Sunday, September 12, 2010

What to Watch, Week 3

Notre Dame and Michigan gave us great drama again and Denard Robinson is the unofficial leader for the Heisman right now. He'll get a week to pad his stats further against Massachusetts, but there are better things you could be watching.

On Friday night, California and Nevada is mildly interesting (ESPN2, Friday 10pm). Colin Kaperneck is a dual threat, like Robinson, though his passing skills might be slightly more polished. Cal has yet to be challenged and Kevin Riley, thought to be a still be a question mark at QB despite starting parts of the past two seasons, has been effective enough to keep the Bears offense rolling.

Early afternoon on Saturday doesn't have much to hold interest, so its a day for the clicker to get a workout. Maryland at West Virginia (12pm, ESPNU) is the renewal of a longstanding rivalry, being played for the 1st time since the 2007 season after the two teams met for 28 straight campaigns, including twice in 2003. Georgia Tech at North Carolina (12pm, ACC/Raycom) is the ACC opener for both teams. UNC is still reeling from suspensions due to activity involving agents and Tech is coming into the game after being on the losing end at Kansas.

Mid afternoon doesn't exactly bring much more to the table. Florida is at Tennessee in their traditional SEC opener (3:30pm, CBS) and Nebraska at Washington will be the feature ABC game at 3:30pm and will be seen in some areas on ESPN2. Jake Locker warmed himself up for the Blackshirts by torching Syracuse for four passing TDs. Nebraska hasn't exactly been tested to this point with Western Kentucky and Idaho. BYU at Florida St. (ESPNU, 3:30pm) may be worth taking a flyer on as both look to improve on disastrous performances from last week. Another sneaky game could be Baylor-TCU (4:30pm, Versus) as Baylor now has a healthy Robert Griffin whose mobility will be a test for the Horned Frogs.

Clemson at Auburn starts off the nighttime action (7pm, ESPN) and its a game that Clemson, and the ACC, could use to improve their reputation. Kyle Parker came back for his sophomore season of football after flirting with a career in baseball (he'll likely go back to the diamond before all is done) and was efficient in his 1st two games, but Auburn is a step up. Cam Newton is the man under center of a three pronged rushing attack in Auburn. Newton is the leading rusher right now, but whatever relief Onterrio McCalebb and Michael Dyer can provide will help the Tigers as they move towards SEC play.

While the ABC split national games will be worth flipping between (Notre Dame-Michigan St. & Texas at Texas Tech, the other game will be on ESPN2), Iowa at Arizona (10:30pm, ESPN) will be worth turning in for as two QBs highlight the action with Iowa's Ricky Stanzi and Arizona's Nick Foles. Houston at UCLA will also be worth watching but not for the Bruins (FSN, 10:30pm). I believe this one will be Case Keenum's best national showcase because its an opponent from an AQ conference and its in a big media market.

2 comments:

brink said...

No much of an SEC fan, eh?

Maryland/W. Va and UNC/Tech get a mention over UGA/Arkansas?

Matt Sarzyniak said...

It probably will be a good game and its probably an omission on my part. You did see UF/UT and Clemson/Auburn got mentioned right?

As for Arkansas, what have they done so far to be ranked so high? Then again, you can say that about a lot of teams. Georgia seems to be really struggling and after last season, I guess its become a make or break year for Mark Richt, which I think is kinda dumb, but expectations are higher at Georgia.