Rivals Rundown – Page 3 – RIVALS RUNDOWN

Rivals Rundown Top 25 – Week 3

September 9, 2013September 9, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Week 2 of the College Football Season is now in the books and with it a couple of our 25 teams, well for now. It’s hard to imagine that one loss could end your season or at least your ranking in our Top 25 but in the cases of USC, Texas, and Cincinnati, that’s exactly what we think happened. The worst of the three by far is USC, there is no way a team with that much talent should have such a bad offense, they could pathetic not being able to move the ball against what will prove to be a week Washington State team. Anyways, here we go with our Week 3 Top 25 teams of College Football. Come back later in the week when we will do our rewind and see how this Top 25 came together.

Current Rank	Previous Week	Team
1	1	Alabama Crimson Tide
2	2	Oregon Ducks
3	3	Clemson Tigers
4	4	Ohio State Buckeyes
5	5	Louisville Cardinals
6	6	Florida State Seminoles
7	7	Oklahoma State Cowboys
8	9	LSU Tigers
9	12	Georgia Bulldogs
10	11	Nebraska Cornhuskers
11	13	Stanford Cardinal
12	20	Michigan Wolverines
13	18	Texas A&M Aggies
14	29	Miami Hurricanes
15	16	Baylor Bears
16	17	Washington Huskies
17	26	UCLA Bruins
18	15	Oklahoma Sooners
19	19	Fresno State Bulldogs
20	14	Florida Gators
21	8	South Carolina
22	22	TCU Horned Frogs
23	23	Arizona State Sun Devils
24	30	Wisconsin Badgers
25	21	Northwestern
NEXT 5-
26	27	Northern Ill Huskies
27	Unranked	Ole Miss Rebels
28	Unranked	Michigan State Spartans
29	Unranked	BYU Cougars
30	Unranked	Boise State Broncos

Week 2 Rundown – Road Warriors

September 5, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Week 2 Rundown – Road Warriors

That’s right after one of the most exciting opening weekends in the history of College Football we are stuck at a crossroads of mediocre and FCS games. We know, we know, last week it was epic how many of these FCS teams came into BCS stadiums and caused chaos but for week two don’t count on too many FCS upsets. So looking towards kick off tonight of week two here is some quick thoughts and games to watch:

MUST WATCH GAME:

Florida Gators at University of Miami Hurricanes
After taking a break, these two teams will match up in our favorite game of week two. The current line is sitting at Florida -3 and we like the Gators to cover in this one. We think that this is going to be a break out year for Miami but in a week two match-up we think the defense of Florida will be ready based upon what we saw last week against Toledo. We will be cheering for Miami and the upset but think that Florida is better than we expected. FLORIDA COVERS

MEASUREMENT GAMES:

Cincinnati Bearcats at Illinois Fighting Illini
We are extremely high on Cincinnati this year, in a preseason research all signs pointed to a big year, only one loss to Louisville. If Louisville or Cincinnati has any hopes of crashing the BCS party they must win these games and in Cincinnati’s case they must win big. That means going into Illinois and winning by more than two touchdowns. We are taking the road favorite for this one, CINCINNATI COVERS

Bowling Green at Kent State
In week one, Bowling Green dominated a preseason favorite in Tulsa up and down the field. In week one, Kent State beat Liberty by only one touchdown. So what does that mean for these two teams in week two? Nothing according to Vegas, Bowling Green is only a -6.5 against Kent State. This game is going to measure how good Bowling Green is and give us some insight into what the Tulsa win meant. Again, we are taking the road favorite, BOWLING GREEN COVERS

Texas at BYU
Sticking with the tread and not going into any more detail, we’re taking Texas to cover over BYU in Provo. We believe this is Mack Brown’s comeback year and it really starts with this one. Look for Texas to be ready. TEXAS COVERS

COIN FLIP

This week we have two coin flip games, Notre Dame at Michigan and South Carolina at Georgia. We are staying off both these games because our research and the first week match-ups didn’t tell us enough. We do think that the Georgia-South Carolina game will be close and we like Georgia to come away with the win. Now, we like Michigan against Notre Dame and this might get us in trouble but don’t be surprised if Michigan wins by more than two touchdowns. Ok, so there you go, our week 2 Kick-Off Rundown.

