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College football’s opening weekend gave us major upsets in Oxford and Lawrence, a statement win from Boise State and a whole lot of pushups from the Oregon Ducks mascot. It also gave us an early and unflattering look at the post-Tebow Florida offense, a ridiculous touchdown grab by Julio Jones and a whole lot of top players sitting out because of off-the-field issues.
What’s the second weekend have in store for us? Oh, only arguably the greatest college football slate of all-time. Let’s dig in with four thoughts for the weekend:
1. Brothers don’t shake hands. Brothers draw up game plans against each other...
The 2000 Florida State Seminoles boasted one of the most dynamic college offenses of all time. That Mark Richt-led aerial show averaged 43 points per game, featured a Heisman trophy-winning quarterback in Chris Weinke and had a converted quarterback turned wide receiver named Anquan Boldin hauling in touchdown passes.
That same Mark Richt-led attack got absolutely kicked in the mouth in the 2000 BCS title game by a hungrier, grittier Oklahoma squad. The high-flying Seminoles were held scoreless for the first time in years in a memorable 13-2 pounding at Miami’s Pro Player Stadium.
‘Noles Nation — the coaching staff, the players, the administration, the fans — spent the game’s final minutes shuffling out of a building in their home state with the echoing chants of “Boomer Sooner” pushing them to the exits.
When Florida State travels to Norman, Okla., on Saturday, it’ll be the first meeting between the two schools since “13-2.”
The tables have turned a bit, though, both on the field and off. The Sooners, 10-1/2 point underdogs leading up to the 2000 BCS title game, are 8-1/2 point favorites on Saturday. OU’s 31-game home winning streak is the longest current streak in college football. Moreover, OU’s won five conference titles and been to six BCS bowls since that January 2000 night. FSU, the team of the '90s, meanwhile, has made just two BCS bowl games over the past 10 years.
The two squads’ overall national images have changed dramatically since that matchup as well. Fresh off back-to-back title game appearances, FSU had all the swagger in the world heading into that game. This time around, though, it’s the Oklahoma offense — despite struggling to find a groove at times vs. Utah State last Saturday — riding a wave of media hype and featuring two All-American and Heisman candidates in running back DeMarco Murray and receiver Ryan Broyles.
Though quarterback Landry Jones was awful in OU’s 31-24 opening weekend win over Utah State, the electrifying Murray ran for 208 yards and two touchdowns, and Broyles caught nine balls for 142 yards, scoring twice.
The Seminoles looked flawless against overmatched Samford last Saturday, but at No.20 aren’t considered legitimate national title contenders. A win Saturday in Norman would put them right back into the BCS conversation for the first time in … well, years.
Florida State’s defense, woeful throughout a forgettable 2009 campaign, will need to be at its very best Saturday to even stand a chance in Norman. For a unit that gave up 450-plus yards per game last season and is operating under an entirely new scheme, that may be asking a lot.
The true wild card in this one?
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops’ youngest brother, Mark. He is Florida State’s defensive coordinator.
Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, the four Stoops brothers shared one bedroom that included two twin beds and one double bed in the room. To say that Bob and Mark Stoops are “close” would be an understatement. Yet, with a seven-year gap between the two men, Mark seemed to avoid the wrath of his older brother’s childhood angst.
“We were always scuffling or in something, especially me,” said the Sooners coach of the Brothers Stoops. “But Mark was too young. He couldn’t be in the middle of it. There wasn’t anybody fighting him. So, pretty much, we’d throw him around the room and he was in the hospital getting stitches about every other week — in fun ways.”
Little bro is hoping his defense isn’t getting stitches from a dynamic Oklahoma attack early and often on Saturday.
It’s no coincidence that the younger Stoops’ defensive scheme is a mirror image of the one his older brother and Sooners defensive coordinator Brent Venables employ at Oklahoma. “It’s very similar to what we do,” Bob Stoops confirmed on this week’s Big 12 coaches teleconference. “Personality-wise, we’re very similar in a lot of ways.”
As for beating his older brother and what that would mean for him on a personal level, younger brother Mark deflected any of the media’s encouragement for a vitriolic quote on Tuesday. "There's not much of a rivalry there. We all root for one another. In this day and age, the pressure that we're under and the jobs that we have to do, the last thing that we need to do is jab each other."
An under-appreciated Oklahoma squad came in and shut the high-flying Seminoles offense down nearly a decade ago. Ten years later, a little brother is trying to do the same from the opposing sidelines.
For both programs, an FSU victory would be more than just a jab.
It’d be a BCS knockout blow for Oklahoma and an encouraging Round 1 triumph for the post-Bobby Bowden era in Tallahassee.
