If the first three weeks of the college football season has shown us anything it has been everything.
Gone are the days when you could predict where a team would finish. Gone are the days when you knew who was going to win the Heisman Trophy.
Entering the season all you heard was two things:
- USC was going to cruise to a national title and Matt Barkley was going to win the Heisman.
Yeah, about that. USC lost to Stanford for the fourth straight year. Barkley still hasn’t won the big game or had the “breakthrough” game that a player needs to bring home the hardware.
- The SEC was going to dominate again.
With the exception of Alabama and LSU, the SEC has been extremely disappointing. No one will question how good Alabama has been but they still haven’t been tested. Same could be said about LSU.
The rest of the league has been downright hard to watch. Arkansas lost to Louisiana-Monroe. Auburn, just like Arkansas, blew a big second half lead to ULM but was able to get by in overtime. That a week after not scoring an offensive touchdown. Kentucky lost to Western Kentucky. The same Western Kentucky that lost to the University of Central Arkansas (handily) just a couple years ago.
South Carolina may be the most overrated team in the poll at No. 7. The Gamecocks struggled against an average Vanderbilt team in the opener and still don’t have a quarterback. Ole Miss gave up 66 points to a down Texas team. Florida is coming off a win against Tennessee and moved up to No. 14 in the polls. Most would agree there is no way Florida is the 14th best team in the land. They’re Florida so they get the ranking. Same reason Mississippi St. is ranked 23.
The jury is still out on Georgia. I want to believe that the Bulldogs are for real this year but they’ve burned everyone before. This week, at home, against Vanderbilt should be a blow out but who knows. Missouri at South Carolina looks like the most interesting game of the week.
2012 is the year of the coin flip. Toss a quarter in the air. That may be the best way to predict who wins.
The same could be said about Oklahoma vs. Kansas State on Saturday. Or even Clemson at Florida St.
College football has reached the point where it is as unpredictable as the NFL.
One thing I will predict: The scoreboard will explode Saturday when Oregon hosts Arizona.
And that is why we all love watching on Saturdays. And Wednesdays. And Thursdays. And Fridays.
