big tennnnn!

This is the second of a pair of half-sized episodes so we could get one out between the games last weekend.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: HomeSure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, and Information Entropy, the Raw Power app for iOS by Gentleman Coders.

And introducing SignalWire, which is the virtual office platform we recorded this on because we’ve had it up to here with Zoom (use the code MUPPETS and they’ll buy your team lunch!)

1. Recapping LSU

starts at 1:00

That was terrifying. Hurrah for the regression to the mean on lean twos and floaters off the dribble. They were who we thought they were, weren’t they? Smith struggled with length but his offensive creation wasn’t missed when Chaundee was on the court. Also how nice is it that Michigan has so many guys who can win them a game? Also the refs: 10 really bad calls, split unevenly, felt worse because every possession was life or death.

2. Previewing FSU

starts at 25:18

Remember the last FSU team? They’re like that: super duper tall, use a lot of bench in weird places, including having the best player on their team, Scottie Barnes, coming off the bench. This is because they can’t defend the rim without their two 7-foot centers who haven’t faced a lot of post-ups. Not great off-the-dribble shooters which is good news because no guard is less than 6’4”.

3. Big TEHN!

starts at 48:23

We survey the carnage of our conference mates who didn’t make it out of the opening weekend, from least to most disappointing. Rutgers is now in the Big Ten since they didn’t make it out of Round 2 despite being expected to win at some point.

[The player after The Jump]

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Glasgow's comin'

The Question: Which big ten players are over/underperforming your preseason expectations?

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The Responses

Ace:

Underperforming: While I didn't expect them to be world-beaters, I didn't see Michigan State's safeties being so inconsistent, like twice-benched Montae Nicholson, or inconsistent and injured, as is now the case with RJ Williamson. With Williamson now out for most of the season, that secondary is vulnerable, and there may only be so much their excellent defensive line can do to mask the weakness.

Overperforming: Ryan Glasgow, Chris Wormley, Maurice Hurst, Matt Godin, and Taco Charlton. I'd include Willie Henry, as well, but I was expecting big things out of him this year. Remember when Bryan Mone's injury looked to be a huge hit to the defensive line? They've coped pretty well. You could also throw Jeremy Clark and Channing Stribling in here, as they've very much exceeded expectations, too. The defense was supposed to be good with a couple of weak points; at the moment, it's great, and thus far they haven't shown a glaring weakness.

[Jump for not draftageddon (until Seth goes)]

What this is: I’ll be running down the nationwide results from the week that was, in particular the P5 vs. P5 games, with an emphasis on the race for the playoffs.

This isn't SEC land where "who's got the best conference?" is asked before and after every meal. The point is to run down the five Power 5 conferences, since with four playoff spots it’s become very important to track the rare data points in that otherwise mundane argument.

Everybody’s pretty much fine

asutamu

Source

College football’s opening weekend was conspicuously devoid of significant upsets: not much of CFB’s upper echelon was challenged significantly in their opening wins and the highest ranked team to lose its opener was #15 Arizona State in a de facto road game against a tough Texas A&M team. Consider the preseason top 10:

1. Ohio State was down at halftime in Blacksburg but between Braxton Miller’s highlight-reel plays and an injury to Hokie QB Michael Brewer, the Buckeyes beat VT by a comfortable 42-24 margin. OSU decided to roll with Cardale Jones as the apparent leader of the offense – JT Barrett is a tremendous insurance policy – and the Bucks shouldn’t be tested for a while. Needless to say, there’s plenty of weapons on both sides of the ball – the Ohio State team that won at Virginia Tech was still short Joey Bosa and Jalin Marshall, among others.
 
2. TCU beat Minnesota 23-17. More below.

3. Alabama beat Wisconsin 35-17. More below.

 
[After the JUMP, much more on the world of college football]