Man, oh man, were there some overreactions this week…oh and the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule

Look, did Colorado surprise a lot of people this past weekend? Absolutely. No doubt about it. Deion Sanders is proving, whether you like him or not, that he can flat-out coach. And overhauling the roster like he did was not a bad idea at all. It does suck for the players that had to transfer out but unfortunately it’s football and the name of the game is winning.

Saying that………the amount of people I saw on Twitter that said Colorado will win 10 or 11 games this season was way too much. It should have been zero. Colorado may be better than advertised but they aren’t all of a sudden a New Year’s Six possibility. But hey, that’s the reactions from Week 1 of college football. Every. Single. Fucking. Year.

So let’s do it again on here! It’s overreaction time! Let’s look at some of the other overreactions you may (or may not) have heard after the Week 1 games were complete:

  • Ohio State is just an average team. Do we expect more from the Buckeyes against a team like Indiana? Sure. But they are bringing in a new quarterback and their best receiver was not 100%. The defense was amazing. Now the offense does have to be ready since in about a week and a half they get Notre Dame and that could get ugly if they don’t produce more points.
  • Colorado will have not one, but TWO Heisman finalists. What in the fuck? Who are the morons saying this? They are out there for sure. I saw them. Sure, they did great in their opening week win over TCU but calm the fuck down. TCU isn’t the TCU of last season for one and it’s only WEEK ONE. Anyway, moving on…
  • Gene Chizik has finally got the defense cooking in Chapel Hill. Again, it’s one game. Do the Heels look improved? Sure. But it’s not like South Carolina played well at all because, for the most part they didn’t. That, and the chain gang wouldn’t eat their hot dogs fast enough. Let’s see how UNC does when a top-notch offense is staring them in the face.
  • Jalen Milroe is already looking like another Alabama Jalen…that being Hurts. My God where do these people come up with this shit? Milroe looked OK but it was Middle Tennessee and he’s playing for Ala-frickin-Bama. We will see how he handles SEC competition before crowning him anything.
  • Washington has the best offense in the country. Could that end up being the case? Possibly. Michael Penix Jr. has already started his Heisman campaign in style. But let’s slow our roll here. There are at least four teams who looked better on offense (Colorado, Florida State, Oklahoma, Oregon) during Week 1. And I wouldn’t even say any of those teams will be the best offense in the country so why go ahead and put the Huskies at #1?
  • Book the Sooners for the Big XII Championship NOW! As I said, their offense was on fire but they were playing Arkansas State. We are all waiting to see if Brent Venables can have a Venables-type defense in Norman. If that happens, this could very well happen. But for now, I wouldn’t book any tickets yet if I were a Sooners fan.
  • Miami is BACK. Ho boy. Pump the damn brakes.

Let’s just put Week 1 behind us, shall we? Let’s move on to Week 2 which…oh my. Well, it’s better than Week 1. That’s really all I can say. But you know what that usually means. That’s right…chaos!

Thursday

USCanada
Murray State at Louisville7:30

Yep, that’s a new logo you see. TSN+ will be showing college football games this year. It kind of mimics the specialty pack but there are a few differences. But if you want to get TSN+ rather than the specialty pack for your college football fix, you are getting close to the same. Not a bad alternative and a good move by TSN to copy ESPN for the 10,000th time.

Friday

USCanada
Indiana State at Indiana7:00
Illinois at Kansas7:30

It kind of feels like this could be a relatively important game when the Illini travel to Lawrence to face the Jayhawks. Imagine saying that even two years ago. You’d be laughed out of whatever building you were in.

Saturday Early

USCanada
Vanderbilt at Wake Forest11:00 AM
#10 Notre Dame at NC StateNoon
Youngstown State at #5 Ohio StateNoon
Delaware State at ArmyNoon
#12 Utah at BaylorNoon
Purdue at Virginia TechNoon
James Madison at VirginiaNoon
Nebraska at #22 ColoradoNoon
Ball State at #1 GeorgiaNoon

Is the quality there? Eh, not really. But there’s choice. A lot of it. Can’t ask for much else. Also…MORNING FOOTBAW! The ACC Network’s weird annual Week 2 quadrupleheader hits again with the odd three hour-and-fifteen-minute windows. This will be a lot easier to do next year when Stanford and California join as you know one of them will host the ACC After Dark Week 2 matchup, guaranteed.

