If the first weekend of the college football season had been dubbed the “best weekend ever” and the following weekend when everybody wanted to play nobody was the “best weekend ever … to go do yard work on a Saturday,” then this upcoming slate of games may as well be “Are You For Real” Saturday.
When it comes to college football, the more you learn, the less sometimes you know and more questions are created. We all thought Texas was “whoa, definitely back!” after knocking off Notre Dame and then we learned ND is only OK and mostly just N with no D.
And Texas is only “back” in the sense that they’re 2-2 and the defensive coordinator is losing his play calling duties.
So in the ensuing weeks, we’ve learned some teams are a little better than maybe expected, some are not, and some we still really don’t know much about because they still haven’t really played anyone.
At any rate, this weekend marks a big one for several teams out to prove that their rise was no fluke, because the only thing tougher than getting to the summit is staying there. It’s always windier at the top of the mountain.
Start with Colorado, who visits Southern Cal. Who’d have thought three months ago that we’d be talking about surging Colorado needing to not get tripped up by unranked USC to maintain their momentum? That’s why they play the games, eh?
What makes CU such an astounding story is that last week, they were favored in a league game by double figures for the first time since 2005 … and won by 41 for their second straight win led by redshirt freshman quarterback Steven Montez.
Montez has proven to be a quick study after taking over for injured Sefo Liufau in their loss to Michigan. For the Trojans, the game stunningly represents a chance to upset a ranked foe and get their season back on track. Interesting juxtaposition from what we probably thought we’d be seeing.
Moving a little farther north, but not getting out of the conference just yet, you’ve got Washington visiting slumping, battered, and bruised Oregon. The Ducks look like Daffy after some unfortunate event shelves him in a Looney Tunes cartoon, and Washington is humming high after pelting Stanford Friday night.
But the Huskies are now officially the targets, and a “circle game” for teams with season’s on the ropes of spiraling out of control. Jake Browning and that defense were incredible against the Cardinal, doing whatever they wanted with a significant speed advantage. Oregon is going to need one of these big game skins on the wall or you could hear chatter of regime change there.
Your next trip to “Are You For Real” land is significantly farther east, in the form of the Miami Hurricanes, playing rival Florida State who is reeling after a series of poor defensive showings that have seen them give up at least 34 points in every game this season but one.
Take away the tilt against Charleston Southern, FSU … yeah, that FSU, the Noles … are giving up a staggering 41.7 points per game. Miami is one of those we don’t know a ton about. They look good, but there hasn’t been a metric ton of amazing on their schedule to this point, so it’s reasonable that they’re simply doing what they should.
Still, just staying the course will get a lot done in college football these days, as they’ve shot up to the 10th spot in some of the polls.
The ‘Canes did pass their first semi-test, clipping off Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Ole Richt improved to 14-0 in some form of coaching (assistant or pro) against GT in that city. The passing game has been on point, though if it keeps up, perhaps the Noles really aren’t the best barometer of whether or not your offense is “for real” right now.
Absent those highly visible games concerning teams with varying levels of success this year having to build upon it for the first time under their current regimes, there are other decent things to look at, such as how good Indiana really might be (not that you should expect them to go into Ohio State and win), Michigan going on the road for the first time (even if it’s Rutgers), and edge-living Tennessee visiting Texas A&M and their seemingly annual hot starts before a bit of cooling.
So there will be more questions based on some answers we’ll get this Saturday, but for teams looking at being the kings, they’re right there closer to the throne. Now, we get to see if they will let someone knock them off.
