College football recap, week 2

It’s mostly blow-outs this time of year, as the big teams try to schedule patsies for a warm-up to conference games and to look good at homecoming. It’s kinda like how TV wrestling used to pit a major heel or a major face against a “jobber” like Iron Mike Sharpe (“Canada’s greatest athlete”) or The Duke of Dorchester. Teams like Murray State, South Dakota, Alabama Birmingham, Louisiana Monroe, Howard, Nevada and Central Michigan are the Iron Mike Sharpes of college football.

There was good news and bad news for former #21 Syracuse. Good: They did get their blow-out. Bad: They were on the wrong end of it. They were totally crushed by unranked Maryland, 63-21. The Maryland Terrapins are off to a blazing start. They won last week’s game 79-0 (against the mighty Howard Bison)! They are now appearing in the new top 25, while Syracuse has dropped out of sight.

In the few competitive games Saturday:

  • #7 Michigan struggled to defeat Army in two overtimes. As a result, they dropped to #10
  • #6 LSU and #9 Texas battled down to the wire, with LSU winning 45-38. LSU rose to #4 while Texas dropped to #12.
  • #12 Texas A&M battled #1 Clemson even for three of the four quarters, but Clemson scored 17 points in the second quarter, and that was the game. Final score: 24-10. A&M dropped to 16th.
  • #14 Washington lost a squeaker to Cal, 20-19. Washington stayed in the bottom portion of the top 25, while Cal came in at #27 and #28 in the two main polls.

Wisconsin had the biggest gain of the week, three spots, from #17 to #14. That ranking is predicated on wins over two patsies to start the year. They won their first two games 49-0 and 61-0. That’s basically meaningless. They will have their first real game next week against Michigan.