What I'm Watching For, Week 3

Another great week of football, intrigue and brief male nudity await today. Fortunately, at the end of this day we will finally be able to move past the Lane Kiffin- Urban Meyer feud, which has been the most overplayed offseason story line since debate over whether or not the Friends cast would come back for season six. Oh, right, Matt LeBlanc, you really may hold out on NBC for a better offer. Sure, just because the chimp's movie career has taken off fast than yours doesn't mean you're star is dying, it just means you're on the rise! Needless to say, Florida-Tennessee is not what I'm looking forward to this weekend.

What is on my Tivo then, you ask?

1. Black Shirts or Black Eyes?: When Bo Pellini was brought to Lincoln, he vowed to return the Cornhuskers to the glory days of the 80s and 90s under Tom Osborne. That means reviving the dormant walk on program, running the ball, and having a swarming defense known as the "Black Shirts." Unfortunately, he forgot that Osborne rose to national prominence by having the weakest schedule strength in the nation, running up the score, and prepping for the Orange Bowl in September. Pellini, on the other hand, has a brutal trip to Blacksburg to play some Beamer Ball against Virginia Tech. Last year, VTech QB Tyrod Taylor had the best game of his career as Ho-Ho-Hokie High V-V-VPI beat the Huskers in Lincoln 35-30. Blacksburg is as tough a place to play in the ACC, just above the storied grounds of Duke University and their Wallace Wade Crazies, and Nebraska brings in a QB playing his first career road game. That means Pellini needs his defense to step up and contain Taylor, or else Nebraska's fans will have to watch their own corn-holes.

2. Will We Reach USC's Corp Limit?: Coming off an emotional, last minute win against the Top 10 Buckeyes in Columbus, everyone in the nation had this game against Washington circled as a "trap game" for the Trojans. Now, I don't know who taught ESPN the phrase "trap game," but they should be shot in the face. Unless there is a secret door at the 50 yard line in Seattle that leads to the end zone, or it turns out the Christian Bale is really a twin playing offense and defense for the Huskies all along, it's not a "trap." The Viet Cong didn't schedule this week for the Trojans, their own AD did, and I don't think he did it for the story.



Terminology and semantics aside, this does look like a tough game for USC. Washington has improved dramatically with a healthy QB Jack Lockner leading the offense, the team is playing with more fire under coach Steve Sarkisian now the Lt. Cedric Daniels has finally left the Washington sidelines to become a colonel in the Baltimore PD, and they have home field advantage in their new stadium that only cost the school 4 distance swimmers and a gymnastics program. Also, considering both Sarkisian and the UW defensive coordinator came from USC, there is a pretty good chance they know what Pete Carroll wants to do. When you add in that QB phenom Matt Barkley is out and QB Aaron Corp is starting, it will be interesting to see how the Trojans replace Barkley's 45% completion percentage from last week. More importantly, last week's hero, Joe McKnight, is fighting off the flu and may not be 100%. A lot of potential in this game.

3. Is Their a Just God: You would assume this involves the Notre Dame game, but as anyone who has watched the Fighting Irish play the last three seasons, we all know God walked away from that train wreck years ago. Instead, God is down in the Bible Belt. New coach Bobby Petrino seems poised to make a jump in the SEC this year with his team-of-the-week, the Arkansas Razorbacks. He is considered an offensive genius, and he has a stud QB talent in Michigan-transfer Ryan Mallet. Mallet was the #2 prospect in the country coming out of high school, behind only Jimmy Clausen. Arkansas hosts Georgia this week, a team that is apparently out to have the worst functioning ACL-to-Season Win Total of any bowl eligible team in NCAA history. It's Arkansas' last home game before going on the road to play Alabama, Ole Miss, Florida and LSU. More or less, it looks like this is their only shot at a major victory in conference.

If you will remember, however, Bobby Petrino is the coach who famously redefined class by breaking up with the Atlanta Falcons by passing the team a note after practice one day. He also interviewed for a job before his season was over at Louisville, and before the new school had even fired its current coach! Offensive aptitude aside, the man is a piece of crap. His squad may be good this year, but if there is a God who believes in justice, he will be an epic failure in this game and for the rest of his career as a coach.

4. Crabtree Still Have Eligibility?: One of the most exciting games of the 2008 season was the Texas-Texas Tech game that came down to a touchdown scored with 1 second left on the clock. Keep crying, Hoogs. Earlier this week, I saw a great breakdown of what Texas Tech did defensively last year against the Horns by Todd McShay. Basically, the Texas Tech game plan was the rush four with an emphasis by the DE's of getting off the line and keeping McCoy in the pocket. One linebacker was kept as a spy on McCoy, while the other 6 defenders dropped into pass coverage. There was an emphasis by the LB's and CBs to shut off the short passes, and the safeties played deep to avoid the big play. In effect, the defense took away McCoy's two biggest assets-- his accuracy and ability to make plays with his legs-- while forcing him to make the deep throws that he was the least effective at all year long.

This year, there will be even more pressure on the TT defense. The game is in Austin, the Red Raider offense is much more inexperienced, Texas has had a year to break down last year's film, and McCoy is a year older. If they can pull off a similar Herculian effort as last year, it could be three consecutive weeks of Big 12 Top 5 upsets. If they cannot, it may be 9 consecutive 50 point performances by UT at home against the Pirates of the Plateau-abbean. Terrible.