Home School Fans Episode 3: Week 2 - BYU! Redemption

    All right, the Monday after week 2 (remember week 0 had quite a few teams play, including Nebraska losing to Northwestern in Dublin, Ireland), and things are cooking. The three teams that I predicted would run the table? Only one is left standing, 2-0. That is BYU! Texas A&M was shockingly upset by the Appalachian State Mountaineers. In College Station. Yikes! I think they are not so favored to play Alabama well now. Too bad. The Tide, incidentally, almost lost to Texas. In Austin. Too bad. Most of us like Sarkisian, too. One quarterback slip from stopping them. That 'Bama Quube may win the Heisman, too. Tired of them.

    Anyway, the seven teams we are focusing on went 5-2 last Saturday. Who is ranked highest now? BYU! Woot, woot!

    So, let me start with the Cougars in Provo.

    Yes, a resounding yes! Last year we were disappointed by losing to the Bears in Waco, 38-24. The Cougars were worn down by the Baylor running game. Even though BYU was generally good enough to win every game in 2021, Boise State was a turnover fest, and UAB in the bowl at the end was a lot of attrition due injuries...

    This year we get stud defensive player Keenan Pili back from his season ending wound, plus the whole defensive side for BYU is deeper and healthier this year. We beat the Bears in Double Over Time 26-20. Baylor has lots of great runners, a great offensive line, a decent quarterback and receivers, but BYU was better. Helps to be at a raucous home stadium, (Baylor had multiple false starts), and playing above 4,000 feet likely gassed them compared to last year in Texas.

    I am so excited! BYU may do this. A questionable Oregon is next. They, the Ducks, highly thought of pre-season, rebounded big over FCS lightweight Eastern Washington, after getting positively plastered by super giant looking Georgia Bulldogs from Week 1.

    I reported on Georgia weekly last year, 2021, and they paid up. They won it all. I was happy that they got Alabama back. That was last year. Now they seem to be a juggernaut, while the Crimson Tide is suspect.

    Anyway, a week-to-week comparison of the CBS rankings.

    The CBSSports.com poll BEFORE Week 2 craziness, Week 1 (movement indicator):

7. Texas A&M --(gonna drop hard)

8. Notre Dame -- (dropping harder!)

21. BYU -- (surging)

33. Fresno State - (dropping)

56. Virginia -- (drops)

66. Indiana -- (slight rise)

111. James Madison -- (rising, but not enough, in my opinion)

This is going to get flipped. Watch AFTER Week 2. BYU is the best, for now.

Post Week 2:

8. Brigham Young Cougars      2-0

17. Utah Utes                            1-1

33. Texas A&M Aggies            1-1

40. Notre Dame Irish                0-2

50. Fresno State Bulldogs         1-1

64. Indiana Hoosiers                 2-0

80. Virginia Cavaliers               1-1

103. James Madison Dukes      2-0

    Well, then! Quick round up: BYU may be a top ten team. YEP. A&M and the Irish may be outside the top 25, but that will be interesting to follow. I really thought they would both be as good as Brigham Young. Utah is still likely top 10. Some think that USC is better in the PAC-12, so that will be a fun test. Should build to be a fun culmination in that.

    So, based on that clutch victory, huge defensive stops, with the lates missed by Oldroyd the kicker, BYU may be the best of the seven that I cover... And now to the train wrecks...

    Aggies Choke Big

    Texas A&M falls to Appalachian State, probably their biggest win since upsetting Michigan in the Big House since in 2007. Yeah, 15 years ago, when still an FCS team. I really thought that the Jimbo Fisher recruits would do something special this year. Nope, and now a dangerous Miami will play them. Good luck, Aggies. You need it.

    Notre Dame Losing Irish

    Ok, this is not normal. Playing a tough game against top rated Ohio State was respectable, acceptable in the first game, for the newly installed coach, Freeman. Previously he lost a big lead in his first game last season as a coach in the bowl in January (I watched it with friends, including big Notre Dame fans). But now they lose in South Bend to... the Marshall Thundering Herd? Is that what Marshall are? Is? Wow. Combine that with West Virginia getting ambushed by the Kansas Jayhawks, and the Marshall squad is the best in the region. Aggies will have a chance to show something against the 'Canes this Saturday. But, their great season is certainly diminished. They may be lucky to end up with ten wins. The SEC will not be too forgiving. And this non-conference schedule now looks to be a downer.

    Wow. Appy State. They had a lot of fans in College Station, good for them.

        Bulldogs Lose to Beavers

    I predicted this before the season started, looking at my two summer magazines. But as the Bulldogs of Fresno started to play, I was thinking that they might triumph. It was a close game, and the beleaguered PAC-12 got an important notch of victory for their conference. Fresno State will still have a good, if not superior conference run in the Mountain West West, but now they are lined up with the bigger, badder USC Trojans. I wanted FSU to lose enough for my BYU alma mater to catch up in overall all-time winning percentage, and this might be coming to fruition. Yay. Not that I am rooting for the Trojans. But some people think that they are the stuff.

    Hoosiers wake up in the Second Half

    Things were looking awful in the first half against the spirited Idaho Vandals. Heavy rain, and the Hoosiers could do little right. There were a lot of fans at the lightning delayed game, one that should have started at 8 pm, but instead began at 8:35. And the rain was coming down hard. The Idaho quarterback was fleet of foot and was hard for the decent IU defense to contain. A turnover occurred, I think, and the offense was moribund and befuddling.

    Enter the second half, and the Hoosiers were cooking with gas. They scored right away in the third quarter, pulled it to 10-9 with a safety (I missed it because at this point I was watching the BYU-Baylor game). Then they kept it up and got a sizable lead; the plucky Vandals scored a few more times, but did not get their two-point conversions, and the final count was a decent 35-22. Indiana needs to clean it up to do well this Saturday at noon. They take on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, who might be ripe for some good sticks. The offense might not be as good as they have been in recent years.

    Virginia manhandled by Illinois, as Predicted (by me)

After watching the Illinois dominating Indiana for large parts of the game the first weekend for both teams, I thought that the Illini would beat UVA. I was right. Final score 24-3. I had seen Armstrong and the Cavs pile up points against smaller tier Richmond, but Illinois has a solid defense. IU was lucky to score 23 on them. Indiana was unlucky to let the Illini score 20, but needless to say, I think the Wahoos are middling, and the Illini might be decent. Virginia should beat Old Dominion, a thing that VTech could not do first game. But this game looks good as a match up.

JMU are Smashers

The Dukes of Harrisonburg smoked the Norfolk State (Tides), as expected. This is an HBCU, a historically black college, of which my white friend received his master's degree. I think JMU is pretty good. Turns out the Sun Belt is pretty good, as three of their teams had large upsets this weekend, to include newly welcomed Marshall. Thundering Herd? Up next for JMU: Appalachian State! 

    A lot of good storylines here. Should be a good'n. I predict the Dukes will surprise many and win.

    That is a recap of Week Two results, with little other stuff about some teams of interest.

    Like Iowa losing to Iowa State in a close one. 7 points is not enough to win most games. Hawkeyes need to tighten it up.