The Knuttel dissects the first week of the NCAA football season

United States American Football is here, finally (the Canadian Football League has been going since June ... on a related note, already can't wait for the Grey Cup). Once again this means it is time for me to fully dive into the ameteur world of 11 on 11 football; I'll probably watch a few UFL games too, if I can find them, but the NFL boycott is still active (though I have a fantasy football team this year).

Anyways -- I bring to you, dear internet reader, a brief (haha, briefs) summary of the first week of action.

Penn State opened action against Youngstown State, so it was really just a tune up game. However, given certain circumstances, it requires more thought.

Robert Bolden, a true freshman, started the game at quarterback. This is notable for a few reasons -- A freshman hasn't started a game at quarterback for Penn State since redshirt freshman Zack Mills in 2001. A true freshman hasn't started any game for Penn State since Tony Sacca in 1988. What makes it even more remarkable is he did enroll early in the Spring Semester to get more practice (in, I suppose, what has become a more modern form of redshirting). He basically just walked in and took the job.

So how did he do? Well, Youngstown State isn't much of a test, but he never seemed under pressure or forced to make any bad decisions. He did throw one interception on what could be chalked up to a rookie mistake -- he stared the receiver down, who then fell on a curl route, leaving only the opposing corner in the area. We never saw his vaunted speed or athleticism -- I guess a mixture of not calling options to reduce the risk of injury and not seeing a decent pass rush. The Alabama game next week will really tell where he is.

The rest of the team -- defense looked solid (save one mental lapse that resulted in a long touchdown off a screen), so I'm not gonna bother going any further with that. The rest of the offense, however, may have some figuring out to do. The offensive line isn't settled, and it showed in the running game. Even Royster, heir apparent to the Penn State rushing record, looked ineffective for most of the game, though he did have a few good long runs. Blocking was likely a part of it, as the left guard position is still seemingly up for grabs. If Alabama is to be any kind of contest, this needs to get fixed immediately.

Onto the rest of the NCAA, in two games...

Boise State vs Virgina Tech

Boise State once again proves everything, and nothing, by beating a major big conference team on a neutral site. Every single time they line up against a big program, they bring their A-game, and usually come out on top, yet they aren't going to be taken seriously as a national title contender because their week in and week out schedule for the WAC conference is weak. Moving to the Mountain West in a year or two isn't going to help much. Frankly I don't see how it's that much different that Texas getting games against Iowa State and Baylor, Florida getting games against Kentucky and Vanderbilt, but these non-bcs conferences do lack depth at a much greater level.

The thing is, though, any given school has about zero control over how strong their schedule is going to be. You are in the conference you are in, and must play among these teams, regardless of strength, and out of conference games are decided years in advance by AD's. For example, when Penn State signed a deal with Syracuse for a few games, they were a good team. By the time came to play Syracuse, they were at the bottom of the Big East, usually regarded as the weakest of the bcs conferences.

Really, they should just have some sort of playoff to decide the national champion, then we don't have to worry about all this bickering about who could've beaten whom, cos they would've fucking played.

Moving on.

Ole Miss vs Jacksonville State

It is common practice for football teams to pick a decidedly weaker opponent for their first game. Usually they go to the mids and depths of non-bcs conferences, but they also go to div 1-AA (or div 1 FCS, as they now call it, admitting its superior form of selecting a champion). Playing these teams close is usually unforgivable; losing to them ... well, that just shouldn't happen (see Appalachian State vs Michigan). Well, it happenned again. Maybe the team in question wasn't as highly touted as Michigan was (I think they were in the top 25), but they were touted highly enough. In two overtimes they lost to a 1-AA school. They lost to a 1-AA school.

I'm not going to even go into detail on the game, I'm just going to say this much -- I don't want to hear any shit about how tough the SEC is this year. You blew it. Perhaps even for a few years, but hey, you guys can recover. Look at the Big Ten, Michigan lost, and the conference was looked down upon, but now it's looking brighter.

Knuttel Prediction: Last year's freshman sensation, Pittsburgh's Dione Lewis will suck it up this year -- not for any sort of sophomore slump, but rather because he was Lamar Smith-ed. Dave Wannstedt did it again, this time ruining a career before it could even begin. If he gets a good year of rest, he could probably recover, but given the offense, that is unlikely to happen, and Wannstedt will be looking for another freshman sensation to burn out within a year.

-- Knuttel