Week Zero - Some Bad College Football!
For some reason, presumably money, College Football decided to cut a week off of offseason training, and push the regular season up a week. The result was quite unimpressive. In the first game, a team had 14 penalties and gave up 10 sacks, yet still had possession of the ball with an opportunity to win as the clock expired. In the second game, a team (Hawaii) had 6 turnovers, yet never trailed in the game.
Week Zero was the sloppiest mess of Division I football, with evenly matched teams, that I've seen in years! Even worse, it was totally unnecessary. Who, exactly, has been clamoring for college football to start a week earlier, with a week's less preparation for the teams? If the product on the field is going to suffer, I'd surmise that the fans joy for watching will suffer as well. There is already an almost oversaturation of games in the college football market with games now being played and televised mid-week and on Fridays.
I'd prefer the NCAA not go the route of the NFL and diminish it's product with scheduling gimmicks that harm the watchability of the sport and create disinterest among the consumers. So far, the narrative has been how exciting the endings of those games were, and not on how bad the football was for the first 58 minutes.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
I'm okay with a week 0 but let the teams playing start practice a week earlier.
Edit: Apparently I don't know things and they did start practice early. Neat.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
They did.
August 25th, 2019 at 6:48 PM ^
I mean, if I'm being honest I've love the ability to be able to start practice a week early, and have an extra bye week, say before the OSU game.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
This is a terrible take.
Bad football is better than no football.
These teams started practice a week earlier than everyone else.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:44 PM ^
Yep, the alotted practice time is the same for every team.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:00 PM ^
Bad football is better than no football.
Now, that is a terrible take! Ask the NFL about how bad football on Thursdays and Mondays have damaged their ratings and the brand. I'm as diehard an NFL fan as you'll find. I've had the NFL Ticket since 2003. Yet, the product on Thursdays has been so bad that I rarely watch unless it is a team or player that is must see.
If you think that games filled with turnovers, sacks, and penalties is better than waiting a week, or a few days, to get a better product, then that says something about the standards that you have.
I stand corrected on the week's less preparation. But, pushing everyone's practice schedule up a week just may have affected their ability to prepare.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:48 PM ^
Of all the shit to complain about, you choose this? I thoroughly enjoyed Miami, Florida game. Maybe it was because I was starving for football, but it was better than the alternative, nothing. Chill out, 6 more days till Michigan.
August 25th, 2019 at 5:13 PM ^
You are a Pez Dispenser of stupid thoughts.
August 25th, 2019 at 5:15 PM ^
Why dont you ask the NFL and then report back with data about the damage to the TV brand since, you know, it's like your argument.
August 25th, 2019 at 5:48 PM ^
For your edification -
August 25th, 2019 at 6:08 PM ^
I think I agree Nervous Bird. I watched for a while and DVRd the rest and watched most of it this AM. It was just weird. I was excited to watch it at very first, and then it occurred to me that it was about the last game I would have picked to watch first of the season. No pun intended, but it looked really “amateur.”
The great thing about the beginning of college football is the embarrassment of riches in having it all pour over you at once. The play is almost universally bad, but it doesn’t matter because it is glorious when taken together. Thursday works good as a nice appetizer, but it is specifically for the reason that the games don’t even really try to be “big.” Last night was a weird semi-rivalry with kind-of-goodish teams that ended up playing like the world’s worst ever Super Bowl. They can have week 0 back.
I understand what everybody is saying, it is FOOTBALL, but if somebody watched the entire presentation last night as a new fan(sloppy play, unsportsmanlike conduct, constant celebrations for relatively meh plays, bad reffing), I would not blame them for not turning it back on again.
August 25th, 2019 at 7:39 PM ^
Miami and Florida are... Not great right now. This would've been a sludgefart of a game next week too. Maybe a power 5 matchup should've waited until week 1, but having live football to watch a week early was outstanding. It was like a prelude to the season, if you will. You can only watch a hype video so many times. I am not a fan of spreading marquee games out to include Thursdays and Fridays though, so I definitely agree with you there.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:17 PM ^
Ease up, dude. You could have gotten your point across without the “terrible take”.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
It was sloppy but I loved watching college football last night. Probably won’t watch either those team again, but I had fun.
