Wow, Cincinnati.

Anyone see the NC State - Cincinnati game last night? Zach Collaros was sure impressive. I've been a fan of his for a few years now, since he was playing as a back-up to Tony Pike in 2009 (even then I felt like he should've been the starter). I like his size, his toughness and ability to run, and this year so far, his passing game has gotten a lot better with accuracy and his vision.

I was impressed anyways.

LSU

Stayed up waaaay too late last night (on a workday night too!) watching the replay of #3 LSU- #25 Miss. St. I was really interested in this SEC matchup, and it even turned out to be a much better game than I expected. I kind of thought LSU would handle the Bulldogs easily, but that was not the case. It was closed game, tied most the way through. LSU seemed to crash mentally in the 3rd, giving up penalty after penalty and allowing Miss. St to get not only great field position, but momentum too. All they got out of that series was a field goal and it remained tight. LSU pulled it back together and scored the game's only TD in the 4th quarter to pull ahead and win it.

There were some big time hits, and some amazingly athletic plays though. It was great SEC football.

Cam who?

Can Newton threw for 422 yards today against the Cards. Who saw that coming?!

ASU's Ranked 22!

Check it out!

http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings

I realize they're all the way up at 18 in the coaches poll, but the AP poll and the 22nd ranking is the number that will show up next to their name when they're playing this coming week, so we're gonna go with that for now.

Way to go Devils!

Just a Plug For One of My Favorite Teams

Saturday is a Special Day

Most Saturdays are quite busy for me. Wake up at 8:00 to play basketball, then there's always something to work on at the house; the water heater, remodeling the bathroom, spraying for crickets, sealing the shower, working on the yard... And after that there's grocery shopping or chores (there's always laundry), preparing my Sunday School lesson for church, or watching Trey so Shirley can get other things done. And then, well, I'm a social guy and like to visit with friends or have company over... So even in the off-season, there's not much time for anything.

But come next Saturday, chores will be put off, house projects will get done on week nights, basketball will end a little earlier, and if friends want to hang out, they better like watching football. Saturday, is a special day. Much to my wife's chagrin, yes, Saturday is a special day. Last year it didn't hit me until the very first Saturday of college football. But this year... I'm feeling it.

I happened to have a couple free hours last Saturday, and I spent most the time trying to find the remote (we don't watch a lot of tv in our house). All I wanted to do was turn on the tv and find some football. Now I knew it wouldn't be on, but I was ready for it. I passed a little time sitting on the couch just as if I was watching Michigan or Miami on a Saturday at noon... It was nice. And I can't wait.

So here's to 9 days left...

Will this be the year for ASU?

In the preseason coaches poll (the USA Today Poll), ASU was 26th - meaning they just missed actually getting their name on the Top 25 list, instead, getting the "others receiving votes" asterisk.

In the ESPNU Fan Rankings, ASU ranked 25th! But I don't put much stock in fan rankings and I chalk this up to ASU just being a big school with a lot of students/fans.

But in the ESPN Power Rankings, ASU comes in at 21!

ASU was only 6-6 last year, but that included a few really (no, really) close games against Wisconsin, Oregon, and USC. I think a lot of  the hype about the team this year is a hope that since they're returning a lot of starters (something like 11 on offense and 7 or 8 on defense), that they'll be able to win those close games this year. All of those "well yeah, but if only..." games.

Another high point is Junior linebacker Vontaze Burfict. Burfict has shown amazing play-making ability in his 2 years in the league. I still remember how he single-handedly kept Georgia out of the endzone at the end of a close game (in what was only his 3rd game of college football), stuffing them at the goalline play after play. But he's also been a consistent source of penalty yards for the Sun Devils. Rumor is he's "matured", but to be truthful, I'll believe it when I see it.

I was a big fan of all-conference corner Omar Bolden, but he's out for the season with an ACL injury. ASU's pass defense was terrible last year with Bolden - I'm not optimistic about it without him.

Also, with the addition of Utah, and Colorado, and the splitting of the now Pac12 into two divisions, ASU won't play Stanford (best quarterback in the league) or Washington this year. While Washington is insignificant (unless they prove themselves otherwise), not having to play against Andrew Luck is certainly good for our pass defense.

When you add everything up, the good and the bad, I'm confident ASU will pull off a winning season for the first time since 2007 (they were good that year). And if all else fails, at least they'll look good in their sleek new uni's: