There’s also been major staff reshuffling, as defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald departed for the Baltimore Ravens and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis leaving for Miami. Harbaugh flirted with the NFL, interviewing twice with the Minnesota Vikings before announcing he’d return to Ann Arbor. There’s a long way to go before the Wolverines and Buckeyes settle matters on the field in Columbus.Jim Harbaugh and Michigan have been in the headlines in a major way since the Wolverines’ season ended with a loss to Georgia in the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal. Next week’s meeting with Connecticut figures to be more of the same. The Wolverines have piled up their lofty numbers against Colorado State and Hawaii, neither of whom has won a game. McCarthy set to take the quarterback reins.ĭon’t get too carried away with Michigan, though. The Buckeyes handled their own business in Week 2, of course, but the Wolverines – the defending conference champions remember – appear to have taken their own offense to another level with J.J. Part of this assessment stems from a reevaluation of Ohio State’s Week 1 victory against Notre Dame, which looks far less impressive given the Fighting Irish’s follow-up performance. Michigan should be the favorite in the Big Ten Can you think of any such teams in the Pac-12? We can, and the Trojans will have to go to Salt Lake City to face them in a month. They’ve done well to capitalize on mistakes, but a team that minimizes passing errors while pounding the ball between the tackles will give USC problems. The USC defense isn’t exactly airtight, surrendering 360.5 yards a game with 183.5 of those on the ground. Even the defense has gotten in on the act with six interceptions through two games.īut don’t be distracted by the shiny objects. We like to watch flashy offenses, and the Trojans have certainly shown one early in the Lincoln Riley tenure. South Carolina lost a cross-divisional game with Arkansas in its conference opener, while Vanderbilt and Missouri were overmatched by Power Five opponents. The teams in the lower tier of the East have shown improvement but continue to lag a bit behind the others. The West might still be stronger top-to-bottom the Mississippi schools have played well early and Auburn, while clearly having issues, is 2-0 heading into next weekend’s date with Penn State. Meanwhile in the East, Georgia has looked the part of the defending national champ, Kentucky and Tennessee are on the rise, and Florida picked up a solid non-conference win in Week 1 against Utah. So far this year, however, we’ve already seen Texas A&M and LSU lose in addition to Alabama’s close shave. These divisional distinctions will be a thing of the past before long, of course, but in recent years the West has been perceived as the deeper of the two with the East annually coming down to just Florida and Georgia. Texas will be in the mix, but the conference is still wide open. It should also be noted that several other Big 12 squads – Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State – have already posted wins against Power Five competition. The 2019 squad went toe-to-toe with that all-timer of an LSU squad in Week 2, coming up just a TD short, but finished 8-5. 9 Notre Dame on opening day but only went 5-7, ending the year on a three-game skid. The 2016 version of the Longhorns took down No. For one thing, early season curious results at home do not necessarily translate into future success for this program. So before anointing Texas as the Big 12 favorite based upon Saturday’s effort, a couple of points should be born in mind. Of course at a blue-blood program like Texas, being "back" means being back to competing for championships. The Tide were flagged 15 times and, as Longhorns’ fans will no doubt point out for the foreseeable future, could have been called for more. The receivers couldn’t get open, the offensive line struggled in pass protection, the ground game aside from one big run by Jase McClellan lacked pop, and the penalties – oh goodness the penalties. While the team did manage to get out with the win Saturday at Texas, a number of troubling issues were on display. We’ve grown so accustomed to seeing Alabama dominate week in and week out during the Nick Saban era that it causes a stir when the Crimson Tide doesn’t roll like it should. Here’s a quick look at five possible conclusions that might be just a tad premature, with arguments and counterpoints thereupon. Obviously, the wild results from Week 2 lent themselves to plenty of discussion. Equal and opposite overreactions? Maybe that should have been Newton’s fourth law – but we digress. Of course where there are reactions, there are also overreactions. Everyone loves to talk about what they just saw on the field. By its very nature, the sport of college football is one day of action and then a whole week of talk.
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