Week 2 of the college football season is upon us. As Steve Czaban would say: hug it. Hug every single weekend, because you only have 14. Last night, Toledo put the MAC on notice (and maybe Ohio State too) by blowing out Colorado 54-38. Today, we’ve got a full slate of games ranging from money blowouts to very good chances to pull off major upsets.
Toledo looked outstanding on offense, as QB Aaron Opelt led the way with 4 passing TDs, 2 rushing, and over 400 yards of offense, while Colorado’s defense seemed confused, frustrated, and eventually disinterested. But don’t start engraving any trophies yet, that same Colorado team did manage to score 38 of their own, meaning that the Rockets have now given up 90 points in 2 games. Time will tell if any of their MAC competition has an offense good enough to go score-for-score with Toledo.
Some of the highlights from the first waves of games today:
Central Michigan at Michigan State, Noon, ESPN2- Central is hoping to rebound off a road loss in Arizona, but a trip to see the Spartans is no easy way to do that. At the very least, they’ll hope to put up a real fight and keep from getting demoralized before the MAC season gets going in a couple weeks.
Fresno State at Wisconsin, Noon, ESPN: Fresno will hope to do what Toledo did last night, although they won’t have the help of a home crowd. Wisconsin is coming off a down year, and didn’t exactly wow the football world with an 8 point win over Northern Illinois. Fresno will hope to announce that there are at least two good teams in the WAC, especially with Boise State coming to town next Friday night.
Pittsburgh at Buffalo, Noon, Regional TV: Unless you live in those areas, you’ll probably have to watch this one on the ticker. But stranger things have happened than Pittsburgh losing to a mid-major on the road, and Buffalo will be looking to get the attention back on them after Toledo’s romp last night.
Troy at Florida, 12:21 PM, SEC Network: Seriously, do not tune in before 12:21. The SEC Network’s pregame is intolerable, especially to fans of our conferences. Don’t look for the announcers to give much love to Troy, and don’t look for Troy to win… but they could frustrate the Gators here and there and should at least do better than Western Kentucky did on the SEC Net last week.
Arkansas State at Nebraska, 1 PM: Also probably not available except on PPV, Ark State is a very long shot, but they’re playing with confidence. If Nebraska is looking ahead to Virginia Tech (their only non-Sun Belt OOC game, by the way), Arkansas State could make an afternoon of it.
Enjoy the first batch of games, I’ll give you a few more to keep an eye on in a couple hours. I’ll be tweeting along as best I can throughout the day, and hanging out with the gang at The Gally Blog for at least a little while if/when they get their liveblog going.