8:00, ESPN)- Let me just say this is not worth cancelling any Friday night plans to watch this game. If you are border however, it might be worth at least seeing if Toledo is finally going to make some progress with the Wave.
Saturday Early Afternoon Games:
Navy at Ohio State: Grade A- (12:00, ESPN)- I’ve been preaching the potential for a scare in this game for several months now. At the very least, we’ll be able to find out if Pryor’s arm has improved at all, and whether or not the Buckeyes appear to have any chance of beating the Men of Troy in week 2.
Kentucky at Miami-OH: Grade C+ (12:00, ESPN U)- I’m probably grading this game a little higher than I should only because I’m a Cats fan, and I’m interested to see how we’ll start this season. Overall, there’s not much here to get excited about.
Akron at Penn State: Grade D+ (12:00, Big Ten Network)- When a network only covers one conference and the teams in that conference refuse to play many legit non-conference games, then your early season programming is going to be pretty weak. No exception here.
Minnesota at Syracuse: Grade A (12:00, ESPN 2)- This game would be C grade if it wasn’t for one Syracuse graduate student named Greg Paulus. Watching him struggle in college basketball last year was thorougly enjoyable. Watching him getting sacked and beat up all season in football will elicit indescribable joy.
Saturday Late Afternoon Games:
Baylor at Wake Forest: Grade B+ (3:30, ABC)- Any game that I’m actually attending will get a higher grade than it should. Still though the unpredictability factor is off the charts in this matchup. Will Baylor have the goods to actually bowl this year? How will the new Wake defense handle the most athletic QB in college football? Lots of questions will be answered in this one.
Georgia at Oklahoma State: Grade A- (3:30, ESPN 2)- The Cowboys march to a national title begins with a major home challenge against a Georgia team that everyone is curious about. Can they reload after losing Stafford and Moreno? Anything could happen here. Also, in a rare Big 12/SEC regular season matchup, conference bragging rights will be on the line.
Nevada at Notre Dame: Grade B (3:30, NBC)- Watch out Irish, this could be a scare. Notre Dame almost lost to SDSU to start the season last year, and this game will be much more difficult. The Wolfpack will put up some points, but the defense will have to step it up to keep them in this game.
Jackson State at Mississippi State: Grade D (3:30, ESPNU)- First game for MSU with a new coach. That’s about all to say about this one. Could the U really not find any better games to show this week?
Missouri at Illinois: Grade B (3:40, ESPN)- This annual first weekend matchup always seems to produce lots of fireworks. Tigers’ will be debuting a lot of new offensive personnel, so we’ll see what they got against an improved Illini team that I’m predicting to shock the world
Saturday Early Evening Games
LA Tech at Auburn: Grade B- (7:00, ESPNU)- The best chance you’ll ever see for a WAC team to beat an SEC team on the road. I think this game will be closer than the experts’ predictions.
BYU vs. Oklahoma: Grade B (7:00, ESPN)- Reminds me of Oklahoma’s 2005 opener where they lost a shocker to TCU. The Sooners that year were a preseason national title contender, just like they are this year, and TCU was an underrated MWC team, just like the Cougars here. I’m not necessarily predicting an upset; in fact, this could be a blowout. However, there is a chance BYU keeps it close for a while.
Northern Illinois at Wisconsin: Grade D (7:00, Big Ten Network)- See comment above about Penn State/Akron game. This game could be surprisingly close, but does anyone really care?
Charleston Southern at Florida: Grade C (7:00, Fox Sports Network)- If CSU wins this game, it will be the most miraculous event since Jesus’ resurrection. More likely, however, is that this ends up as one of the biggest blowouts of all-time, depending on how cruel Meyer wants to be.
Northern Colorado at Kansas: Grade D- (7:00, Fox College Sports)- Avoids the F grade only becaue I’m interested to see how my # 3 surprise team of the year starts the season.
Alabama at Virginia Tech: Grade A (8:00, ABC)- Last year’s Atlanta opening weekend ACC/SEC showdown set the stage for Bama’s surpise BCS run, and Clemson’s disappointing demise. This year should be no different, as the winner should be considered a legit national title contender.
Saturday Late Night Games:
Buffalo at UTEP: Grade B+ (9:00, CBS College Sports)- Maybe the most underrated game of the week. I haven’t seen a single person talk about this one, but this is a solid non-conference matchup between two teams that should contend for their respective conference crowns.
Maryland at California: Grade C+ (10:00, ESPN 2)- Last year the Terps shocked the Bears at home. If they were to beat them again, it would be one of the upsets of the year in sports. However, you should definitely expect the Bears to cruise through this one.
LSU at Washington: Grade C+ (10:00, ESPN)- I’m surprised to see that the line is only 17 points, as I think this should be one of the bigger non-conference road beatdowns you’ll ever see between two BCS conference teams. However, it will interesting to see LSU’s questionable quarterback play in action.
Sunday Games:
Ole Miss at Memphis: Grade B- (3:30, ESPN)- Snead’s dark horse heisman run kicks off with a game in which he should put up big numbers.
Colorado State at Colorado: Grade B (7:00, FSN)- Colorado has the talent to win this one convincingly, but this early season rivalry game always seems to produce plenty of drama and surprises.
Monday Games:
Cincinnati at Rutgers: Grade A- (4:00, ESPN)- It’s a rare treat to get a BCS conference game on the first weekend between two legit conference title contenders. In a wide open Big East, this game could end up having huge implications.
Miami-FL at Florida State: Grade A- (8:00)- This game gets a good grade largely for reasons associated with its tradition. I think the Noles should handle the Canes easily this year (Noles are at home and have more talent), but this game seems to always come down to the wire.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »