College Football Friday Night Open Thread

Submitted by zxcvbn on

We have Tennessee vs. NC state going on in a couple minutes, and Little Brother vs. The Smurfs in about half an hour. Talk about them here.

 

Both games should be on firstrowsports.eu for those who will inevitably ask where to stream these games.

zxcvbn

August 31st, 2012 at 7:53 PM ^

Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, MSU, and Nebraska are all pretty losable, and all of them are either on the road or at a neutral site. I don't think we'll lose four of those five, but it's not unthinkable.

PurpleStuff

August 31st, 2012 at 8:00 PM ^

Notre Dame, OSU, and Nebraska are not good football teams.  They weren't last year, and I don't see what changes make them awesome this year.  MSU will be anywhere from slightly worse to considerably worse than last year and we play them at home.  Bama is in the same boat, despite the media telling itself that they just reload (as if repeating it makes it true). 

 

zxcvbn

August 31st, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^

We were so close to losing to Notre Dame last year. I know we got a lot better, but they're not a bad team. OSU will be a good football team, especially at the end of the season. They have too many good athletes on both sides of the ball to not be. Nebraska should improve defensively. If they don't, I'll be right with you. 

MSU could be worse, depending on their passing game. We'll see tonight.

BrownJuggernaut

August 31st, 2012 at 8:15 PM ^

I don't think any of those teams are bad teams. However, the way I see it, we had 4 tough games last season, and we won 3 of them (4 of 5 if you include the bowl). So Mr. Juggegrnaut, what has changed?

  • We caught Notre Dame early in the year, when we were still developing as a defense. Yes, we barely won. However, I think that another year in the system and our whole defense is better. Notre Dame's defense is really thin at defensive back. They don't have Michael Floyd anymore. They have a new quarterback. I'm really not that concerned.
  • Sparty, I have this game as toss up. We'll find out more about Andrew Maxwell and how good Sparty is as we get closer to the game. However, I see a team that lost a key player on the line and lost a lot of offensive talent. I still think the defense will be good and LeVeon Bell is an awesome RB. It's a toss up.
  • Nebraska, we stomped them at the Big House. We dominated them. They lost three key players on defense in Crick, David, and Dennard. I just don't see Taylor Martinez beating our defense. I know we're going to Lincoln, but I just don't see it.
  • Ohio State, this game will be really interesting. There's a lot of emotion. This is another toss up for me (slight dog). I think Michigan will have a lot to play for and they'll be very motivated. 

I could see us losing a game or two, but I just don't see us losing 3 of these games. I think that we're between a 9-3 and 11-1 team. Four losses though? It seems very unlikely.

PurpleStuff

August 31st, 2012 at 11:52 PM ^

Stephen Hopkins started at RB (Fitz didn't play), we had 7 points going into the 4th quarter, and pretty much all the awkwardness of an offensive transition was crammed into the beginning of that game.  We did just about everything wrong for 3 quarters on both sides of the ball, turned it on and still won thanks to Denard and the Irish allergy to winning. 

Don't see them really hanging with this year's team at all for a lot of the reasons mentioned.

Bodogblog

August 31st, 2012 at 8:00 PM ^

I'm going to go ahead and predict a Sparty loss.  From coaches to players, these guys seem to be feeling a little too good about themselves, with the media priming that pump.  When I hear their players talking about national championships, I know they've jumped ahead.

And again, Boise is a team that plays smart and physical, and Petersen can take advantage of the Sparty D's hyper-aggressive tendencies, if anyone can.  He's had a whole offseason to study them.

oriental andrew

August 31st, 2012 at 7:45 PM ^

Just saw a quickie segment on the game tomorrow from the game day crew in Dallas and there was a Michigan fan in the background sporting an impressive flow. Flow Blue! (er, sorry, kill me now)

PurpleStuff

August 31st, 2012 at 7:45 PM ^

But I'm curious to see how MSU's D looks without Worthy (really important player for a few years and not sure they have anyone close to that level on the roster now) and how Maxwell plays. 

Bodogblog

August 31st, 2012 at 9:10 PM ^

"really important player for a few years and not sure they have anyone close to that level on the roster now"

Couldn't you say that about Cousins, Cunningham, Martin, and Foreman?  If you look at the clutch play from just the first two in their close games last year (and the year before), it's going to take a hell of a replacement effort to be as good as advertised.

Wolverine Devotee

August 31st, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^

If state just layed a huge egg, that would be huge for Michigan in terms of recruiting.

Cass Tech players in attendance there

QB Jayru Campbell (2015)

WR/CB Damon Webb (2014)

LB Deon Drake (2014)

LB Will White (2014)

LB Gary Hosey (2014)

 

miCHIganman1

August 31st, 2012 at 8:06 PM ^

Did anyone else hear Desmond say on Sportscenter that Vincent Smith would be a liability because he is too small to pass block as compared to our other backs?



He must not be an avid MGoBlog reader

CRex

August 31st, 2012 at 8:12 PM ^

Bad Boise offensive line.

Edit:  Boise is just plain looking undersized on both sides of the ball.  They're getting clubbed like a Baby Seal U coming off the line.