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The NCAA made the right decision in allowing Jeremiah Masoli to be eligible immediately at Ole Miss (he has earned his degree and his transfer fits the rulebook just fine).
But football karma has its own rules sometimes. And Karma? She is the twin sister of Payback ... a bit of a witch.
So even though the Rebels and Masoli followed the letter of the law in his enrollment at Ole Miss, Jacksonville State did not have to play along. In what was an otherwise forgettable opening weekend to the 2010 college football season (the one big game will be played Monday night), the Gamecocks caught a ride on a second-half lighting bolt and provided Saturday's most compelling theater.
The weird thing about it was that Masoli and the Mississippi offense did everything right to start the season right. The defense, though, forgot to play in the second half and overtime, as Coty Blanchard led Jacksonville State to the wild 49-48 double-overtime shocker.
Masoli, Oregon's star quarterback last year, was hardly missed in the Ducks' 72-0 victory over New Mexico. It was as though Oregon did not have the distraction in the offseason of having their erstwhile Heisman Trophy candidate booted off the team for off-field transgressions. He performed well in relief for Mississippi and had helped the Rebels to a 31-10 halftime lead, which was still 31-13 entering the fourth quarter.
But that's when the wheels fell off for Houston Nutt's team, and Blanchard went off, capped by his remarkable 30-yard touchdown pass to Kevyn Cooper in the tippy-toe back of the end zone on a fourth-and-15 play in the second overtime. Gotta hand it to coach Jack Crowe for going for two at that point ... and to Blanchard for finding Calvin Middleton for the game-winning 2-point play.
Moral victory for UNC
The LSU-North Carolina game was supposed to be the game of the day, and it came pretty close despite the mass suspensions and distractions that Carolina endured.
Let's face it, LSU did experience a dramatic letdown following its 30-10 halftime lead against the Tar Heels. But the persistence shown by Butch Davis' team was something to behold — right down to the 14 fourth-quarter points and getting to the 6-yard line at the end of the game before falling 30-24.
Considering that North Carolina was missing 13 key players, that's an indication that the 18th-ranked Tar Heels actually should deserve to rise in the polls this week. Meanwhile, LSU did not look like the 21st best team in America, as designated by the polls.
Nothing's automatic anymore
Let's not hear any more about whether a team from a "non-automatic qualifier conference" can possibly earn an appointment in the BCS national championship game. This season began with Mountain West teams defeating two Pac-10 teams and a Big East power, along with a WAC team handling the defending Big East champion. And that's before Boise State takes on Virginia Tech on Monday in the only top 10 matchup so far this season.
Utah defeating Big East contender Pittsburgh, TCU beating Pac-10 contender Oregon State, BYU defeating mid-range Washington out of the Pac-10, and Fresno State handling Big East defending champ Cincinnati ... and even Utah State falling to Oklahoma by merely a touchdown, we can longer dismiss those teams' games against one another as "meaningless small conference games."
We know all about the argument of "They wouldn't be able to hang through a full season with the big boys," but that's simply an age-old position designed to maintain the money and power in the hands of those that have traditionally held it. The problem is that argument can no longer stand on verifiable data (also known as games!) since major conference teams have not proven themselves capable of defeating these "other conference" teams consistently — or even at all.
We'll need to keep an eye on TCU, Utah, BYU, and probably Boise State all year.
Snapping for Gators wasn't a snap
Florida's dozen less-than-routine shotgun snaps were more than a little ironic. Mike Pouncey was a second-team All-American as a guard last season and he is projected as a guard in the NFL. But he moved to center to replace his brother, Maurkice, who left early and became the Pittsburgh Steelers' first round draft pick.
What's more, coaches considered moving him to tackle last week because of injuries on the Gators' offensive line, but they left him at center to ensure stability at the position with a new quarterback. But his snaps were all over the lot on Saturday, putting QB John Brantley at a disadvantage even before plays developed. The result was a terrible offensive performance in a 34-12 victory over Miami of Ohio, which Pouncey took responsibility for and vowed to fix with extra practice this week.
The idea, of course, is that if he smoothes out his snaps, then Brantley's timing will improve, and the whole offense will take the giant leap forward that it will need to get past South Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky in the next three weeks, leading to the Oct. 2 showdown at Alabama.
