Latest / Mostly College Football / #300 - Week Zero Recap: Insights and Surprises from the Season Opener
Transcript
- Micaiah: Hello everyone. Welcome to Week Zero Recap with your host, Captain Boring, and it's so good. I started doing these last year, about midway through, and I'm gonna shoot to do one kind of every week and do it as a recap. I'm more of a analytical. This episode, you know, the full-length episodes, the hour-long episodes, those will be to cover previews and to kind of talk about big the big overline. ⁓ line stories from the previous week. And these mini sodes will kind of be like a game breakdown, sort of what I saw a little more in depth to analytical in-depth. So ⁓ welcome week zero ⁓ recap with Captain Boring here and we will just get go ahead and get right into it here with start in Ireland with TCU UNC an exciting first quarter an exciting 30 minutes and then it really just got boring so much so that I fell asleep for halfway through the second quarter and halftime and I missed the safety. However, you know this is what the internet's for and and ⁓ looking up recaps on the internet. So real kind of boring game to start the college football season. However, a couple things are true. TCU, I thought, lost this game more than UNC won it. And Bill Belichick can still coach defense. He was involved in the game plan and in calling plays today. Billy Edwards wasn't terrible. 16-28, 232. Benny Hall, former Michigan transfer, 11 carries, 36 yards. They had a ⁓ Jelani Thurman, their tight end, had Four catches for 94 yards, including a big one to kind of seal the game late. Tar Heels get a 15 to 10 win. And again, I I say TCU lost this game more than UNC won it because that's just clear and obvious. 11 penalties for 89 yards. They also had a turnover. They had the punt, the snap punt go over the punter's head for a safety. Without that, it's a it's a three-point game. And maybe instead of trying to go for it on fourth down. At the end of the game, to with about four and a half minutes go that TCU had to do in order to take the lead. Maybe they kicked the field goal and now and now we're all tied up. But yeah, ⁓ North Carolina total yards 322. The game was pretty much even. Billy Edwards has got to be a sigh of relief for Bill Belichick. And Bobby Petrino, listen, he can coach offense. Okay. Bobby Petrino, that. There is no doubt in my mind that North Carolina is going to have an offense that can get you 350 yards a game minimum all season long. He knows how to coach offense. Now it will come down to turnovers, which North Carolina did in fact have two turnovers on the game. So they had to overcome those. One, it was raining. So one was a fumble, I do believe. I I actually think they both were fumbles. They both were fumbles, actually. So the quarterback play was clean. Billy Edwards, breath of fresh air for the Tar Heels and Bill Belichick there. He played a good game. He controlled the game. They had ⁓ they showed a stat early. Last year, North Carolina was like dead last in the nation in explosive plays with like two and a two and a half per game, and explosive play is dictated by whether the play goes twenty yards or not. And they had two on the opening drive. Right. So that is a breath of fresh air that Bobby Petrino brings. He's a great play caller. Little different side. TCU, we're gonna have to see because historically the loser of this Ireland game, their season, just goes to shambles. We saw it with Florida State, we saw it with Kansas State last year. Jaden Craig came over from Harvard. He had his ups and downs 20 of 30, 175. Played relatively clean. He did have two phone balls and one was lost. Again, that was just that second half, North Carolina defense. And then the running game was good. Jeremy Payne, 25 of 25 carries for our buck 42. What really gashed North Carolina early was the outside zone and the stretch plays that TCU hit him with. And then they went into halftime. Bill Belichick made some adjustments and Kind of really shut that down in the second half. Jaden Craig was sacked four times for negative 22 yards. So that didn't help the stats either. But they are going to have to figure out a way on how to be efficient in the red zone and mix the run in the pass a little bit better. Now, in TCU's defense, they were without their top two pass catchers for the entire season. So, or I'm sorry. Not for the entire season, just for this game. So they were without their top two patch catchers for this game, which probably did play into that. So, but we're gonna have to keep an eye on TCU because of just the historical, the loser of this game kind of goes on to have just a a not a very good season. All right. So we will move on to the second day of the game, and that was Virginia and NC State. In a it more inner more points were scored in this game than TCU North Carolina. However, it was pretty much all scored by Virginia 34 to 8. It was a route early. I thought that CJ Bailey with Dave Dorian. Being there for three years would have the one up on Bo Perbula. Virginia lost a lot. They replaced a lot, but they lost a lot. So I really thought that it would at least be more competitive at the very least. Right. And I actually picked them to win. Shame on me. And so now we gotta talk about it. A couple things can be true. Virginia's gonna be awesome at running the football this year. That's just plain and simple. That's very easy to see. 57 carries, 258 yards, Bo Perbula, 15 carries, 110 yards. ⁓ Jaquel Middlebrook, 15 carries, 64 yards. Like they had a lot of people involved in in the running game. Here's my concern with Virginia moving forward. If Virginia can run the ball for 258 yards every single game, they're gonna win a lot of football games. They might even be in a college football playoff, right? Because they can then dictate tempo. Their defense is gonna stay off the field. And then when their defense is on the field, they know that their offense is gonna move the ball and score. My thing to watch with Virginia is Bo Perbula was nine of 11, very efficient, 155 yards passing, two touchdowns. Very efficient. What happens when a team is able to keep Virginia to 150 yards rushing and like three yards a carry? Right? Can Bo Prabula throw the ball? Because that's what he struggled with last year at Missouri. Missouri led the nation, or not led the nation, was a top. Team in rushing. Amon Hardy, I believe, led the nation in rushing. But but they were not very good when it came to throwing the ball. Only had to throw it 11 times. Nine were completed again, very efficient. They were very wide open because of the play action, because they averaged four and a half yards on the ground. But what happens when they run into a team with a defensive front that can shut the that can shut the running game down with five guys or just with their front four? Then what does Virginia become? Can Bo and this group of wide receiver receivers, Xavier Brown, Deshaun Martin, Cameron Courtney, Connor Cox, they got a lot of C names in here. Can they consistently move the ball by throwing it? And can Bo, when teams know that they're going to throw, still be this efficient? That's just something to watch. And if the answer is yes, then guess what? Virginia's in the college football playoff. Check. They might even win the ACC. Because it was very impressive when you run the ball for four and a half yards of carry. Bo also can't be your leading rusher. He can't, I I don't think can maybe I'm wrong. I don't think an any co college quarterback can hold up, besides Haynes King, can hold up doing 15 yards of carry every single game. Unless if he's getting down for like 12 of those carries and not taking hits for 12 of those carries and only taking hit for three. Okay, then yeah, maybe. But not all the 15 carries I saw yesterday. Over half. He he was getting contacted on. CJ Bailey, terrible game. 12 of 23, 84 yards, an interception. They ran the ball for 3.2 yards of carry, 76 yards. CJ Bailey was their leading rusher. It just was not good. I'm not calling for him to be fired, but When you have a third-year quarterback and the expectations are high, and you had a good season last season, or at least a mediocre season, and you come out on the road and you you didn't dictate the tempo. You didn't dictate anything in this game. You did not have a leg up in any. Special teams, offense, defense. You you got dominated for four quarters. It wasn't even close at all. It seems to me the message is stale. It seems to me North Carolina State needs a new message. I would not be shocked if Dave Dorian is fired. I don't know what his buyout is. I can look that up real quick. Dave Dorian he he has a twelve and a half million dollar buyout without cause. It's expensive. But if you need a new message and this thing falls off the rails, and nothing I saw yesterday told me that this won't fall off the rails, offensively at least. You might need a new messive Wolfp Wolfpack Nation. So again, not calling for him to get fired. I hope NC State turns it around. Maybe they'll come back and win the ACC. And maybe these two teams will meet again. But nothing I