Week 0: Can Vandy go 1-0? And the bad luck of the Irish
The good news is that the SEC gets off its National-Title-winning campaign this weekend.
The bad news is that the team who’s playing this week probably won’t win the National Title. Let alone a SEC game.
Yes kids, it’s Vanderbilt (-8) playing Hawaii.
HERE’S THE LOWDOWN
Both teams are rebuilding projects
The rebuilding project at Vanderbilt is pretty nasty: Their best offensive linesman – Tyler Steen – is now anchoring the offensive line at Alabama.
And now he’s gone, an offensive line that wasn’t that good in the first place might be even worse than last season.
Let’s hope that it’s going to do a job against what should be a confidence-booster against the Rainbow Warriors. If it’s not, then woe betide them against the Big Boys…and we’re not just talking about the SEC.
Anyhow, Mike Wright’s behind them. He was named starter for the game over Ken Seals a couple of days ago. We expect both QBs to see their fair share of the ball against a defense who SECOND-WORST in the whole of college football. We don’t know if WR Will Sheppard and TE Ben Bresnahan will feast now as well – Hawaii’s brought in Iowa State transfer Virdell Edwards, who hardly played for the Cyclones last year, but that’s hardly a reason for a round of applause.
The rebuilding project at Hawaii is bigger: It’s having to replace a lot of its roster or add freshmen – its got 53 first year players, and a bunch of transfers who left after allegations of bullying and harassment by a coach who has been mentioned as one of the biggest dicks in college football: Todd Graham.
Taking his place is one of the greatest QBs in Hawaii History in Timmy Chang, playing on a field that bears his name. And it’s a high school field, because the Aloha Bowl is absolutely dilapidated. But it looks cool enough.
There is talk of a ‘new energy’ around the Hawaii program, but it should be interesting to see whether it translates to the field.
Anyway, Hawaii’s as badly thought-of as Vanderbilt is in the SEC – it’s predicted to finish last.
PREDICTION: This has been the longest Vanderbilt prediction you’ll see all season. Anyway, Vanderbilt wins by 21.
THE LUCK OF THE IRISH?
With 300 million people who are apparently Irish, it’s not surprise that college football should once again bring ‘American Football’ to the Emerald Isle, following the lead of Penn State a few years ago.
But what did the Irish do wrong that Nebraska (-13) and Northwestern have to be the two teams?
For college football crackheads like us, Nebraska’s going to be interesting for two reasons: First of all, Scott Frost might well be a SEC offensive coordinator next year if he can’t get things turned around, and secondly, Nebraska might be a lot better now Adrian Martinez has transferred (his fumbles were responsible for 3/4 of the team’s losses last year) and the program’s probably in better hands with Texas transfer Casey Thompson – who had a pretty good offensive season with the Longhorns last year (2,113 yards, 24 TDs, 9 INTs).
I don’t understand why they did it, unless they believe that Irish corporate fans are absolute suckers.
Anyway, Nebraska by 17.