2011 College Football Week One Recap

Week One Biggest Winner: Boise State Broncos

Boise State can wash away the demons of their embarrassing loss in Georiga in 2005 and rejoice in their victory against the Georgia Bulldogs over the weekend.  Kellen Moore continued his brilliant play at quarterback and should lead the Broncos to another BCS game.

The schedule is very kind to Boise State the rest of the season.  The Broncos have moved into the more difficult Mountain West Conference but they moved in the same year the Utah Utes went to the Pac-12 and BYU Cougars went independent.   Boise State will play TCU but they get them at home and TCU doesn’t appear to have the dominant defense of years past after they gave up 50 points to Baylor last week.  Don’t count on the Broncos to relax in their games this season.  Last year they were dominating Nevada in the first half and suddenly found themselves on the losing end.

The Boise State 2011 Football Schedule:

Sat, Sep 03  Georgia at Georgia Dome  Win 35-21
Fri, Sep 16  at Toledo
Sat, Sep 24  Tulsa
Sat, Oct 01  Nevada
Fri, Oct 07  at Fresno State
Sat, Oct 15  at Colorado State
Sat, Oct 22  Air Force
Sat, Nov 05  at UNLV
Sat, Nov 12  TCU
Sat, Nov 19  at San Diego State
Sat, Nov 26  Wyoming
Sat, Dec 03  New Mexico

Week One Biggest Loser: South Carolina Gamecocks

South Carolina struggled with East Carolina until they finally broke away at the end of the third quarter.  The South Carolina defense gave up 37 points to start the season.  They didn’t even give up that many points to Cam Newton and the National Champion Auburn Tigers last year.  The Gamecocks will be making major adjustments this week, as will the Georgia offense as they prepare to square off head to head.

Despite their struggles the Gamecocks still put 56 points on the board. Why are they the biggest loser? Because LSU just defeated #3 Oregon.  LSU didn’t have a meltdown after all the drama that resulted in starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson being suspended for the game.  Jarrett Lee replaced Jefferson and only threw for 98 yards but that wasn’t the key of the game.  The LSU defense caused 4 turnovers (two on special teams) and held the Oregon Ducks to only 13 points in the first three quarters to seal the victory.

LSU’s big victory unfortunately puts South Carolina on the BCS sidelines. Each conference may only have two teams representing in the BCS. Alabama is a BCS title game favorite and LSU just proved they aren’t going to fade into the distance.  South Carolina will need to get a big win in Georgia this week and hope LSU drops a couple of games to get back into the BCS picture.

Conference of the Week: Big 12

The Big 12 with only ten teams went 10-0 in the opening weekend.

#1 Oklahoma 47 Tulsa 14 – Landry Jones passes for 375 yards to keep him as one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy.

Baylor 50 TCU 48 – Baylor lost to TCU 48-10 last year.

#8 Texas A&M 46 SMU 14 – The Aggies are hoping to leave the Big 12 with a bang this year.

Kansas State 10 Eastern Kentucky 7 – Yes Kansas State, we did notice this horrible performance.

Worst Conference of the Week: Pac-12

The first week of the new Pac-12 won’t be one to remember. A loss to a FCS, WAC, and Conference USA team puts the Pac-12 as the weakest BCS conference to start the season.

Sacramento State 29 Oregon State 28 – Can anyone tell us the mascot for Sacramento State?  I didn’t think so. The Hornets embarrass the Beavers.

Hawaii 34 Colorado 17 – The Colorado Buffaloes increase their road losing streak to 19 games.

Houston 38 UCLA 34 – Rick Neuheisel’s hot seat is burning.  At least the Bruins scored some points.

Washington 30 E Washington 27 – The Huskies needed an interception at the end of the game to seal this victory.

Utah 27 Montana State 10 – The Utah Utes can only muster 101 yards in the air against the mighty Bobcats of Montana State.

USC 19 Minnesota 17 – The Trojans continue to prove they’re not one of the top five programs in the nation anymore.

Note: The Big 12 and Pac-12 go head to head this week as Arizona goes to Oklahoma State and Missouri travels to the heat at Arizona State.

Welcome to the Bowl Projections

We would like to congratulate the Northwestern Wildcats, Utah State Aggies and Colorado State Rams to the bowl projections this week.

Northwestern had a big victory at Boston College without star quarterback, Dan Persa, participating.

Utah State was going to defeat Auburn if they had just recovered an onside kick at the end of the game.  If they can recover from that devastating loss they should be a team to contend for the WAC championship this year.

Colorado State sneaks in after defeating New Mexico 14-10.  It’s not an impressive victory but the Rams schedule should be easy enough to make them bowl eligible.

View the full list of College Bowl Projections.