saw. Saw it it saw it to me it seemed like a team that got stale of the message or weren't prepared and I'm not sure which is worse w w which is worse. All right. So moving on again, USC blew out San Jose State. No shocking there. Jaden Maiava was 25 of 29 for 286. ⁓ they did really ⁓ well running the ball, 4.1 yards a carry. They just dominated. The defense, though, gave up 23 third quarter points. Now, at this point, they were playing backups. And we all know with the transfer portal and NIL and everything going on in college football, teams are now just naturally not as deep as they used to be. So was that the backup the Spartans were playing their starters? Was that just USC's backups, you know, trying to get experience and they're learning the hard way? But they they gave up some yards. Is that a sign of things to come? Or again, was that just the backups? They had a lot of true freshmen playing. Yesterday the Trojans did. They played well. They have the ⁓ they have one defensive end. Let me see if I can't find his name. They have one defensive end who is 18 years old and he looks like he belongs in the NFL. He's an edge rusher. Luke Waffle, number ninety four, true freshman. He's a specimen. Sounds a little gay, but that's okay. He is a specimen at eighteen years old. He looks like he's twenty five and playing in the NFL. So we're gonna have to see where the tro where the Trojans are gonna go. This year. They're going to be a very interesting team to keep an eye on. Let's just keep an eye on that defense. New defensive coordinator. They brought him in to kind of shure things up on that side of the ball. North Dakota State handled Jacksonville State. They just played their game and welcomed and and got a and it was a welcome sight because they were able to win their first ever. FBS game. They want to play balanced football. They 164 yards passing, 209 rushing. Again, it's very similar to what Virginia wants to do, right? They want to ground and pound and then supplement with the pass. What does North Dakota State look like when they get into conference play? But this was a this was a drubbing in Fargo dome. Jacksonville State. Back to back nine win seasons. They're a good football team. North Dakota State picked them apart. Jacksonville State isn't a high level FBS school. Neither is North Dakota State, but North Dakota State like this looked like a Virginia beating up on a lower level school. That's what it looked like. And that is very impressive to me, considering that most of North Dakota State's roster last year was at or were FCS players. And now they're making a leap, taking on a team again, that back to back nine win seasons, so they know what they're doing down there. Very, very impressive. Nathan Haynes can't control things, only made one mistake, which was at the end of the first half. Brian Kelly, side note, also made his broadcasting debut for CBS during this game. Not terrible. Not terrible. For a first broadcast of a coach who always kind of sounded a little bit of a mor like a moron when he took the podium, wasn't wasn't terrible i in the booth. Complimented the play by play and the other analyst that was in the booth very, very nicely. Stanford started off the Tavia ⁓ Ta Tavia Pritchard. Season ⁓ career at Stanford, second kind of full-blown Andrew Luck season with a W over Hawaii. Hawaii ⁓ they were winning 23 to seven. Then Hawaii scored 20 straight points, and Stanford was down, went down, scored a touchdown, and then got a stock, ⁓ a scoop and score fumble. To make it ⁓ 37-27 before the final. However, the obviously this game was a lot closer than that at a point. It what it was a blowout, and then it was super close, and then it was a blowout again. Davis Warren, this should just go to show everyone, including me being the Michigan fan, that Sharone Moore had no idea what he was doing. Call him plays. Because Davis Warren was twenty-two of thirty-four for three hundred and ten yards. This what Davis Warren was the starting quarterback in that twenty-four, seven and five year that the team acted like they didn't know how to throw a forward pass. They acted like they didn't like he didn't know how to read defenses. You do one offseason with Andrew Luck and a competent caller of off ⁓ a competent caller of offensive plays, which Tavia Pritcher it is clearly, because they put up thirty thirty points, seven and that was the defense. And he throws for 310 yards, 9.1 yards of completion. They also ran the ball for 173 yards. So very balanced. Listen, this is going to be everyone was sleeping on