August 25th, 2019 at 4:50 PM ^
Agreed! College football is like pizza and sex, even when it is "bad", it is still pretty good!
August 25th, 2019 at 5:55 PM ^
I've been saying that for years. Pizza, sex and college football, even the worst is still pretty good.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
I find it hard to believe that an extra week of practice makes this much of a difference...
August 25th, 2019 at 2:27 PM ^
Wow. I just happened to disagree with every single thing you said. You want to wait longer for college football to start? Go ahead and not watch it then.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:11 PM ^
Week Zero was the sloppiest mess of Division I football, with evenly matched teams, that I've seen in years!
You disagree with THAT?!
And, yes, I have no problem waiting until the weekend of Labor Day to watch college football. And, unless Michigan makes the horrible decision to start a week earlier, then I won't be watching the reincarnation of Week Zero again.
August 25th, 2019 at 4:48 PM ^
If these teams played a week from yesterday it would of been the same exact slop. They practiced the same amount as all other college teams. You are complaining just to complain.
August 25th, 2019 at 5:26 PM ^
The only thing missing from his argument is bolded text and all caps
STOP THE MADNESS
August 25th, 2019 at 5:32 PM ^
“Week Zero was the sloppiest mess of Division I football, with evenly matched teams, that I've seen in years!”
Well no one can disagree with that because we don’t know what you have watched. But personally, sloppy play with exciting finishes describes approximately 60% of the most entertaining games I have ever watched in college sports. Nothing looked particularly out of the ordinary to me.
That said, I don’t need Week 0 in my life. Don’t hate it, though.
August 25th, 2019 at 5:44 PM ^
Hmm yeah, I dunno...did you see Florida’s bowl game last year? I heard that was pretty sloppy.
\s....kinda
August 25th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
Not sure an extra 5 days of practice would make a difference for Florida or Miami. These two are bitter instate rivals that lack right now in many areas. Miami is very young and especially their OL. For Florida, their QB is just not very good. Michigan made Florida look better last year with absolute uninspired play. They took OSU’s playbook from the 62 point thrashing and did the same thing to stubborn Donnie that Ryan Day did. 5-8 yard rub routes , screens, and slants. Then Pep and Jim’s 1988 offense added to the misery. No matter who was missing, Michigan had the athletes to beat Florida.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
I think the sloppiness and penalties and generally FUGLY ballgame was more b/c of two poorly coached/prepared teams that would've looked that way with 1, 2 or 3 weeks to prep. IMO the season will demonstrate that both Miami and Florida showed us who they really are last night.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:29 PM ^
Week 0 has been a thing for a long time, this story goes over the previous week 0 games.
https://www.bannersociety.com/2019/8/25/18507166/college-football-week-zero-history
August 25th, 2019 at 2:42 PM ^
I'm aware of the history of Week Zero games. You know they stopped playing Week Zero games because the quality of football was so bad. Week Zero was usually the domain of mid-majors.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:09 PM ^
The previous array of "Week Zero" games - a.k.a., the Kickoff Classics (or similarly named Classics) didn't stop "because the quality of football was so bad."
They came to an end because a majority of FBS teams voted to end them. Only a minority of teams played in those Kickoff Classics, generally good to elite-level teams. But the majority (who didn't get to play) thought it was unfair that some teams got to play 1 more game than everyone else. Thus they ended.
Note even this year - Miami & Florida aren't playing 13 games. Still only 12.
But there was some good football played in those games. The 1993, 1994 (well one of them - ha ha), 1999, 2002 and 2004 National Champions all played in Week Zero. So did the 1998, 2000 and 2001 National runners-up.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
Do you think the litany of blowouts (Va Tech v Arkansas St), bad matchups (NC State v New Mexico), and sleep-fests (Ga Tech v Syracuse), had anything to do with the NCAA deciding to eliminate the game for more than a decade?
August 25th, 2019 at 5:22 PM ^
Sure - there have been a number of bad "Week Zero" college football games. Sorry, but it does feel like you are cherry-picking.
