Week 1 is in the books...

What a weekend. Not only was it extended an extra day, we FINALLY got to see some college football. And boy did we get to see some action. A few thoughts from the weekend:

- Cal paid Tennessee back in a big way Saturday night. Seemed as if the Bears could have put 60 on the Vols if they wanted to. Memo to the rest of America: Don't punt to DeSean Jackson. This win will surely fuel the Pac 10/SEC debate fires. But really all this means is Cal is better than Tennessee, not the Pac 10 is better than the SEC. And all it meant last year was Tennessee was better than Cal. With that said, this was a huge win for Pac 10's unfairly bashed image, and perhaps the critics will be silenced.

- Texas was less than impressive in it's season opening win over Arkansas State. This was a bit eye opening to see from a team many think will be in New Orleans in January. Colt McCoy, who only threw (7) INTs all of last season, threw (2) to the lowly Indians. Not only that, the Longhorn D which struggled in pass coverage last year, gave up 272 yards in the air and another 125 on the ground. Overall, the 'Horns got outgained 397-340. So what does it all mean? Well, not much, I would assume. If anything it showed Texas is good enough to just show up and win a game they are supposed to win, a feat that apparently isn't as easy as some expect (I'll touch on that later). The Horns however would be better served to put forth just a wee bit more effort against TCU this Saturday. And speaking of Texas...

- ...their rivals North of the Red River opened their season in a big way. The Oklahoma Sooners laid the smack down on North Texas. RS Freshmen DeMarco Murray and Sam Bradford made the most of their Sooner debuts. Bradford's performance was specifically of interest to Sooner fans, and he responded with a record setting night. It appears the Sooners QB questions have been answered, at least today. But Saturday's game against the always tough defense of the Miami Hurricanes will give us a better gauge of where Bradford and OU are really at.

- In the conferences marquee games, the SEC did not impress. Cal/Tennessee has already been discussed; and Auburn was fortunate to beat Kansas State, a team expected to finish third at best in the lowly Big XII North. Brandon Cox, who has taken his fair share of heat, did very little to cool things off. To top it off, he got nicked up pretty good in the game (sacked 5 times). If AU can't do a better job protecting Cox, they could be in for along year. Georgia however did quiet all the "upset alert" forecasters, and laid a can of whoop ass on Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State was one of 7 teams last season that averaged 200 yards rushing and passing per game. Georgia held them to under 200 in both categories, and only 266 total yards. The 'Dawg performance prompted Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy to say his team was "not ready for the big time". Ouch! The 'Dawgs may be more than just the sexy pick to win the SEC. They look like the real deal. Note: With this loss, the Big XII's winless sterak against ranked non-conference opponents has been extended to 17.

- Notre Dame got what it deserved, in a 33-3 thumping at the hands of Georgia Tech. It was sweet, poetic justice to see how bad the Irish are now that the bulk of Ty Willingham's players are gone. He'll never admit it because he's all class, but I'm sure Ty danced a little two step when he saw that score run across the ticker. I will thoroughly enjoy watching ND start off 0-8. And the way they looked Saturday, those final (4) games aren't gimmes. Charlie Weiss, go thank Touchdown Jesus those morons in South Bend were duped by those shams of BCS teams you put out the last two years and extended your contract until the next millennium, because the reality ND ain't what it was (and never will be) when you were a student is about to kick in real hard if it already hasn't.

- And going back to my previous statement about just showing up...the Michigan Wolverines learned a hard lesson about that, losing to (formerly) I-AA Appalachian State. The Wolverines can still regroup and win the Big 10 title, but those dreams of playing on the Bayou were dashed in week 1. Give Appalachian State all the credit in the world, they showed they belonged in the Big House. They were actually the faster team Saturday, if you can believe that. This game is being dubbed as the biggest upset in CFB history. And sure based on rankings, divisions, and all that crap it is. But tick for tack, player for player, what we saw Saturday was Appalachian State can compete with the big boys. While the Wolverines weren't quite their sharpest, by no means was the game given to Appalachian State. They took it, and it was quite clear by the middle of the second quarter the Montaineers could hang. As a matter of fact this isn't the first time Appalachian State showed they can suit 'em up with anybody. Just last season they gave LSU all they wanted. Sure the Tigers pulled away for a 24-0 win. But it was 14-0 coming into the 4th quarter. The Mountaineers made sure Tiger fans stayed all four quarters that night. But the ball game aside, what does this all mean? Well for me it means, the Carr era is over. Actually it was over about 3 years ago in my opinion. Rumors that Carr was retiring after this season are pretty much cemented now. I can only wonder how players will respond to him in the wake of this.

- And finally, congrats to the Virginia Tech Hokies as they continue the healing process. The Hokies may have been less than stellar in their season opener, but as we have learned time and time again: Sports are a great healer in this country. And that is what was really important Saturday, some normalcy and sense of moving on. Go Hokies and God Bless!

