Thursday, August 30, 2007
Under the Radar Games for Week 1
It's Christmas Eve again for the college football fan: college football starts tonight, and really starts on Saturday.
Everyone is already gearing up for the big games on opening week. You already know about Tennessee/Cal, Oklahoma State/Georgia, and Kansas State/Auburn. You also probably know that the first BCS conference games is LSU and Mississippi State tonight at 7:30 EST on ESPN.
I, however, prefer to seek out the under-the-radar games that have interesting angles of their own watch. These are the games for Week 1:
Weber State at Boise State, 9 ET Thursday, ESPN360
This is game one of The Year After for Boise State. When we last saw them, they were putting the finishing touches on — not to put too fine a point on it — the greatest game of all-time combined with the greatest Cinderella story of all-time.
Taking on a 1-AA (no, I won't call it the "Football Championship Series") for their first encore may seems like easy pickings, and it might be, but Weber State has a interesting ace up its sleeve: transfer Jimmy Barnes, who threw 11 passes for Alabama last year, including a touchdown.
Murray State at Louisville, 7:30 EST Thursday, ESPNU
This one is intriguing for a twisted reason. Louisville is a top-10 team, largely because of their high-scoring offense. Murray State is coming off at 1-10 year in I-AA. Louisville might put up 70 or 80 in this game, and that's even if they run up the middle on every play in the second half (like teams often do when they are way, way ahead, but it's too early to take a knee).
There were a lot of games available to ESPNU in this time slot featuring two 1-A teams (no, I won't call it the "Football Bowl Series"), so why they chose this one is a head-scratcher.
Appalachian State at Michigan, Noon ET, Big Ten Network
On the other side of the 1-AA spectrum is Appalachian State, they are 1-AA National Champions two years running and widely expected to three-peat. Michigan only managed to squeak by a mediocre Ball State squad (that probably wasn't as good as App State) 31-26 last year. If you want an absolute shocker in Week 1, this is your best chance.
Colorado vs. Colorado State in Denver, Noon ET, FOX Sports Net
They call this rivalry game the Rocky Mountain Showdown, and they play for the Centennial Cup. I suggest they call this year's matchup the Quest for TV Bucks, as they have agreed to kick it off at 10 AM local time. What time does tailgating start, exactly, for a 10 AM kickoff? Anyway, it should be a good one as six out of the last seven contests have been decided by a touchdown or less.
Nevada at Nebraska 3:30 EST, ABC (regional)/ESPN Gameplan
Does this sound familiar? A strong team from the WAC faces off against a storied Big 12 team that nobody gives the WAC team any kind of shot against. Tune in to see if the Boise State magic formula can be repeated. I'm calling plagiarism, though, if Nevada runs the hook-and-ladder, fullback pass, and/or the Statue of Liberty play.
Gardner-Webb at Ohio University, 7:00 EST, ESPN Gameplan
No, there's absolutely no reason to tune into this game, I only list it because I have a funny name for it. This is the ESPN Gameplan "Look, We Can't Show Big Ten Games Anymore. We Have to Fill that Void With Something. Even We Can't Justify Charging Subscribers 120 Bucks a Year And Only Give Them Two Games a Week" Game of the Week. If you refer to or comment on this article, please feel free to call it the LWCSBTGAWHTFTVWSEWCJCS1BAYAOGT2GAWGOTW. Everyone will know what you're taking about, it's already comfortably in the national vernacular.