Paine's College Football Week 3 Take

First off, sorry to Hamilton for his team's horrible loss last week. I said when Rodriguez left and they hired Stewart that I thought WVU was over as a major football program for the foreseeable future, but it looks like that's coming to fruition sooner than even I expected. Stewart can't call plays and he can't recruit, and the only reason he was hired was because he happened to be around when WVU won their bowl game last year. In WVU's defense they came up against what is apparently a very good East Carolina team led by a very talented Coach Holtz, but what made it horrible wasn't so much the fact that they lost as how they lost, namely, horribly. Anyways.

Cal is back in the top 25, as they should be. Everything was firing on all cylinders for them, offense, defense, passing, running, pass coverage, run coverage, special teams... all on point. All 3 quarterbacks Cal dressed that day passed or ran for touchdowns. Also, consider RB Jahvid Best in the Heisman running.

I agree with the current rankings for the most part, but there are some things I don't like. I like ECU at #20 in USA Today, but I don't like them at #14 in the AP. They seem like a good team, but I just can't sign onto going straight from unranked to #14, it's too much of a jump at one time. They don't really play anyone else all year, though, so I guess it's good for them that they got bumped up so high right at the start. Also, Ohio State should have dropped even further than they did. The voters have done this continuously over the last two years. OSU is overrated, already! Figure it out, puhh-lease! I also think it's ridiculous that Brigham Young barely lucked out a win over unranked Washington and yet they only dropped by 3 in the Ap and didn't drop at all in USA Today.

As for games of the week...

--#1 USC over #5 Ohio State by 3 touchdowns. Not even close. I'm glad Wells is gonna play, because I don't want the voters to have any illusions about the strength of either team (or the weakness, in OSU's case).

--#21 Fresno State over #10 Wisconsin. I don't think the Big Ten is a good conference, I really don't. I don't think Fresno State is that great either, but this is their only real test this year and I think they'll get up for it. This is my upset of the week.

--#13 Kansas over #19 South Florida. I think Kansas is really good this year.

--UCLA over #18 BYU. UCLA is a pretty good team and I don't have much confidence in BYU at all. I wouldn't really consider this an upset.

--#23 Cal over Maryland by a million points. Cal is playing extremely well, and Maryland sucks so bad that their coach is expected to make some system and personnel changes this week (and that rarely turns out well). Maryland is no better than Washington State, and although I don't expect another 66-3 pasting, I also don't expect Cal to have to keep its first string in longer than 2 or 3 quarters.

--#111 Navy v #112 Duke. Nah, they're not that bad, and that's why I highlight this matchup. For the first time in millenia, this isn't a battle of the winless. Both teams already have a win! Crazy!