Week 2 - 2023 Recap and Thoughts (quick hits thread)

[JBJ 3648]

Things to talk about at the watercooler:

Follow ups from last week:

Colorado may actually be good. 

Tech and Baylor lost again, but played tough games against Oregon and Utah, who should both be good this year.  Throw these two teams in the "need more information" pile.

Illinois is probably actually bad.  They lost to Kansas, who isn't terrible this year, but it was a convincing win.  Iowa won El Assico 20-13.  Still doesn't look like their year.  Nebraska lost to Colorado, and Minnesota has a not very impressive 25-6 over Eastern Michigan.  It's now a trend: the west division of the B1G is terrible.

Oklahoma came back down to earth a bit against a team with somewhat of a pulse, 28-11 over SMU.

Washington had a serviceable win over Tulsa.  Call me a believer now for their top 10 spot.

I'm putting UCF back on ignore after a plodding win over Boise State.  They may be better than expected, but not attention-worthy.

Week 2 Games and Thoughts:

 

Texas rolls Tide

Enough has been said, so quick question to ponder.  Did any position group for Bama look better than any position group for Texas?

 

Tennessee over Austin Peay 30-13

I can't tell you where Austin Peay even is, but I assume that being 0-1 in FCS is a bad thing.

Wazzou over Wisconsin, 31-22

When trying to figure out which conferences actually play better ball in 2 months, this battle of lowbies was both surprising and convincing.

There really weren't many other surprising upsets or wins this week.  Pretty much everyone else in the state of Texas lost, but the only unexpected one was Rice over UH.

Other Trends:

USC's three games have an average score of 59 - 17.  USC is back?

Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State are on autopilot.  I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not right now. The rest of their league is going to be terrible.  Throw Georgia in this camp as well, they won't play a ranked game until November, if those teams are even still ranked.

[Surly Bevo 24695]

Bama kicker was better than our kicker but that's all I got.

[gmr548 16491]

To your points on Tech and Baylor…

I still think Tech is a decent team. At Wyoming is a uniquely tricky opener and I think that combined with believing their own hype caught them and cost them a game they shouldn’t have lost. As Texas fans know, that happens from time to time.

Baylor is not. I admit I vastly overrated them in the preseason. Playing Utah close at home in 100 degree heat while Utah is on their garbage backup QB is not an achievement. Utah switched QB’s and knifed down the field. The Utah defense controlled the Baylor offense. Baylor will be a 3- or 4-win team. If Texas doesn’t beat them comfortably that’s a red flag for conference play.

To your question on Bama v Texas, I don’t think the gap between the Alabama and Texas WR/TEs was as big as it was presented. Bama’s group beat Texas’s secondary plenty and actually caught what was thrown to them, which was a problem for Texas. They seemed more or less even to me, maybe slight edge to Texas for depth. But that doesn’t flip a game, Texas was the better team.

[kevwun 15620]

13 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

Bama kicker was better than our kicker but that's all I got.

He's gonna be a long time NFL kicker.

[UTEX_ME 4754]

Turtle Tom lost at home to a MAC school by a touchdown 17-10 while leading 10-7 with 5 mins left in the 3rd.. time = flat circle 

[ClubWhatever 12087]

On 9/10/2023 at 8:50 PM, UTEX_ME said:

Turtle Tom lost at home to a MAC school by a touchdown 17-10 while leading 10-7 with 5 mins left in the 3rd.. time = flat circle 

And rushed for a total of 5 yards while doing it.  I think Lil Thurms QBR was 9.