Sunday, September 11, 2016

Reactions from Week 2

A week without any ranked matchups, but certainly not devoid of action and excitement!

The over-reaction:

  • The Big 12's playoff chances are cooked, thanks to TCU and Oklahoma State (and the officials)!  It's Texas or bust (since West Virginia and Baylor surely won't go unbeaten)!
  • Clemson didn't look impressive!  They MUST be a repeat of 2014 Florida State or 2015 Ohio State!
  • Virginia Tech blew it against Tennessee with all of its turnovers and penalties!  This is gonna be a repeat of Justin Fuente's first season at Memphis!

The "wait and see" reaction:

  • Is Appalachian State really a Group of Five contender?  Is Miami really becoming a legitimate contender capable of a strong season in the ACC?  We'll get to answer both questions in one game - and in a good time slot (post-Gameday ESPN slot...nice get for the Sun Belt)!
  • Michigan and Ohio State are virtually indistinguishable at this point, after handling over-matched foes thus far.  Just how powerful are these two, and could we be heading for something truly special on Thanksgiving Weekend?
  • Just who are Michigan State and Stanford this year?  Week 2 byes for each, following less-than-dominant Week 1 Friday night wins, leave us with next to no useful information about either. We'll find out quickly, as battles vs Notre Dame and USC (respectively) loom near.'

Tony's Takeaways:

  • Fantastic performance by Louisville!  And guess what - the first Top 10 matchup of the 2016 season is a conference game in the ACC!  Kudos to the Cardinals for its first time ever getting College Gameday for football!
  • An interesting FCS-over-FBS stat.  Through Week 2, four of the five Power Conferences have had a team suffer a loss to an FCS team (UVA, Iowa State, Washington State, and now Northwestern).  The SEC seems to have avoided that landmine...so far... 
    • Conversely, only one Group of Five conference has seen this, albeit with three separate teams (Buffalo, Miami OH, and Kent State - all of the MAC).
  • In 30 years, how could Kentucky not take advantage of one low-point year for Florida?  Props to the Gators.  
    • Fun fact: if the Wildcats were to stop the Gators from matching the record 43-game streak by Notre Dame over Navy, then the youngest possible members of that Kentucky team would have to be in Kindergarten right now (assuming no grade-skipping).
  • Great to see all three service academies at 2-0 right now.  Might all three be bowl-bound at season's end?

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