Author: rickro51

Ohio U.’s presumptive starting QB going into August camp was JD Sprague.  Sprague had started 10 games for the Bobcats the previous 2 years.    About 10 days ago, it had been announced that Sprague had left the team…That is pretty big news and made me wonder why.

The coverage on ESPN regarding the Sprague departure:  Zip, zero, nada, aucune.   There are so many interesting stories that do not involve the Power 5 conferences. where ESPN and its media brethren tend to give virtually no coverage.  This is one of the reasons I love sites like Hustlebelt.com which covers the MAC.

It turns out Sprague was dissatisfied with progress on his surgically repaired shoulder and allegedly left the team for that reason.  But when an incumbent QB bails two weeks before its opener (against Texas St.) , that is news! !

Fear no more, COLLEGEFOOTBALLODYSSEY.com  and its investigative staff will do their best to keep you posted.   RickRock

Almost 50,000 Aussies will experience the joy of college football Sat afternoon!!  (their time)   Makes me tingle with anticipation.    This is the first college game in Oz since 1987 (a BYU-Colorado State tilt that was viewed by less than 10,000)

Imagine how much travel the Rainbow Warriors will have in their first two weeks of the season….They will play in Ann Arbor in 8 days.  It cracks me up that their flight to Sydney is actually shorter than the travel from Honolulu to the Big House.

Cal’s flight to Sydney was 12 hours…their scheduled reaction to jet lag was, “What jet lag?  They immediately had a practice, then took a swim in the ocean.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Hawaii’s new head coach, Nick Rolovich.  He was the QB for some high octane offenses for the Rainbow Warriors.  One of my all-time favorite games was  Hawaii’s regular season finale in 2001 against an undefeated BYU.  Rolovich and company piled on 72!!!!  in a 72-45 win that featured Owens shattering the all-time record for return yards…..if memory serves he had about 240 by the end of the first quarter!!!  Broke Tutu Atwell’s record when Atwell was a Gopher.

As the opener approaches, I am waking up each morning with a special, tingling sensation.

Openers are an animal all its special species….Kind of like bowl games.   I am always intrigued as to what the betting public thinks of each contest.   My general sense is that some teams are favored by too much in openers  — especially if they have to replace 3+ offensive line starters.  No matter how talented the big uglies may be, it takes time for them to gel as a unit.  To a lesser extent, this also applies to the coordination of the entire offensive unit.

For that reason, I think three terrific teams may be giving away too many points in the opener.

To wit:

Alabama-10   vs  USC

Stanford-15 vs KState

Oklahoma -10.5 vs Houston

Arguably, I should add LSU – 9.5 to this list, especially at Lambeau Field, but they are so talented (even with recent injuries, including DE LaCouture lfyr) that even with so-so QB play, the Tigers rate to be a load and a half.

Let me know what you think!!  Rick Rock