Saturday Afternoon

USCanada
Charleston Southern at #25 Clemson2:15
#23 Texas A&M at Miami3:30
UTEP at Northwestern3:30
Richmond at Michigan State3:30
UNLV at #2 Michigan3:30
Wagner at Navy3:30
#20 Ole Miss at #24 Tulane3:30
Iowa at Iowa State3:30
Marshall at East Carolina4:00
Kent State at Arkansas4:00
Tulsa at #8 Washington5:00
Appalachian State at #17 North Carolina5:15

Is the afternoon slate better than the Noon slate? Sure. Not by much though. Some intriguing matchups though. As per the rules, one of Texas A&M or Miami must win their game against each other. Ties were outlawed almost three decades ago. Will CyHawk feature more than 30 points? Can App State and UNC put up ridiculous numbers like last year? And this will be Tulane’s opportunity to get a huge leg up in the Group of Five. A win over Ole Miss would be massive.

Saturday Primetime

USCanada
Ohio at FAU6:00
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh6:30
#11 Texas at #3 Alabama7:00
#13 Oregon at Texas Tech7:00
Houston at Rice7:00
#19 Wisconsin at Washington State7:30
Eastern Michigan at Minnesota7:30
Temple at Rutgers7:30
UCLA at San Diego State7:30
Grambling at #14 LSU7:30
McNeese State at Florida7:30
Charlotte at Maryland7:30
Arizona at Mississippi State7:30
Air Force vs. Sam Houston (in NRG Stadium)8:00
Southern Miss at #4 Florida State8:30

FIFTEEN GAMES! Holy shit! I think this has to be the most in one timeslot ever on this blog. I don’t feel like checking so let’s just say we have a new record! Plenty of games but most people will be watching one game in particular, that being the Longhorns and the Crimson Tide. If Texas can somehow do what they were robbed of last season and upset Bama, this season turns on its head. This game is so big that they are also showing it on ESPN2 in the US and on TSN+ and the specialty packs. But it’s not the same broadcast. It’s the Pat McAfee Show alternate broadcast. So if you like that kind of thing, have at it.

Also, you will notice we have a new network showing college football. That’s right, the CW, with such hits as 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and LIV Golf (well it was a hit with the golfers who got fucking PAID with that Saudi blood money) will be showing ACC football (and later on, ACC basketball) this year. This replaces Bally which, for all intents and purposes, is flat broke. There will be games most weeks and, it looks like, at odd times. 6:30? Weird.

Saturday Late Night

USCanada
UC-Davis at #16 Oregon State9:00
Auburn at California10:30
Stanford at #6 USC10:30

FOX quadrupleheader? Don’t mind if I do. TSN2 quadrupleheader? Yes, please. A good week if you are a Canadian as I don’t remember seeing this much college football being shown up here in a while. Maybe things are turning around. Looks like TSN finally gives a shit about things that aren’t the CFL, NFL, and NHL (which they don’t even have the national broadcasting rights to).

Hey, Watch This!

Texas at Alabama (7:00, TSN2/TSN+/specialty pack) – Unequivocally the game of the week and there’s nothing else close. That also means there will be some wild and wacky finishes that might overshadow this game. That is, unless, this is a close one and the Longhorns pull off the upset. Then it will be THE story in college football no matter what else happens.

Ole Miss at Tulane (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – As I mentioned above, if the Green Wave pull off a win here in front of what should be a raucous crowd in hot and humid New Orleans, there’s not a whole lot that will prevent them from a perfect regular season and another New Year’s Six spot. Normally I would say this is a lose-lose situation for any Power Five team in this situation but when the Group of Five team is ranked it can count as a big win (as long as that team doesn’t totally shit the bed the rest of the way).

Texas A&M at Miami (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I made the joke above that one of these teams has to win, as per the rules of college football. We may actually see which one of these teams is back (for the most part) and which team still has some work to do. Now watch it be a 13-10 almost-unwatchable slog.

Nebraska at Colorado (Noon, FOX) – Alright, I’ll bite. Let’s see if the hype matches what ends up happening. Some might have put this higher but that’s crazy. It makes this list because of the talk, not because of the teams involved. And Colorado can’t just win this game by a little. That would prove nothing. If they beat the brakes off the Huskers, then we all have to take notice and maybe think the Buffs could be for real.

Sickos Game of the Week

Temple at Rutgers (7:30, specialty pack) – Look, Rutgers is probably going to start 2-0 which really doesn’t mean a whole lot considering their schedule but still, that’s something right? With everything on at this time, you would have to be a complete psychopath to watch this game. I will make sure to tune in and watch at least a few plays. I feel like I owe it to everyone and myself.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Ball State at Georgia (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Time to bring back the blowout of the week segment. And this could be the dictionary definition of blowout. I could see UGA putting up 60 on the poor Cardinals.

Wanna Bet?

Nebraska was actually a good bet. That game ended up exactly how I thought it would (for the most part). Florida, however….well the less said about that one the better. Time for my gambling picks for the second week of the college football season. Use them at your own peril.