Pick any week in any year. There were a number of lousy college football games in "Week 5 of 1997" (LSU 56 Akron 0), or "Week 7 of 2005" (Texas Tech 59 K-State 20), or "Week 14 of 2013" (MTSU 48 UTEP 17).
Of course, those weeks above also had ND/Michigan, and PSU/Michigan (and USC/ND), and the Kick Six Iron Bowl.
As the article pointed out, there have been a number of good "Week Zero" college football games over the years. Us older folk remember that Michigan was involved in one back in 1995.
August 25th, 2019 at 6:01 PM ^
Thanks for the civil response. My question, though, was do you think the litany of blowouts, bad matchups, and sleep-fests had anything to do with the NCAA eliminating Week Zero for more than a decade? If yes, then that contradicts what you posted to me earlier behind the reasons Week Zero was eliminated.
August 25th, 2019 at 6:24 PM ^
No.
That Florida-Miami game looked no worse than Michigan-ND shit show a year ago. Even ended about the same with an inept offense still having a chance and coughing up the ball to seal it. This is a terrible thread.
August 25th, 2019 at 6:44 PM ^
If you think twice as many turnovers, twice as many penalties, and twice as many sacks looked no worse than Michigan/ND, then... nevermind, it's not worth the effort.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:38 PM ^
First games are usually pretty messy whenever they are played. First time you aren’t playing against your own team. Michigan has had their share. When I was an undergrad, we sleepwalked to a 17-10 victory over Northwestern. We won’t talk about that really bad opening game in 2007.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^
I remember that Northwestern game. They didn't play well, but they were also hurt by pouring rain and Bo's insistence on starting Rich Hewlett instead of John Wangler. Hewlett would lose the starting job the next week at Notre Dame and would finish up his career on defense.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:39 PM ^
If you are Florida or Hawaii you get a W and really work on your issues. Florida played a solid defense and a disaster of an Oline. Hawaii played a sub par defense and benched its QB while they were winning a tight game. Cole Mcdonald had an arm but still got benched.
Arizona is in some serious trouble. That may be the worst defense they play all year. Turning Hill into a pass first QB is not working out for them. How that coach coached Johnny Manziel to a heisman is beyond me.
I enjoyed the games and watched them end to end (DVR’D of course). BTW both came dangerously close to lasting beyond 4 hours. Set your DVRS accordingly this year. Add 90 minutes for every game.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:43 PM ^
Okay, bad college football > no college football.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:44 PM ^
Man what a terrible take. There's always one.
On top of you aren't even aware that they both started camp a week early for this.
August 25th, 2019 at 2:45 PM ^
I loved every terrible second of it. I hope the XFL is going in spring/early Summer so there's less of a football drought. Football is like pizza; Even a bad pizza is still going to be at least ok
August 25th, 2019 at 3:26 PM ^
“Even a bad pizza is still going to be at least ok“
IDKAT...a bad pizza is bad. Most pizza is good, some is OK, but a bad pizza is bad.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:54 PM ^
Yeah, they've clearly never gotten pizza from my work site's cafeteria
August 25th, 2019 at 2:49 PM ^
It was ESPN’s highest rated regular season game since UM-OSU 2016 so people were definitely clamoring for the game.
That being said, it was a pretty ugly game, and I was happy to watch.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:23 PM ^
We don’t need logic when the point is anger! Arrrrrr, to the pitch forks!
August 25th, 2019 at 2:59 PM ^
People expecting peak season football the first weekend is a bit ridiculous... Teams should schedule cupcakes to get into the mix of things.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:09 PM ^
Username checks out.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:12 PM ^
MGoBlog appears to have a similar problem. The hot takes (including this one) are occurring at an unpleasantly high rate.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
Week Zero was the sloppiest mess of Division I football, with evenly matched teams, that I've seen in years! Even worse, it was totally unnecessary.
Well, it was definitely sloppy, but it was absolutely necessary for the football-starved.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
Counterpoint: Week 0 was amazing.
I don’t watch random teams because I desire pristine execution. I want close games and chaos.
August 25th, 2019 at 3:30 PM ^
Coach Bo and all knowledgeable coaches will tell you that the largest improvement In any team is between week 1 and 2. I suggest you don't watch any games for the first 6 weeks of the season.