Week 1 Recap

1 week down for Football Challenge 2010, and it was a record breaker. Out of 9 guys in the pool, all 9 of us finished above .500 for the first time ever. Either we were all just too lucky, or maybe we're starting to get the hang of this thing. Here's the standings through 1 week:

MR 10-5
GR 10-5
RO 10-5
AW 9-6
MH 9-6
MC 9-6
JR 8-7
JG 8-7
SS 8-7

Cumulative of 81-54 or 60% for week 1. Nice work guys. If only my money plays would have gone as well...that wasn't pretty, but no need to dwell on that when there a little bit of season left to get ahead.

For week 2 we add in the guys that get paid, well...get paid more in most cases, than the college folks. I'll send out the complete list of Week 2 lines in a minute, but first a little recap.

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM WEEK 1
1. HAW looks like the HAW of old by throwing the ball all over the field against a young USC secondary. They are a lot more fun to watch when you can count on them for a fun 51-49 game to top off the night.

2. TOLEDO was a terrible pick! They scored 2 damn points at home against Zona. I guess I overestimated their coach in Y2 thinking he would have the team ready to go against a team like Zona. This was probably the worst pick of the entire week.

3. GATORS look extremely shaky in their first Post-Tebow game. I think they said there were 12 fumbled snaps and/or bad snaps by the Gators...12! But come on, it's Urban and his collection of athletes, you know this is only going to allow them to lay in the weeds for a few extra weeks before totally surprising someone.

4. ZOOKERS had signs of life in the 1st half against MIZZOU, but the 2nd half was pathetic. In typical Zook fahsion, they ran it well in the 1st half and then forgot to run it at all in H2. The young QB made a lot of mistakes and lost them the game. I still won't believe that they have an improved defense until I see them actually make some plays.

5. F'ING NORTHWESTERN! Smart kids vs. smart kids in football is not very fun to watch. I tuned into the great ESPN 3 for the last quarter or so. NW looked like their terrible early season never win when you're favored self in this one. VANDY threw it all over the field against them, the same VAN team that barely even fields an offense that could score on LeRoy-Ostrander. Don't forget this rule - NEVER, EVER pick NW as a FAVORITE...especially on the ROAD.

6. COLORADO was picked by only 1 smart guy this week - GR - but they rolled through COLST. It was a rivalry game, and COLST was starting a true freshman at QB, so it really was a great bet. But I'm not convinced that the Buffs will make any noise this season...stay tuned.

7. MEEEECHIGAN looked very strong in pounding UCONN. Robinson is the perfect QB for DickRod and friends to actually run the system that they want to. I still don't think their D is anything worth watching, and the UCONN offense looked about as pathetic as I have ever seen. Not 100% thinking that MICHIGAN is back, but this was a nice start.

8. PURDUE...ewww. That was an ugly performance as well. Granted, ND looks better, as I thought they would with Kelly running the show, but PUR looked bad. I thought their D played okay, but offensively I think they have a loooong way to go. The great Bob Marve looks like he has happy feet and makes every throw on the run. They can't run it at all...if you can't run on ND then you can't run at all. As I suspected, PUR looks to be overhyped coming into 2010.

9. ARMY by 10?!? This was a big miss for me. When bad teams like ARMY are double digit road FAV's, then bet the mortgage against them! They were at EMU, and they only won by 4...missed opportunity.

10. WASU hasn't gotten better. I was a little hesitant in my OKST pick last week over the Cougs, but my hunch was wrong. I thought, year 3 of the Paul Wulff system, they can't possibly be as bad as they have been...but they are. OKST did anything they wanted on offense and rolled this club. Any spreads under 30 = bet against the Cougs.

11. OKLAHOMA suffered a scare vs. UTST at home. Didn't see this one coming, but I think this spells hell for FSU next week in Norman.

12. JAKE LOCKER is a good QB and fun to watch, but his teams just flat out don't win games. He proved this once again at BYU on Saturday. He can't win the Heisman at 6-6.

13. TCU/BOISE hate is rampant because everyone can see the writing on the wall. Both of these teams should go undefeated and it will be very tough to keep them out of the BCS picture. I don't want it to happen, but the facts are that these teams are really good and in a 1 game situation they can play with anyone.

14. LSU-NC - I didn't really watch much of this game, but what a weird one. LSU won the game, but was outgained by an NC offense that was anemic in 2009 and they couldn't move the ball in the 2nd half against a D that was missing like 6 NFL players...Les, your ass is on fire right now. And that's fine by me, because I can't stand the guy and think he's a terrible coach.

15. WISCONSIN -20.5...and they win by 20. UNLV looked like one of the worst teams in the country coming in, and they did nothing in this game to make me think any different. Yep, I stayed up and watched this damn game and saw the Beckys piss me off once again. I can't pick these teams any more, makes me too angry when it doesn't work out. UNLV scored on a horrible pick 6 and then one play after an 82 yard fumble return. They apparently made an actual drive to get their last score, I think I was dosing at that point. Just a nice kick in the balls to round out the Saturday.

16. MARY won a game over Navy, nice upset, but man do they look bad as well. They literally can not throw a forward pass...that might not bode well for them in the next 11 games.

GOPHERS looked solid and ran the hell out of it. It's a good win to start the season against a pretty decent team. I loved the offense, AWEB figured out how to throw the ball a bit better in the 2nd half and Duane Bennett looks like he's on a Heisman mission. The defense struggled when the tables were turned against them and the MDTN offense ran the hurry up run and shoot type thing. So defensively, I think we came up with a few really big plays that helped the cause, but ultimately, I'm still a little unsure about our back 7 and our ability to stop the good passing teams. Another tune-up this week before the Trojans come to town, let's hope we get some stuff figured out before then. Bottom line, 1-0 and that's the goal.

Week 2 lines coming out soon.