Indiana (-30.5) over Indiana State

Purdue (+3) over Virginia Tech (and the outright win)

Ohio State (-41.5) over Youngstown State

Utah (-8) over Baylor

Nebraska (+2.5) over Colorado (and the upset win…definitely going out on a limb with this one)

Michigan (-37.5) over UNLV

Tulane (+7.5) over Ole Miss (but the Rebs will hold on for a close victory)

Texas A&M (-4) over Miami

Alabama (-7) over Texas

Washington State (+6) over Wisconsin (with the Badgers winning a tight affair)

Minnesota (-20.5) over Eastern Michigan

Mississippi State (-9) over Arizona

Stanford (+29.5) over USC (I feel a backdoor cover in this one)

I will be on the Twitter/X machine again this weekend. Even without Tweetdeck I am figuring out how to navigate fairly well. We shall see if I can make it two Saturdays in a row making it all the way to the end. Enjoy the games everyone!

It’s the fallout from Week 1 and Overreaction time! Also the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule.

Oh you think I should be fired? That’s funny.

How many people are now, all of a sudden, saying that Jim Harbaugh won’t make it to next year because Michigan will fire him?  Or that he will take an NFL job with, say, the Browns next year?  Or that people should burn down his house because the Wolverines had the audacity to lose on the road against a pretty good Notre Dame team?  OK that last one might be a bit extreme (but only a bit) but the overreactions from Week 1 are just like this.  Complete overreactions.  Most of the time.  Remember “Texas is Back?”  Yeah I member.  And I member how it turned out as well.  That Texas wasn’t back.  It happens every season.  Social media makes it a hundred times worse than it should be but it’s the nature of society these days.  So we have to take a step back, as college football fans, and not buy into a lot of it.  Or just go insane and have hot takes about everything.  Who cares.

Now that Week 1 is in the bag, let’s move to Week 2 and oh my this isn’t as good as Week 1.  My apologies.

Thursday

US Canada
Kennesaw State at Tennessee Tech 7:00 PM

And it starts reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally slowly this week.  One FCS game.  Reason for this is that the NFL opener is also tonight.  So yeah, probably a good idea not to compete with that.

Friday

US Canada
#16 TCU at SMU 8:00 PM

The not-as-rare-anymore Power Five team traveling to meet a Group of Five team.  In this case it’s the annual Battle for the Iron Skillet which seems to be less of a battle these days and more of a complete ass kicking since TCU has dominated this series for a while now.

Saturday Early

US Canada
Georgia Tech at USF Noon
Arizona at Houston Noon
Liberty at Army Noon
Eastern Michigan at Purdue Noon
New Mexico at #5 Wisconsin Noon
#18 Mississippi State at Kansas State Noon
Duke at Northwestern Noon
Nevada at Vanderbilt Noon
Georgia State at NC State 12:30 PM
UCLA at #6 Oklahoma 1:00 PM

As per usual, a boatload of games in the early timeslot.  MSU-KSU looks like a tasty affair early on and there are some decent games on the sked but nothing that really stands out.  As for the reverse mirror, here’s how it will look:

  • Everyone basically east of Sault Ste. Marie will get GT-USF on ABC and UA-UH on the specialty pack.
  • Everyone west of Sault Ste. Marie will get UA-UH on ABC and GT-USF on the specialty pack.

Saturday Afternoon

US Canada
Ball State at #8 Notre Dame 3:30 PM
Colorado at Nebraska 3:30 PM
#3 Georgia at #24 South Carolina 3:30 PM
Memphis at Navy 3:30 PM
Rutgers at #4 Ohio State 3:30 PM
Arkansas State at #1 Alabama 3:30 PM
North Carolina at East Carolina 3:30 PM
East Tennessee State at Tennessee 4:00 PM
Southern Illinois at Ole Miss 4:00 PM
Iowa State at Iowa 5:00 PM

Getting better with the afternoon slate as we get one of the two ranked vs. ranked matchups here.  South Carolina could make the big early statement if they could stop Georgia at home.  CyHawk goes on at the weirdly amusing 5:00 time.  Now that I very rarely use the PVR, these types of things are refreshing and if the game is close will give FOX a bigger audience as the primetime games are getting started.  And we finally get the debut of Scott Frost at Nebraska.  Let’s see if he can finally truly turn the Husker ship around.

Saturday Primetime

US Canada
#2 Clemson at Texas A&M 7:00 PM
SE Louisiana at #11 LSU 7:00 PM
Wyoming at Missouri 7:00 PM
Arkansas at Colorado State 7:30 PM
Western Illinois at Illinois 7:30 PM
Virginia at Indiana 7:30 PM
Samford at Florida State 7:30 PM
FIU at Old Dominion 7:30 PM
Kentucky at #25 Florida 7:30 PM
Alabama State at #7 Auburn 7:30 PM
#13 Penn State at Pittsburgh 8:00 PM
#17 USC at #10 Stanford 8:30 PM

Last year we actually had a stacked lineup in primetime for Week 2.  This year, not even close.  I mean yes USC-Stanford should be good and you never know what Pitt might do against Penn State.  Of course we have Clemson-TAMU to start the primetime slate so hopefully The Fighting Jimbos show up and keep that close.  Other than that, ugh.  Not impressive at all.

