Budget games Week 1

Possible new logo for the Sun Belt Conference this week

College football is back, and while some match-ups are enticing this weekend, others are a cakewalk. Here are some games where a powerhouse football program is paying a FBS mid-major in need of funds (typically around $1 million) to take a beating.

Arkansas State at No. 8 USC

The Red Wolves went 7-6 last season and played in its fourth straight GoDaddy Bowl. That’s an impressive achievement for the ASU program. Unfortunately, the University of Southern California doesn’t really care about that. The Trojans see a Sun Belt program that should go down easy.

Arkansas State might actually make USC nervous for tiny bit but the Trojans should be able to score at will in this one. Three of ASU’s top four tacklers are gone from a year ago and that’s big problem against USC. Trojans roll.

Louisiana-Monroe at No. 9 Georgia

The good news for Louisana-Monroe is that it defeated a power conference school last season. The bad news is that was Wake Forest. The Warhawks went 4-8 last year and was held to under 100 yards in it’s 31-0 loss at LSU. ULM also lost at Kentucky 48-14. So I doubt Georgia will have much fear here.

Throw in the fact Georgia has won 17 of its last 18 home openers and you have a very long day for ULM in Athens.

Texas State at No. 10 Florida State

Texas State has been bowl eligible the past two seasons (did not get selected) and has a great chance to finally get in. That might not be seen in its opener at Florida State. The Seminoles are 10-1 all-time against current Sun Belt teams.

Florida State is in transition with a new quarterback so maybe Texas State can hang around in this game for a quarter or two. Eventually though, the Bobcat defense with four of its five best tacklers gone from last season will collapse. It won’t be pretty when it does.

Pillow Fight of the Year

Nothing gets a locker room filled with men with high testosterone fired up for a game better than the slogan “Live Purple”

It was the game you probably didn’t see but showed everything about college football that’s amazing. A division 1 program fighting adversity. An upstart FCS school trying to make a name for itself. And a wild Hail Mary play to end the game. Forget the fact the two schools were ranked in the bottom 20 percent of the nation according to Sagarin. This was a pillow fight turned instant classic.

New Mexico State was trying to snap its 18-game losing streak by paying FCS Abilene Christian, a school in year one of division one ball, to show up for homecoming. Problem is the Aggies, a program that’s been outscored 792-289 during the streak, has to work hard to beat a high school. There is no such thing as an easy win for NMSU.

ACU had a 22-21 lead going into the fourth but NMSU scored 13 straight points to make it 34-22. The Wildcats scored a touchdown with under a minute to go to make it a 5-point game and recovered an onside kick. FCS ACU had a chance to win its first game against a FBS program. Sure it’s NMSU but still.

The following action is hard to describe so…

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9887161

Talk about awful announcing. I’ll let ACU’s Facebook page describe the play for us.

ACU falls to New Mexico State, 34-29. The Wildcats’ final, desperation play falls three yards short as a Hail Mary throw from John David Baker to Monte Green-Avery was caught and then lateraled to Taylor Gabriel, who sprinted down the far sideline for what looked like it would be the game-winning touchdown. But Gabriel was brought down at the 3-yard line and the Aggies escaped with a win to snap an 18-game losing streak. Great effort by the Wildcats. #LivePurple #ProudToBeAWildcat

So even though ACU lost it’s pretty happy with its effort and how close it came to knocking off a FBS school. Good Christian attitude to have since, you guessed it, Abilene Christian is a Christian school located in Abilene, Texas. Abilene Christian entered the game 5-3 but had a schedule loaded with division 2 schools as the program makes the transition. While the Wildcats talked up how close they came to winning, the New Mexico State Aggies boasted the fact it won a game.

FB FINAL SCORE Aggies 34, ACU 29. Aggies get first win of the season! #AggieUp — NM State Aggies (@NMStateAggies) October 27, 2013

Aggie Up? You were three yards away from blowing your homecoming game against a team that was Division 2 just 10 months ago.

The latest example of the decline of western civilization.

The announcers, that I could hardly stand, said the Aggie coach was drenched in Gatorade. That’s how desperate it was for NMSU. A loss Saturday night would not have been depressing. It would have rendered the sober Aggie fans catatonic. I say sober fans because these were the t-shirts the students were given for showing up to the game. I’ll let you infer the meaning. Not only was this a great pillow fight game but it was also sinners versus Christ followers.

I love watching these types of games. Casual fans may think it was meaningless but to the players, coaches, and 300 sober fans at Las Cruces, it meant a lot.

Bonus great finish: Texas State converts on fourth and forever.

Trailing at home to South Alabama 31-30 with time winding down in the fourth, Texas State desperately needed to get into field goal range. The Bobcats faced third and four at its own 46 when a completed pass seemingly gave the home team a first down. That’s when the officials stepped in and called the rarer than rare offensive pass interference penalty on Texas State. After a false start penalty and an incomplete pass, Texas State faced a fourth and 24 with 41 seconds remaining. Game over Bobcats. Start partying Jaguars. Then the unthinkable happened.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9886677

Bobcats complete 4th and 25, putting the ball on the Jags 23-yard line. 28 seconds remaining.
— Texas State Bobcats (@TXSTATEBOBCATS) October 27, 2013

Texas State quarterback Tyler Jones rolled out of the pocket for a desperation throw that landed in the hands of receiver Ben Ijah, who took it 51 yards. The Bobcats would kick a field goal to take a 33-31 win and move to 5-3 (2-2 Sun Belt). That’s right, Texas State is only a win away from bowl eligibility thanks to an insane fourth down conversion.

