As the summer heats up so does my desire for college football to start. I have waited since January 10th for this great sport to kick-off. By now recruiting is going to start to die down and college three-a-days are going to be on the fore-front. ESPN once again graces us rabid football fans with a Thursday night tilt between Southern Miss and South Carolina. It might not seem like the sexiest match-up on paper but it is more interesting game than you would think...but my prediction will come later on this game. Why am I looking for this game between a conference USA opponent and a SEC opponent...cause once the kicker for either team kicks the ball to start the game, my favorite six months of every year starts off!
There is going to be some interesting story lines on this season such as Jeremiah Mosoli walking on to Ole Miss, Florida State begins life without a top 5 coach of all-time in college football, Is this the year Alabama finally stumbles in the SEC regular season, and is it time Boise State gets the credit it deserves, also how will Lane Kiffin do in the land of the Trojans?
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| Jeremiah Masoli |
First off Jeremiah Masoli going to Ole Miss might be making a couple of headlines now but what about when the season kicks off? Will he be able to knock off Nathan Stanley who was named the starter coming out of the spring. Its going to be tough for Masoli to dethrone Stanley as the top quarterback considering that he is not going to have a spring under his belt but only a month of practice that is usually used to put a game plan together for your first game. Masoli does have more overall talent but if he starts then that just means Ole Miss is no where near it needs to be a top notch program year in and year out. If I was an Ole Miss Rebel fan then I would rather see Stanley as the starter.
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| Bobby Bowden |
Saying goodbye to a legend is always hard especially when a university forces him out. Florida State is going through a major coaching change but this is a more easily coaching change than most because Jimbo Fisher has been there recruiting the players and getting to know how to run things the past couple of years as a coach in waiting. Bobby Bowden will no undoubtedly go down as a top 5 all-time collegiate football coach but he might not be missed as much as many think. Jimbo has a proven track record being an assistant coach under one Nick Saban, also he got a lot of knowledge about the game from Bobby Bowden. I would say that he would be ready as any other assistant to run a program for the first time, even if it is as high of a profile position as Florida State.
Is is possible to stop a freight train? If your in the SEC you will be able to have a chance this year as Alabama is looking to improve on its unbeaten regular season record. The past two season's Alabama is 24-0 in regular season game and have only lost two games total the past two seasons. They return all this offensive fire power but the defense is lacking in experience in the secondary especially and will be relying heavily on Donta Hightower who was injured during last years Arkansas game. The Arkansas game will also serve as a bench mark game and will give a good indicator how good their secondary will be.
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| The famous blue turf at Bronco Stadium |
The Blue turf is as popular as ever now as the Boise State Broncos are ranked high as number two in most pre-season polls. The respect is there now for the fighting Chris Petersons but can they live up to the hype? They will be tested right off the bat with a date with Virginia Tech at a "neutral field", the game is held in Maryland. If they can get past this game and beat a middle of the road Pac-10 team in Oregon State then there is no reason why they should be left out of the National Championship game this season, as much as i hate to have said that cause I would consider myself more of a Boise State hater than anything else...but thats another rant for another time.
Hey USC Trojan fans how much do you really like Lane Kiffin? You better start liking him a whole bunch while it looks like after bolting Tennessee for a "better" job he might be there to stay for longer than a year. If you are USC what were you thinking about hiring this guy who has proven to be more of a controversial head coach than a winning coach. Right now he has not stirred up to many things at USC but he is saving it for the season. The match-up i cant wait for is Kiffin vs Sarkisian, both Pete Carroll proteges. If you took a poll on which coach USC fans would rather have Sarkisian name would win in a landslide.