Week 1 picks:

9-2 straight up
7-4 against the spread

Week 1 Predictions

Every Thursday, I'll be picking some of the top games of the weekend. Including the spread* is for "entertainment purposes only". (* spread used based on lines given on Sportsbook.com)



Thursday

LSU (-18) @ Mississippi State = LSU 31 MSU 10



Friday

Washington @ Syracuse (+3) = UW 28 SU 20



Saturday

GaTech @ Notre Dame (-2) = GT 20 ND 17

Missouri (-4.5) @ Illinois (game played in St. Louis) = Mizzou 38 Illinois 21

Wake Forest @ Boston College (-6.5) = Wake 17 BC 31

Ole Miss (-2.5) @ Memphis (hey it's a rivalry game) = Ole Miss 20 Memphis 10

Washington State (+14) @ Wisconsin = Wazzu 13 Wisky 35

Oklahoma State (+6.5) @ UGA = Okie State 24 UGA 27

Kansas State (+13.5) @ Auburn = KSU 21 AU 20

FSU (-3) @ Clemson = FSU 24 Clemson 23



And the Game of the Week

Tennessee (+6) @ Cal = UT 23 Cal 28

And here we go!

By now most have you have probably seen the ESPN article, highlighting the most overrated and underrated college football teams of the past decade, based on poll position. Well the guys from the CFB Paradise forum have provided a pre-season poll of our own. We'll keep up with this throughout the season and see how accurate we end up. Since this blog was created in January 2007, we really haven't done much projecting. Well the time has come for us to do so, and see if we really are what we claim to be: Just as good as the "experts".

Stay tuned...

1. Southern Cal 484 (15)
2. LSU 472 (3)
3. Texas 439 (1)
4. Michigan 433
5. Florida 388
6. West Virginia 383
7. Oklahoma 369
8. Wisconsin 369
9. Virginia Tech 321
10. Louisville 304
11. Ohio State 300
12. Auburn 261
13. Penn State 202 (1)
14. Georgia 191
15. UCLA 183
16. Tennessee 180
17. Nebraska 164
18. Cal 143
19. Rutgers 134
20. Texas A&M 121
21. Florida St. 105
22. Georgia Tech 95
23. Arkansas 72
24. TCU 69
25. Miami 60

Others receiving votes: Hawaii 54, Oregon State 39, Missouri 29, Boise State 29, Oregon 21, South Carolina 19, Virginia 11, Arizona State 4

CFB Paradise Pre-season Radio Show!!!

It's that time again!

Listen live on Saturday, August 11, 2007 at 10 am CST. CFB Paradise will be broadcasting our preseaon show live from Illinois! Just click the following link and check us out!

http://storeandserve.com/download/820776/01_Destiny_Fulfilled.m4a.html

The NFL has nothing on these guys....

The police blotter is going off the charts. All these crazy football players just keep getting into trouble. So who is it today? Another Pacman sighting on the blotter? Or maybe we get some new, unsuspecting blood today like Chris Chambers? And the Bengals are simply off the charts. But wait I don't recognize these names? Who is Dominic Jones? Mitchell Cozad, where the hell did he come from? And Jimmy Wilson...huh?

Well folks you've probably never heard of them because they are not household names. They are college football players. This summer has seen just as much action off the field, as we will see on any given Saturday. Sure, I'm used to the typical "football player gets into a fight, and the coach kicks said player off team". Maybe some team's starting QB gets arrested for Minor in Possession. And there are always the "internal" disciplinary issues.

But for whatever reason, and maybe I just haven't been paying attention over the years, crime in college football seems to be more and more common recently. Even scarier is the stature of the crimes. I remember all the hub bub that went down at Oklahoma in the late 80's, but frankly that was about as bad as it's been for the longest from all I recall. But in recent years, it's gotten a bit frightening.

To answer the previous questions, Dominic Jones is a CB for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. James is accused of raping a girl, and videotaping the act. Mitchell Cozad's stupidity actually took place in October of 2006. His trial started this summer though, and that is what re-surfaced his acts recently. Cozad if you recall, is the jealous punter, who stabbed his teammate in an attempt to gain the starting job. And Jimmy Wilson, (former) CB at Montana is accused of murder.

But wait there's more from this summer alone. A few of note:

- Ex-Florida and Bethune Cookman DB Avery Atkins was found dead in his car, amongst much suspicion

- Gators Ronnie Wilson and Brandon James face suspensions and scholarship loss for their actions over the summer.

- Arkansas DE Donnell Sanders faces 3 misdemeanor charges.

- At Tennessee, even the walk ons are getting into the act. Selling crack cocaine however is a little over the top, even for Tennessee.

- Samford DE Micheal Sherrod Hall was indicted for robbing a bank.

- At least Penn State kept it fairly "normal" and just whipped some asses.

In March of 2005, USA Today writer Christine Brennan highlighted some ills from that season. I would also like to highlight a list of arrests and charges starting from the 2005 season to present day, compliments of a forum from Zumper.com.

It appears we are seeing an alarming trend over the past two years. Why exactly? I have no idea. There was a time when sports were by and large a time to get away from all the bad stuff in the world. Now the bad stuff is becoming more and more a part of our sports. Their really isn't some big explanation in my opinion. Blasting colleges for more institutional control and whatever else is useless. The colleges by and large are trying to monitor these problems, and when they take care of the issue, that too makes headlines. The bottom line is when a person decides to, as Michael Irvin so eloquently put it, find a "right way to do the wrong thing"nobody can stop them. They made up their mind to go down that road, and it's nobody's fault but the indiviuals when the consequences kick in.

With all that said, it does hurt to see the game I love getting so much negative press. C'mon college football stick to booster payments, crooked refs, and BCS debates. Let the pros handle the felonies.