Monday Afternoon Punter (Tuesday Edition)

The weekend that was the opener has come & gone. Some teams answered a few questions; some teams simply added more questions to be answered. Here are a few takes from the opening weekend that was:
-Gophers: You can see that they are a better football team. Weber is more accurate, seems to have a better sense of the offense, and was pretty efficient. He didn’t turn the ball over, which was what killed him more than anything last year. He has to be able to spread the ball around a bit better than he did against Northern Illinois. Once they saw that he looked Decker’s way first, they were keying on him. The last drive was telling for Weber as he hit Kuznia & Tow-Arnett twice for good gains. Concerns: the offensive line had trouble run blocking, other than Bennett’s long TD run. My hope is that they can gel a bit since they are so young. As for the defense, you can see that they will be a bit better as well. Both Sherels & Simmons played some press coverage and were good at it. Brock can play it too. However, Collado cannot, and you have to believe that every coach watching tape will see that. But they are a faster defense with the CB’s, Brock, & Lawrence when he’s inserted for Mannion. The DL pass rush has to get better, but they did play decent against the run.

The Gophers could have & should have blown that game wide open after they went up 24-13. All it takes is one play to change everything. If they can shutdown the explosive play, they may have a chip & chance to get to the 6, possibly 7 wins. Bowling Green should be a good test for them this week.

-Alabama/Clemson: I admit, I fell for it. Clemson reminds me of St. Cloud State hockey. I need to see them do it once before I believe that they are capable of winning a big game. Anyway, kind of impressive seeing what’s supposed to be a middle of the pack SEC West team blasting the apparent ACC’s best team.

-Along those same lines, UCLA/Tennessee was a bit of a slap to the SEC’s ego. UCLA, down to their 3rd string QB, couldn’t do anything with 4 1st half INT’s. It was fun to watch last night though: UCLA down 4, driving down the field in 90 seconds for the go ahead TD, only for Tennessee to move down the field in 20 seconds for a game tying 47 yard field goal, and then the OT. Credit goes to Lou Holtz, who before the game proclaimed that one big advantage that could come into play is that UCLA had a better kicker & punter. As usual, Mark May dismissed his claim with an attempt at wit, saying “you gotta get in position to make a kick to take advantage of him.” Lesson as always: A former National Champion coach knows more about football than a mediocre NFL offensive lineman.

Quick Hitters:
-Missouri/Illinois: Mizzou can score, and Illinois won’t win when Juice is throwing for 430 yards. They need a running game to be successful. But what it was expected to be: a track meet.
-Utah/Michigan: Mark it down as one of the times Scoops was right. There was no running game to speak of, because no defense is going to take Michigan’s QB’s seriously on the read option. Credit goes to Utah; they have a good defense. Michigan will be lights out in 3 years, but this is the year that some people can pick them off, including Minnesota.
-USC: They simply reload.-Ohio State: Beanie shouldn’t be playing this week, resting him up for the trip out to USC.