2. The man in the middle of it all…
Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn, like Ndamukong Suh before him, returned to school for his senior campaign despite a plethora of draftniks and NFL personnel pegging him as a first-round pick following his junior season. In 2009, the uber-athletic Clayborn racked up 11-1/2 sacks and 20 tackles for a loss. In January, he was the Orange Bowl MVP with a 9 tackle, 2 sack effort in the Hawkeyes’ 24-14 win.
Though he played last week against Eastern Illinois, his senior campaign and probably way-too-early Heisman bid really starts this weekend against Iowa State. Clayborn and his fellow defensive linemen have had this one circled since last September. No, not because the Hawkeyes lost to the Cyclones (they won 35-3). But rather, because Iowa State managed to drum up 190 rushing yards on the stout Hawkeyes D. Iowa State averaged close to 6 yards per carry in Ames last year. That number hasn’t been forgotten.
Meanwhile, on the other side of this one, Clayborn was the subject of some foul words in more than a few Ames sports bars and Elks Clubs meetings back in June. In what’s since been described as an innocent enough response (Note: It couldn’t have been that innocent), Clayborn sparked an intrastate commotion this summer. When pressed by a reporter on how often fans asked about the 2010 Cyclones’ chances, Clayborn responded, “Too much actually. It makes me want to stay in the house. But it comes with being a Hawkeye football player. I mean, we’re the only team in the state, as far as I know. And it comes with being us, I guess.”
The quote caused a ripple effect around the state, eliciting anger on one side, boastful joy on the other and a hell of a lot of discussion on sports radio stations. It then made a brief stay on the Iowa State locker room bulletin board and became the subject of great Tall Corn State Internet trash talk and discourse.
Clayborn’s since said those words were "misinterpreted", but were they really? How could they have been? Kirk Ferentz tried simmering things down a bit at Iowa’s Big 10 media days in Chicago a few weeks later, explaining, “We talk to recruits all the time, that we’re the only game in town, meaning college football. I think that’s all he was relaying. I promise you, he talked to a lot of recruits prior to that press outing. We’re all kind of programmed to say that, so then that’s all it was. It grew from there.”
Whatever Clayborn’s true intentions were, both sides will be fired up on Saturday in Iowa City. Iowa State still owns the edge (6-5) in the all-time series, but the Cyclones haven’t scored a touchdown against the Hawkeyes since 2006.
Whether in the backfield pursuing ISU quarterback Austen Arnaud or at the podium addressing reporters afterwards, look for Clayborn to be in the thick of things on Saturday.
3. Runnin’ wild
The stat from last weekend that alarmed me most? UCLA gave up an eye-popping 313 rushing yards in the season-opening loss to Kansas State.
“I looked up at the scoreboard walking off the field, and I think that they had over 300 yards rushing," coach Rick Neuheisel said. "That's not UCLA football. That's not how we play, and it can't be how we play if we expect to have any kind of success."
It won’t get any easier Saturday. The Bruins host No. 25 Stanford, a squad that kicked off the post-Toby Gerhart era of Cardinal football with seven ball carriers combining for 213 yards on the ground last week against Sacramento State. History’s on UCLA’s side, though. The Bruins have won every home game against the Cardinal since 1996, shutting Stanford out in two of the last three meetings.
If they’re going to stand a chance Saturday, though, they’ll need to improve the run defense. Pronto.
4. A quarterback’s homecoming
While most college football fans are familiar with Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore’s name, few seem to know all that much about his in-state rival and fellow Davey O’Brien watch list honoree, Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle.
They should.
Enderle’s a four-year starter and one of the more intriguing pro prospects in the sport. The 6-foot-5 gunslinger was also the force behind a surprising 8-5 turnaround season in Moscow last year, capping his campaign with a gutsy 43-42 win over Bowling Green in the Humanitarian Bowl.
A native of North Platte, Neb., Enderle will be returning to his home state when he and the Vandals take on No.6 Nebraska in Lincoln on Saturday.
"He's fired up about this game," coach Robb Akey said this week. "At the same time, he's taking a very mature approach to it. He's excited for this game, and he wants to perform well."
Enderle was a high school superstar at North Platte High School, where he lit up the Nebraska night sky as the Bulldogs gunslinger. When asked what this game meant to the family earlier this week, Ernderle’s father Martin told the North Platte Telegraph, “I’m excited for the game, and it's just surreal how the scheduling worked out for this game to even be possible.”
Mr. Enderle then added, "I never thought I'd be rooting against the Huskers — ever. Well, there was a time when Callahan was running the program, but I was hoping someone would fire him. It really will be strange, but blood is thicker than Big Red.”
He wanted Callahan fired?!
Yep, sounds like a true fan of the Blackshirts.
Enjoy the games, everyone.