Rivals Rundown College Football Top 25 Week 2

September 3, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Week 1 of the College Football Season provided us with everything that we’ve come to love about College Football. Here at the Rundown, our favorite game of the first week was still Fresno State and Rutgers but from a record number of FCS Teams upsetting some “Big Schools” to the high-scoring blowouts that we have come to expect in the early weeks, Week 1 had a little of it all. So now let’s adjust our Rivals Rundown Top 25:

Week 2

1. Alabama Crimson Tide
2. Oregon Ducks
3. Clemson Tigers
4. Ohio State Buckeyes
5. Louisville Cardinals
6. Florida State Seminoles
7. Oklahoma State Cowboys
8. South Carolina Gamecocks
9. LSU Tigers
10. Texas Longhorns
11. Nebraska Cornhuskers
12. Georgia Bulldogs
13. Stanford Cardinal
14. Florida Gators
15. Oklahoma Sooners
16. Baylor Bears
17. Washington Huskies
18. Texas A&M Aggies
19. Fresno State Bulldogs
20. Michigan Wolverines
21. Northwestern Wildcats
22. TCU Horned Frogs
23. Arizona State Sun Devils
24. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
25. USC Trojans

NEXT 5-
26. UCLA Bruins
27. Northern Illinois Huskies
28. Cincinnati Bearcats
29 Miami Hurricanes
30. Wisconsin Badgers

OUT-
Oregon State Beavers (#17), Ohio Bobcats (#30), Boise State Broncos (#19)

And now for the Rundown…

August 30, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Rundown of Day 1 College Football 2013

August 30^th, 2013

The 2013 College Football season is in motion and we celebrated by having over 12 hours of fantastic football. Incase you missed some of the action or highlights here are our favorite plays, moments or factoids from the Kick-Off of the 2013 Season!

Puke and Rally!

This might be the best and worst moment of the year all wrapped into one. Jordan Matthews, one of the premier receivers in all of college football and an All-SEC player made a catch coming over the middle late in the Vandy-Ole Miss game, in doing so he got absolutely crushed with a hit on his side by Ole Miss backer Cody Prewitt. As Matthews tried to get to his feet he was visibly hurt and motioned to the sidelide to come out of the game. With Vandy in hurry-up mode and not using a timeout, he was able to stand, get to the line of scrimmage for the next play. After that play, it appeared he was going to make it to the sideline, stopped and went to one knee and that when the vomit came. After Matthews was done losing his lunch, the training staff took him to the sidelines where he got some water, waited and on the next play, in classic college style Matthews puked ‘n rallied to make a huge catch on 4^th and 18 and the game on the line. Now, the problem we have, is with all of the concern about player safety at all levels of football, the Vandy staff shoul’ve never let Matthews return so quickly. There is no way they could tell what condition the player was in. They needed to let him stay on the sideline for a couple more minutes, while they professional assessed his situation but they didn’t and so we got one of the top plays of the season on day one. Here is a link from SBNation showin the Rundown of this one! http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/8/30/4674808/jordan-matthews-catch

Was that the Hoosiers or the Ducks?

In a game that only fans in Indiana watched or crazies like us watch, Indiana put an Oregon style offensive beat down to Indiana State with a final score of 73-35. After the game, the Hoosier players were upset, why? Because Indiana was within 3 points of tying or beating the all-time record for points scored in school history of 76. Now, normally we don’t agree with running the score up but when you are that close to a historical marker, kick the field goal, tie the record and give your boys something they will have for some years to come in the record book. Now, Indiana is our pick for the surprise team in the country, picking them at 9 wins, now we know this was a gimmie game but the Indiana offense looked like an experienced one firing on all cylinders, now they just have to stay healthy.

USC Might be the Boys of Troy…

This one is hard for us to swallow, we picked USC to win the PAC 12 South division but if they can’t figure out how to run an offense they might be finishing behind ASU, UCLA, and Utah. Before we get carried away reading too much into an opening day road game to Hawaii, let’s look at the positives. USC’s defense will keep them in games, at the start of the game USC looked like a classic team that thought they were going to be able to show up and win the game, it took until almost halftime for them to figure out that they were going to have to take it and no one was giving them anything. The side of the ball that changed the game was defense, they started to make plays on the ball getting 4 int. and holding the Hawaii QB to 16-41. We liked USC because they have one of the easiest schedules in the PAC 12 but if they expect to compete we are guessing they are going to have to bring a lot more then what they had in Hawaii.

GAME OF THE NIGHT!!!

