Early Games Open Thread

From those stats you expect a close game or even Purdue winning... until you get down to turnovers. And that says it all.

It is almost halftime though, so they could be going to concessions.

Having a viewing party for that game and loving every second of it. My roommate and I agreed before the game to shotgun a beer every ECU touchdown which is pretty regrettable, however.

Hmmm, looks to me like Spurrier made a lot of adjustments.

This is a team that nearly lost to Indiana St.  It's a pretty bad program right now, but I guess every conference needs at least one.  I mean, the ACC has UNC, Big 12 apparently has WVU (though today's game is going better than I expected).  But yeah, Purdue needs to figure out what they are doing.

So you're saying that they're bad and that they should feel bad?

I've like your approach of making a team feel better with facts pointing out how them sucking is at least partially self-inflicted, not just getting worked over by a better squad.  Makes you feel like, heck, you almost had a chance to make it a respectable loss.

NIU is a good team with a great, experienced QB  They could take out Kentucky and Vanderbilt and any of the lower tier of most conferences.  Sadly the B1G was the one scheduling them.

NIU did make it to a BCS game last year you realize? They have the same QB and receiving corps too. They got smashed by Florida state, but would probably take West Virginia to the cleaners

I think, at the end of the day, Notre Dame just isn't that good. Having Tommy Rees as the QB severely narrows Kelly's playbook, and the defense just isn't what it was last year.

Plus, I think playing Notre Dame is like when you play Michigan, or the Yankees, or any high-end program: every opponent is going to give you their best game.

It's the "Little Brother" effect. Regional rival that feels disrespected every year, and that rage can make up for a disparity in talent and ability.

Duct tape and paper clips. They hung in tight against Notre Dame last year and took Ohio State to overtime, but every other loss was by at least 16 points. They only managed to get bowl eligibility by squeaking out 3-point wins against bad Iowa and Illinois teams.

I think it may just be that they can put together a maximum of two good games a year against major conference opponents.

Godfrey used to be a QB so throwing isn't a foreign concept for him. In fact he was recruited by Michigan back in the day to be a dual-threat QB.

As much grief as Mack Brown gets for underachieving, he must have been a pretty good coach earlier in his career, because he made UNC really good for awhile.  They've been crappy basically ever since he left for Texas.  

In that same vein, ECU is murdering UNC by 18.. and it should be more if ECU wasn't being merciful. Also, West Virginia is beating Ok State. I think it's safe to say that the mid-majors are definitely gaining some strength. There is definitely parity around college football these days.