Saturday Late Night

US Canada
California at BYU 10:15 PM
UConn at #20 Boise State 10:15 PM
#15 Michigan State at Arizona State 10:45 PM

Actually a pretty decent late night spread although I am sure Boise will blow the Huskies out of the water.  Now we see what Herm Edwards’ Sun Devils are really all about.  They win this (or keep it very close) then I will admit I might have been very wrong with my prediction for them this season.

Games to set your eyeballs on

USC at Stanford (8:30, FOX) – FOX gets their own timeslot (kinda sorta) and the game of the week (kinda sorta).  Really it’s by default since other than UGA-SC, the schedule doesn’t have any huge games at all this week.  But we know what happens on weeks like this.  Usually absolute chaos and/or some fantastic finishes.  Anyway, this could end up being a Pac-12 title preview as long as both teams show up after their relatively dismal showings last week (even though they both won).

Georgia at South Carolina (3:30, CBS) – Survive this game and the Dawgs are over a huge hurdle towards a potential perfect regular season.  It won’t be easy against the eastern USC but remembering what their division is still like (no offense to potentially resurgent Florida, Tennessee and Missouri) means this could be the de facto SEC East Championship.

UCLA at Oklahoma (1:00, FOX) – Man, top three games and FOX has two of them.  Considering the calibre of the week though, I don’t think FOX would consider this a “success.”  The 1:00 start time is the start of FOX’s offsetting of their games from the rest of the networks to stand out.  I like it although I remember when I PVR’ed a lot of games.  This type of thing would have infuriated me to no end like two years ago.  I am hoping Chip Kelly’s offense actually shows up so that this is a decently competitive game.  Otherwise I will regret putting this game on the list.

Clemson at Texas A&M (7:00, specialty pack) – Could I have put this higher?  Sure.  I think most are.  I don’t buy it though.  I know there’s a lot of hype around Jimbo Fisher at College Station but this is Clemson we’re talking about.  A team that many believe could win the whole shebang.  TAMU isn’t there yet and it will take a season for Fisher, probably, to really make his mark on the program.  If it’s close, then I guess I will say I’m wrong but I don’t see it happening.

Mississippi State at Kansas State (Noon, specialty pack) – This is an interesting sleeper pick of a game.  Kansas State is almost never bad and Mississippi State is actually considered by some (myself included) to be the second best team in the SEC West with a potential Heisman candidate.  If this is close they will get a ton of eyeballs just before the afternoon games commence.

Honourable mention: Michigan State at Arizona State (10:45, TSN5); Kentucky at Florida (7:30, specialty pack); Penn State at Pittsburgh (8:00, ABC)

Some gambling fun and games

Florida State losing wasn’t a bad pick on my part.  Picking Texas certainly was (Texas is not back).  Here’s this week’s fun-time picks, for entertainment purposes only.  You use these to gamble you are really, uh, gambling with your own money and…I really should have thought that through:

Stanford over USC

Clemson over Texas A&M

Michigan State over Arizona State

Mississippi State over Kansas State

Georgia over South Carolina

Oklahoma over UCLA

Florida over Kentucky (for like the 1000th time in a row)

Penn State over Pittsburgh

California over BYU

Nebraska over Colorado

Arizona over Houston

As of now I see nothing on the guide for the specialty pack.  Nothing.  I know the games are coming but don’t see them yet.  Frustrating.  Hell, there isn’t even anything for tonight.  I don’t get this at all but I have harped on this before.  They have our money so they don’t have to put very much effort into the specialty pack at all…for any sport.  Well, except hockey since the slightest issue sends thousands of people into a frenzy.  Maybe I seriously will look into alternative methods of getting these games since this is becoming tiring.

UPDATE:  The entire specialty pack schedule is up.

And the NFL is back!  Falcons-Eagles tonight in the opening night game.  And the Nike Colin Kaepernick ad will air at some point.  I know this because of the millions of angry tweets on both sides of the coin about this.  2018 is ridiculous folks.  Oh well the game is on NBC, CTV2 and all the TSNs except TSN2.

I will be on the Twitter machine again this weekend.  It was a rough go last Saturday toughing it out until the wee hours of the morning especially with starting to do no caffeine.  I will try my best this Saturday.  Enjoy the games everyone and watch for any updates.