Week 1 Recap

One long, extended week of the Football Challenge is in the books. Here are the results:

MH 10 5
JG 9 6
MR 9 6
MK 7 8
GR 7 8
JR 6 9
MC 6 9
AW 5 10

Nice start for MH, one of the new guys. 67% is pretty damn good. 3 money makers in week 1 and 5 losers, which isn't too bad either.

Almost all $ is in - waiting on KOBOW - PLEASE SEND YOUR CHECK IN THE MAIL TODAY FOR $130 (40 for this year and 90 that you still owe from the previous years). I NEED THIS BY NEXT SATURDAY OR YOU ARE OUT.

So, on to the games:

In case you missed it, we had our 1st nominee for game of the year last night with MIA at FSU. Outstanding 4+ hour watch for Labor Day evening. Two really nice looking QB's and offenses, but what happened to the elite defenses that both of these Florida schools used to have? In my mind - the Gopher offense, if run correctly, should look very similar to what FSU runs. Lots of wide open passing and running effectively when necessary. Jimbo Fisher has done an incredible job turning around that offense, so lets hope we see something like that soon from Mr. Fisch.

Worst bet of the week, and it wasn't even close. JR and GR both jumped on RUT at -6...we were only off by about 38 points! I'm not for getting rid of Brewster (at least right now) but if we ever would I would throw the farm at Brian Kelly of CIN. The guy went through 4 QB's last year and won the Big East - he replaces 10 starters from a good defense this year and they looked great in game 1 against RUT. That's coaching - no "working the kinks out" no "we're young and need time", just balls to the wall kick ass offense (and defense) from game 1. That's what I want from our club.

Now I'll run through some quick conference highlights before discussing the big Gophers win (can it be a big win if was only SYR?)

ACC
Ouch. Thank god MIA and FSU looked great last night because this was not shaping up to be a great start for the ACC. VT hung with ALA for a while, but was outgained by 300 yards for the game. DUKE and VIR both lost to D1AA teams, yeah...kind of like IOWA almost did, but they actually lost. VIR had 7 turnovers in their game against W&M! MARY got their doors blown off by a CAL team that was seeking revenge for losing me $ on that game last year. NCST looked very shaky on THUR in the SC loss and WF lost at home to an improving but still bad BAY team. WEEK GRADE: D

B12
Lots of good and some very bad for the B12 in week 1. The previously mentioned BAY win was nice. COL losing to rival CSU, while not a shocker, isn't a good thing. Dan Hawkins is on a very hot seat right now. The Clones won, might be the last time I can say that this year. KST barely snuck by the football power known as UMASS, looks like a long one for Coach Snyder. MIZZ housed an over-rated ILL team. I'm still not sure why the whole world was so in love with ILL before Saturday night. MIZZ impressed, they look to have reloaded rather than being rebuilding. OKST got the best win of the week over GEO - I was surprised by this one, but GEO just quit doing anything on offense. In the worst moment of the week for the B12, the mighty Sooners went down to the Mormons. Bradford out for 2-4 I guess, lots of bad stuff right now for OK. Still, beat TEX and you're okay. WEEk GRADE: C

BIG EAST
Overall, really good. SYR played better than I expected, even though I still think they are terrible. UCONN won at OHIO which was kind of an upset for me. The previously mentioned CIN blowout of RUT was also a big one. A lot of people, including me, thought RUT was BEAST title material this year with their weak schedule - apparently not. Not a great team in this conference, but maybe some good ones. WEEK GRADE: A-

BIG 10
Yuck. ILL looks horrible and gets housed on ESPN, IND squeaks by EKY, IOWA wins by 1 point over UNI, Gophers look terrible but win at SYR, OHIOST sturggles mightily with NAVY, WIS struggles to finish off NILL. That's about 5 more close calls than there should have been in week 1. PSU looked like the class of the conference, both MICH and MSU rolled impressively, PUR and NW also surprised me with giant offensive outputs. WEEK GRADE: D

P10
Started with a stinker on THUR and the poor performance by ORE, but after that it was pretty strong. WASU is going to be terrible again, not a surprise since they might have the worst coach in D1. WASH was the only other loser, but they played really well against LSU. No real impressive wins, but overall a nice "taking care of business" kind of week for the P10. WEEK GRADE: A-

SEC
ALA looked really good. I underestimated them with the new QB and OL replacements, but they put up nearly 500 yards against one of the best D's in the nation. They jolt up to a co #1 for me with OLE MISS in the West. LSU was shaky, but won...same for SC. Only disappointment for the SEC was GEO laying an egg in the 2nd half against OKST. All in all a very strong week for the SEC with some of the disappointing teams from last year looking like they made some nice improvements for 2009. WEEK GRADE: A-

GOPHERS at SYR
So I haven't had a chance to re-watch this yet, but I don't think much is going to change. You couldn't ask for a better start - 14-3 right where we want them, time to step on their neck and end it. Or revert back to not being able to cover the bubble screen and make it a nail-biter. I thought Weber was awful for 3.5 quarters, but the game tying drive was nice - that's what we need every time! Throw to Green, throw to Tow-Arnett, throw to Decker when he's open. I really think we should have seen Gray for a series or two early in H2, but I think that will happen this week against AF. The running game was okay - it looked better than 2008, but still has a ways to go. The OL didn't look great once again. Stommes (starting LT) was injured early and never returned, so that didn't help. But all in all I don't think we established the "pound the rock" mentality that we wanted against an under-sized SYR D. Decker was ridiculous - as usual. Imagine how effective he's be if the defense didn't know every throw was coming his way!?!? On the other side, I was ready with a fire Cosgrove rant after the 1st half, but then a funny thing happened. We made adjustments!! And SYR did nothing in the 2nd half. We also dropped at least 2 or 3 INT's that could have completely changed the game around. I was happy with the way the D played. We also lost a starting corener, Sherals, for most of the 2nd half. Sounds like nothing serious, so we should be at full strength. How about our new K & P! They were the most impressive part of the entire game for me. Let's hope they kick just as well outside as they do in the sticky Carrier Dome. Bottom line - we won, we are 1-0, on to game #2. I've heard it 1000 times, but they always say the most improvement happends between game 1 and 2, so it should be better this week.

AF didn't struggle this week with a 72-0 crushing in which they threw the ball 7 times. Yep, the passing game is not a threat for next week. I think we have enough size inside and enough improved speed at the LB spots to control the triple option attack. I'll throw an official preview out there in a couple of days, but I'm not really as scared of this game as I was about a week ago. Let's hope the Gophers improve their playcalling and discipline for this week and we are able to roll through to a victory in the home opener. And, oh yeah, it's the 1st game ever at TCF...kind of a big deal. On a 1-10 excitement scale I'm at about a 37.5 right now! Thank god it's a short week of work and we'll only be without football for Tuesday and Wednesday.

I sent out the lines yesterday - please get me your picks (JG turned them in within about 1 hour of when I sent them out!) and we'll get ready to kick off week 2. We've got NCAA and NFL on Thursday.

Bomb - if you are getting this email, please let me know. Apparently, he isn't receiving any of this so I'm not sure if he's just blocking emails from the site or what, but maybe MK/JG can forward the list to Bomb and see if that works for him. Just a thought - let me know if anyone else is having issues.

1 week in the books - PJ closes us down...

the direction of the eye
so misleading
the defection of the soul
nauseously quick

I don't question
our existence
I just question
our modern needs

I will walk...with my hands bound
I will walk...with my face blood
I will walk...with my shadow flag
into your garden
garden of stone