For 3-4 (1-2 Sun Belt) South Alabama it’s the exact opposite. The Jaguars will have little left to play for this season as they can only reflect on how it gave a game away in the most painful manner we’ve seen a team do so this year. At least they are better than New Mexico State.

Huskies validate themselves

Can you tell which team on the scoreboard is from the Big Ten and which one is from the MAC? For Purdue fans that question must kill them.

Northern Illinois was bashed by the national media last year for making it to a BCS bowl. This year, the 4-0 Huskies have taken down two Big Ten Conference schools, (Iowa and Purdue) the first Mid-American Conference team to do that in one season. Northern Illinois didn’t just beat Purdue, it bombed Purdue back into the stone age 55-24. Somehow the Boilermakers outgained the Huskies in total yards 524-402, but five turnovers killed any chance Purdue had.

The win was not an upset for NIU but forcing Purdue to surrender the most points ever at Ross-Ade Stadium sure was. Purdue plays Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Penn State on a regular basis yet those schools scored less at Purdue than a MAC team. Anyone still think Northern Illinois had no business in the Orange Bowl last year?

Uniform trouble
Virginia Tech is a football program with a proud tradition. Wearing strange uniforms is for teams that have no tradition and are desperate enough to attract fans using gimmicks. So when I see a proud football program like Virginia Tech wear something like this…

Mr. Virginia Tech, tear down this wall!

It’s just unnecessary. Apparently, stone means something to those in Blacksburg, VA but to the rest of the nation it’s only a gray blob on television.

Scoreboard watching
Some of the scores that caught my eye this week…

• Another MAC school in Buffalo went bonkers on Connecticut 41-12. Buffalo needed five overtimes to squeak past FCS Stony Brook yet it could humiliate a BCS school at home. UConn dropped to 0-4 and fired its coach Paul Pasqualoni Monday. This coming one week after UConn nearly pulled off the upset over Michigan the previous week. I’m against firing coaches in September as it destroys any meaning the other two-thirds of the season can have. Looking at you USC Trojans.
• East Carolina didn’t just beat North Carolina Saturday it destroyed UNC’s dignity. The Pirates went on the road and came out with a 55-31 win. It was 28-10 at halftime! Just think about this. High school football players in that state dream about playing for their state school in the ACC. Not the Conference USA school that has a cardinal direction in its name. Yet somehow East Carolina has taken in more talent than its alpha dog brother in Chapel Hill. I don’t think the Pirates look up to the Tar Heels anymore.
• Tennessee nearly lost to South Alabama 31-24. People in Southeastern Conference country have a stroke when one of their own drops a game a Sun Belt team, the motel of college football. Losing to South Alabama would have been even worse as the Jaguars have only existed for five seasons now. The Volunteers better count their blessings for dodging this disaster.
• Western Kentucky held down Navy winning 19-7 in Bowling Green. This is a Navy team that popped Indiana of the Big Ten for 41 points. Yet Western Kentucky’s defense held Navy’s tricky option attack to just a touchdown. I don’t like their head coach Bobby Petrino for his well documented history (Atlanta Falcons and Arkansas) but he and the Hilltoppers (3-2) are getting things done.
• Boise State hung up 60 points in its 60-7 win over Southern Mississippi. This came after losing at Fresno State the week before. I think it’s safe to say the Broncos were in need of venting their frustration.

I was wrong
Last week I labeled West Virginia as a bear market team after it lost to Maryland 37-0. Just when I buried the Mountaineers, they pulled of a major upset at home against the No. 11 Cowboys of Oklahoma State. I didn’t see the 30-21 win coming at all. My apologies Mountaineer fans. As for Oklahoma State… what happened?

Working overtime
FCS Jacksonville State has played in three straight contests that went into overtime against three different levels of competition. On September 14, JSU escaped humiliation defeating division II North Alabama 24-21 in OT. Then the Gamecocks restored pride to the program taking down the worst team in FBS, the Georgia State Panthers, 32-26 in overtime again. The streak ended for Jacksonville State Saturday losing to FCS Murray State 35-34 as the Racers converted on a gutsy two-point conversion call in overtime. One thing for sure, JSU season ticket holders are getting their money’s worth with all the free football. For those wondering, Jacksonville State is located in Alabama, not Jacksonville, Florida. The latter is probably never going to see a quality NFL team play there again. Well, not unless you count the visiting team.

Twitter fun
Texas State went all out in making a big deal about their home game against Wyoming. Check out their Twitter profile picture simply saying “Beat Wyoming.” Not sure that’s a big enough game to change your profile picture as it makes it look like every Saturday is life or death. Playing in the Sun Belt conference makes that a problem. Texas State made its Twitter account proud taking down Wyoming 42-21 in a game delayed by lighting. That’s Mother Nature telling Texas State “Tweet this!”

The most depressing tweet goes to Eastern Kentucky, whose program was pasted by Eastern Illinois Saturday 42-7. I previously talked about how good EIU’s quarterback is as Jimmy Garoppolo shredded another defense for over 300 yards passing. Eastern Kentucky’s Twitter seemed to throw in the towel like its team Saturday.

FB: Unfortunately, @EKUFootball turns it over again and it’s costly. EIU returns a fumble 70 yards for a score. It’s 35-0 EIU.

— EKU Sports (@EKUSports) September 28, 2013

 

Chances are you don’t have to tweet this Eastern Kentucky. Do what the other bad football schools do and tweet about women’s volleyball. You can thank me later.