thependulumswings

Week one has come and gone.  We think it’s always a risk to extrapolate from one game how a team will perform over the year.  But, we are in the risk business.  So, way we go.

1.  The new AP Top 25 Poll is out.  Clemson and Alabama both dismantled their big underdog opponents.  Clemson received 54 of 62 first place votes.  Alabama scooped up the other eight.  Until further notice they are a clear one and two.
2.  The rest of the top ten remained very much the same as well.  Underdogs mostly were so for a reason facing the big boys.
3. Oregon could have beat Auburn but did not.  It was a chance for a PAC 12 team to send an early signal to the US that the conference belongs in the conversation later in the year.   There is plenty of football left but chances like this don’t come along to often once conference play starts.
4.  The PAC 12 wasn’t done underwhelming though.  Friday night Cincinnati bounced UCLA.  UCLA looked uninspired and soft as Charmin on defense.   Chip Kelly hasn’t done much to regain his lofty status when he departed Oregon for the NFL.
5. Arizona lost to Hawaii.  Anytime a Power 5 team loses to a non Power 5 eyebrows are raised.  There are plenty of raised eyebrows in Tuscon.   When Swag Kevin Sumlin arrived last year more was expected.   Sumlin’s teams don’t play defense.  Arizona surrendered 45 points, 593 yards in total, with 434 coming via the air.
6.  PAC 12 Utah looked good handling BYU.  They are one left coast team that plays some D.  Washington might be another.  They worked over Eastern Washington 45-14.  Utah and Washington check in at 12 and 13 in the poll, so there is still time and hope for one or two conference members to emerge as legit national contenders.  It’s the rest of their conference that isn’t helping.
7.  The race to the bottom of the SEC West is on.  Ole Miss bowed to non Power 5 but good Memphis.  Arkansas struggled at home to beat Portland State 20-13.  They square up Saturday.  The loser has a leg up (or is it down) on the race to the bottom.
8.  But they weren’t the biggest SEC disappointments.  Nope, and it’s not even close.  The honeymoon is over for Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt after Saturday’s 38-30 loss to Georgia State.  Pruitt burned up all the good will he built in 2018 with upset victories over Auburn and Kentucky.  Some Saban proteges like Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart have thrived.  Some like Derek Dooley and Jim McElwain have not.  Pruitt sits in between for now as he just gets year two started.  But in the highly paid SEC coaching business it’s win or else.
9.  Florida St. and Miami didn’t help the ACC argument.  At least they took on good to real good opponents in week one, so we”ll watch them from here.  Florida St. gave up 38 at home to Boise St.  Miami surrendered 10 sacks to an aggressive Florida defense in a sloppily played game that Florida held on to win.  There is Clemson in the ACC, and there are all others.  If you wanted to bet over the season win total for Clemson, the line was 11 and 1/2 games.  So you had to think they would run the regular season table.  In the next two weeks they host Texas A&M and travel to #21 Syracuse.  If they are 3-0 after that, you can  pay windmake plans to head to the pay window early cause the schedule won’t have on team on it (home or away) that isn’t the underdog by 15 or more.
10. A&M is getting 17 and 1/2 in that game.  Bama is favored by 55 over New Mexico St.  55.  It’s rare that you see a line that high.  Usually Vegas will just take the game off of the board.  The crew from ESPN head to Austin for College Gameday.  LSU heads there as a 5.5 favorite for now.  The line has moved 3 points in ten days.   It’s early but give us A&M and LSU.  We’ll skip the Bama game like Vegas should have.

We wait forever for the season.  It’s here.  Enjoy.