Stanford. No stand there's nothing to like about Stanford. They graded that coaching hire like an F. I'm pretty sure ESPN did. Or at least a D. They're there, you know, people do offseason ranking. I think CBS gave it a D. ESPN gave it an F. And I'm like, listen, Andrew Luck graduated from Stanford, went to the NFL, then took a break and went back to school. And In doing all that, I'm like, this guy's just way too smart. He was a high, high level NFL quarterback. This guy is way too smart to not be able to put a competent product on the field. I picked Stanford to win. They did, obviously. Now what's gonna happen if they run into t ⁓ talent gap? Like they are going to ⁓ I believe that's Thursday, nine four. That ⁓ that's Friday night, nine four, when they take on Niam Miami. That's at home. So but they're gonna be competent. So just looking at their schedule real real quick, I'm just gonna reevaluate Stanford's schedule. I think they do lose to Miami. I think Duke is a very interesting game now. Cause I don't know what Duke's gonna be either. Georgia Tech's an interesting game. I think they get Wake Forest. So let's just say out of their next four games, they go two and two, which I think is very plausible for what I saw yesterday. So now you're looking at three and two on the year. You're looking to lose to Notre Dame. You're gonna beat Elon Musk. NC State, that should not be a contest because that's at home too, right? So now you're looking at five and three on the verge of bull eligibility. Look, you're at Louisville, no. You're at Blacksburg, maybe Virginia Tech. At Cal, that's a rivalry game. I think you're gonna get that. And then and then ⁓ you get SMU at home. So I think you're five and two. Heading into Halloween and and November. Seven and five is very reasonable. And that's awesome. This is gonna take a few years to get Stanford back. There are, and by the way, if you think that once Stanford gets rolling, that the donors won't come, Stanford is a very smart school. There are a lot of very smart people that go there, and smart people make a lot of money. Just saying they will have NIL. Hawaii is gonna be a very interesting team to watch. They threw the ball around. A lot. They just got dominated up front by by Stanford. So ⁓ we'll we'll kinda keep an eye on that. We will thank you very much. We're gonna go over to Tallahassee. 3417 looks like a blowout, right? It Florida State's bad. And I'm very worried. And Mike Norvell has $50 million buyout. So I unfortunately, Seminole fans, college football is better with you. I'm hoping. I like Michael Norvell. I want him to succeed in the worst way. It's not great. You ran the ball pretty well. Now you led the ACC in rushing last year, so that shouldn't be a surprise. 39 carries, 217 yards. That's 5.6 yards a clip. Ashton Daniels, 17 to 27, 202. But the fact, like defensively, people were falling asleep at multiple times in this game. You you kinda like Like this game was a lot closer than what it should have been. I I sometimes as a college football fan, you just watch a game and you're like the final score is not indicative of how this game went. And the stats aren't ind indicative of how this game went, right? I do that with Michigan a lot. You're just like, okay, Michigan won by thirty, but they got two pick sixes, their offense had seven three and outs, and they kind of got two late touchdowns. It just doesn't look right. There's nothing against getting better, and I hope Florida State does get better because I need them to be good for college football. I love the sport, and the sport is better when Florida State is good, especially the Florida State Miami rivalry. It just it didn't look great. And I bad is probably a too strong of a word. I just don't think that they're they're not gonna be in playoff contention. Let me look at their schedule again real quick. They get SMDU next. I think that's a loss. Then they get Bama. So they're gonna start off one and two, probably. Then you get Central Arkansas win. Virginia. Can you stop the run or not? I'm gonna go with no. That's at home. I ⁓ they're looking at one. I'm gonna count the wins on their schedule because I think that's easier. One. Two, three, four. Four and eight, five and seven, maybe. Nothing says they can't get better. It just didn't look right. It's kind of like when the Supreme Court ⁓ couldn't put their or you know that ruling about pornography and the Supreme Court and they said and they said, well, you don't exactly know what it is, but you know it when you see it. Like you can't put a description on