The two Jakes
We can remove Washington's Jake Locker from the Heisman Trophy short list. Locker did not play poorly in the Huskies' opening 23-17 loss at BYU, but he didn't play particularly well either. He threw for 266 yards and ran for 29 more but failed to get the Huskies any second-half points despite three fourth-quarter chances to drive his team for a winning touchdown, which is something a Heisman Trophy candidate should be expected to do.
Locker arguably wasn't even the most impressive Jake in the game.
True freshman Jake Heaps is sharing the BYU quarterback position with veteran Riley Nelson (coach Bronco Mendenhall has them alternating with each possession), and he completed a workmanlike 12-of-21 passes for just 122 yards.
But for a kid who was playing high school football just a few months ago, Heaps made some eye-popping throws. In one stretch, two of his passes — covering about 30 and 20 yards — blew right through the receivers' hands and fell incomplete.
It was reminiscent of a quarterback who 32 years ago shared the Stanford job as a true freshman before stepping up and making the position his own. His receivers were routinely tattooed on the forearm or chest with the X of the imprint from the end of the football. It was called "The Elway Cross." BYU receivers are surely absorbing similarly temporary tattoos these days from Heaps.
More bad news for USC
The downfall of USC seems to be pretty complete.
Not only were the Trojans dethroned last season following a seven-year run of Pac-10 championships, but then Pete Carroll left, and then the probation hit, and the school gave its copy of Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy back.
And then Saturday, 2004 Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart was dumped by the Arizona Cardinals.
Effacious and efficient
Speaking of impressive quarterbacks, I'm not sure I would have anticipated the first true freshman ever to start a season opener for Joe Paterno would get to throw 29 passes. But there was Robert Bolden, going 20-for-29 for 239 yards and two touchdowns in a 44-14 victory over Youngstown State. He was intercepted once, but that was when the receiver slipped and fell on his route.
You want efficiency? Alabama coach Nick Saban got every bit of that from Greg McElroy, who was 13-for-15 for 218 and a touchdown, without a pick. And that was without Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram in the lineup.
But Terrelle Pryor is the guy I can't take my eyes off of. Ever since the Rose Bowl, when he lit up Oregon, he has raised the specter of lifting Ohio State beyond its good-but-not-great-enough status and his 247 yards passing with three TDs and no interceptions against Marshall suggest that the Rose Bowl performance was not just a scarlet-and-gray dream.
Snoozy Saturday
Alabama staged perhaps the most impressive opening performance of any team in the country, dispatching San Jose State, 48-3. And Ohio State's 45-7 rout of Marshall was right there.
Well, Oregon won 72-0, and Tennessee 50-0, but they were among so many meaningless first-weekend mismatches that it's hard to draw many conclusions quite yet. It IS interesting that the Vols visit the Ducks this week.
Of 74 games played so far, a third of them (24) have been decided by five touchdowns or more, and more than half of them by 25 or more points.
The schedule surely offers a lot more interesting games this week.
A glance ahead
Monday, Sept. 7
Boise State vs. Virginia Tech — The winner will be in the national championship conversation for a long time.
Thursday, Sept. 9
Auburn at Miss. State — Bulldogs posted nearly 600 yards vs. Memphis, and Auburn defense was shaky.
Saturday, Sept. 11
Georgia at South Carolina — Has Spurrier regained offensive touch? The 41 last week were SC's most since '06.
South Florida at Florida — Will quality snaps make the difference for the Gators?
Michigan at Notre Dame — This time last year, we thought these teams were interesting ... then they weren't.
Florida State at Oklahoma — Sleepwalking OU better wake up, since Jimbo has 'Noles wide awake.
Iowa State at Iowa — Stability, thy name is Ferentz (extended through 2020 at about $3.7 million per).
Penn State at Alabama — Both teams showed midseason form in openers, but Lions still have a rookie QB.
Oregon at Tennessee — Won openers by a combined 127-0 against weak-but-major-college competition.
Stanford at UCLA — Stanford, with QB Andrew Luck, has become the trendy pick to win Pac-10.
Virginia at USC — Troy Boys have something to prove after allowing Hawaii to score 36 points.