No it’s not Ole Miss-Vandy for all you East Coaster Bias out there, it was Fresno State-Rutgers without a shadow of a doubt. If you missed that game because your mom wouldn’t let you stay up past your bedtime, we urge you, if you are a real college football fan, to find that game and watch it start to finish. It had more lead changes than a NASCAR race and more scores than Robin Thicke. It was from start to finish one of the best games and even had a classic OT finish of the away team going for the two-points to win!!! Freakin Classic, a QB making his outside Heisman Campaign going 52-73 456 yards and 5 touchdowns, in Derek Carr and a Rutgers team saying we might have some holes but we can score too, Nova for Rutgers also threw for 5 TD’s. This game should be on ESPN Classic sometime soon, look it up and enjoy. We’re just thankful that Fresno made it out with the win, that game is going to do wonders for their confidence and we have them winning the Mountain West over Boise State…

2013 @The_Sun_Belt Conference Preseason Football Top 5 Rundown

August 29, 2013August 28, 2013 benchwarmer42Leave a comment

2013 @The_Sun_Belt Conference Preseason Football Top 5* Teams Rundown

The Sun Belt Conference is undergoing a makeover, from 2012 to 2014 the conference is having to adjust to realignment and during that adjustment period we get the 2013 8 team conference. Now, understand one thing, this conference is not a joke and depending on how good Troy is, the conference could be 5 deep of teams that could upset some of the big boys. With only 8 teams in the Sun Belt our Rundown will only be 4 teams, look back next season for a full Top 5 Rundown. So without anymore messing around let’s get to the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Rundown:

1. University of Louisiana Monroe Warhawks 9-3

Last year had all the makings of a special season for the Warhawks. The began with an upset of Arkansas then ULM came within 7 points of beating Auburn and Baylor. Even with those tough losses it looked like they were going to be able to put together a 10 win season, until injuries took over some of the Warhawks best players and they finished limping to the finish line but still with a respectable 8-5 overall record. The 2013 Warhawks look poised and ready to capture a Sun Belt title returning 16 starters, 7 of which are seniors and most important to that senior QB Browning. We are taking the Warhawks to avenge losses to UL Lafayette and Arkansas State and bring home a title to Monroe. Also, look for an upset at Wake Forest on Sep. 14th…

2. University of Louisiana Lafayette Ragin‘ Cajuns 9-3

The Ragin‘ Cajuns are going to be one of the best offenses in the country. Last year they finished 29th overall in yards per game and 24th overall in scoring per game, this years model will be looking to improve on that number and they will since they have a defense that ranked in the bottom of all of FBS teams at 86 in yards per game. The defense isn’t getting much help from experience as they look to replace the majority of the starters which might not be a bad thing. But the story about the ULL is the offense and what QB Broadway and Running Back Harris will be able to do. We like the Ragin’ Cajuns to compete for a title but they are going to have to wait until 2014 to win it.

3. Arkansas State Red Wolves 8-4

In 2012 the Red Wolves from Jonesboro made a serious run down the stretch and finished on an 8 game winning streak, they were one of the hottest teams in the country down to the finish and like with most small schools that causes you to lose your coach. Going into 2013 Arkansas State will have to not only deal with a new coach, which they are growing used too but they will have to find a new QB, which they haven’t done for four season. Hopefully, with an extremely experienced offensive line and a solid running back it will be a plug and play scenario for the team. The other side of the ball is a different story, the defense last season was solid keeping opponents to 24.5 points on average but this year they will need to fill in 7 starting positions will either sophomores or juniors. The defense and lack of experience QB will keep the Red Wolves from repeating for a conference title but look for a solid 8 wins and a possible bowl.

4. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 7-5

The Hilltoppers made of the best coaching hires of the 2013 offseason and one that we think will bring them a very special season in a couple of years. Coach Bobby Petrino was climbing the coaching ladder to the top when it all came crumbling because of a personal scandal, here at the R&R we could careless about what happens off the field as long as it’s not illegal or abusive, so we are excited to see what Petrino can do in Bowling Green this season. If the previous three teams weren’t as strong as they are this season we might be jumping on the Petrino motorcycle too! We know, that was a cheap one, but in reality Western Kentucky scored a nice upset last year against Kentucky but couldn’t parlay that into a conference title after losses to UL Monroe, Middle Tennessee and UL Lafayette. The 2013 season will look similar, we think Kentucky will avenge it’s loss but the Hilltoppers might be able to upset Tennessee. Overall look for a 7-5 finish, a possible bowl game and for Petrino to get a couple of recruiting classes in and the Hilltoppers will be on top of the Sun Belt for…well, until Petrino leaves for one of those big schools again.