it, but you know it when you see it, right? I can't put my finger on what didn't look right about the Seminoles winning, but you just kind of know it w when you see it. So let's see what they become, right? All right, and then the game that The game last night that I thought was gonna be the game of the day turned out to be kind of a snooze fest in the in the first half, and then kind of picked up, but I had since gone to bed was UNL V Memphis. Two very even teams. Memphis starts the Charlie Huff era. That's the word I was looking for earlier, so I apologize to everyone. Starts the Charlie Huff era 1 0. I thought that Aaron Nolan was going to get the start. He did not. Marcus Stoates got the start 1526, two touchdowns, 223 yards. Memphis ran the ball for 195 yards. That's awesome. Very balanced attack. UNLV right up there too. Jackson Arnold was 25 of 37 for 291, two touchdowns. UNL V rushing 140 or 41 carries, 169 yards. The problem with UNLV's rushing attack is Jackson Arnold carry the ball for 21 carries for 54 yards. So it's the exact same problem Virginia has. There's no way if your quarterback is your leading rusher that they are going to hold up over a 14 week 12 game schedule. Right? That's a lot of hits you got to take. These two again, UNLV was picked to win the Mountain West. Memphis was top three betting favorite to win the American. So these are supposed to be two good teams. And I I think that's what you got. Memphis scored seventeen points in the third quarter to make this game close. Or I'm sorry, to take the lead and kind of pull pull away. Sorry. And UNLV was held to seven points. Penalties were even. Time of possession. UNLV actually held the ball for longer and had more total yards. And Memphis had the one turnover. It was a it was a fun ball. But a win is a win. They traveled cross country, got the win. And now it's going to be very interesting to see because can Memphis possibly. They get Boise on their schedule. They don't have a ranked team currently on their schedule, so that's going to hurt them to try to be ⁓ but they could be, because it's the highest group of five team gets a bid into the college football playoff. Can they be that team? And listen, UNLV, they're right up there too, right? Can they be that team? Now, if it's between them and Memphis, they're gonna take Memphis because they beat them. Just some other Just some other scores from around the country yesterday that I did not touch on, which I believe the only one I didn't touch on was Sacramento State and Eastern Michigan. Eastern Michigan in Sacramento State's first FBS game, 28-17. Let me just look at the box score. But it appears that they so all pretty much all the scoring was done in the second quarter for both teams. 10 for Sacramento State, 21 for Eastern Michigan, and then each team added a touchdown on in the second half. However, this was never really close. I mean early, yes, but it was 14 to 3 in the second period, then 21 to 3, then 10 to 21, then 10 to 28, and then 17 to 28. So Eastern Michigan really had control. This entire game and the stats back that up. So welcome to Sacramento State. Welcome to the Mac. That that's just so much travel. I still don't understand why they did the Mac and not the Mountain West. ⁓ I'm not sure. But that will do it for this week zero recap. We will be back ⁓ all new episode Tuesday night, Wednesday. We record Tuesday night. Whether I can get it out Tuesday night or Wednesday, that's to be seen yet. We got game week one games Thursday. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, because it is Labor Day weekend. So this is going to be this is a big weekend of college football. Just to note, next year, every single team starts their season in week zero. So that will be very interesting to see A, if the NFL tries to move their season up to get up to get Labor Day. Or if college football does the same thing next year where everyone plays week zero. And then do they play Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday games? Do they just play Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday? Do they play any games Monday? So that'll be very interesting to see. So that's what's coming up. We're gonna preview week one. We're gonna make picks for week one. Sponsored by Kindred Couches with the games of the week. It's a very full week. There are very exciting games. So, yeah, that is what you have to look forward to. Thank you everyone for being here. I have been Captain Bourne. Make sure you wash your hands, you filthy animals. We'll see you later this week. Bye-bye.