Week Two: Wake Forest at Vanderbilt
Good news in Week Two for No. 23 Wake Forest (1-0). Collegefootballfan.com will see them play when they visit 2-0 Vanderbilt Saturday. Starting QB Sam Hartman, sidelined by a non-football medical issue, returns to action this weekend. Hartman led the Demon Deacons last season with 4,228 passing yards and 39 TD passes. Sitting out last week versus VMI, Brett Griffis stepped in to run the run/pass option (RPO) effectively for HC Dave Clawson’s team. With Hartman back to throw to a flock of receivers and with RB Christian Turner who galloped for 100 yards last week, all cylinders should be firing Saturday. The Wake question remains on defense under new DC Brad Lambert in from Purdue a year ago.
Vandy, off a 2-10 2021 season, won it first two games with a lot of points on the board led by QB Mike Wright. With wins at Hawaii (0-2), 63-10, and over FCS Elon 42-31, he leads the team in passing with 391 yards and in rushing with 247. Six TDs came on his passes and four on runs. How tested he will be by Wake will be seen on Saturday. If Lambert brings improvement, this may be a good test for him. If he hasn’t, this could be an unanticipated tight, high-scoring shoot-out between Vandy and Wake.
A few choice words for Microsoft Guidelines
In the wake of last weekend’s results, stories ran on line about new ratings. Of course, the comments came raging in. We don’t add much commentary to these waste-of-time articles. Primarily, we observe for entertainment purposes. If anything, we’ll attempt a short, hard-hitting zinger. We avoid offensive words/language knowing they prevent publication. A reader named “Bo Sai” commented basically to the effect, “Your writer glossed over the fact that Miami defeated BCU of the ACC, 70-13. No mention of that…” Four others responded with likes. Had to laugh and provide this response: “Hahaha! BCU is Bethune Cookman, a HBCU school, not Boston College” (I figured BC losing to Rutgers, 22-21, was embarrassing enough). “Does not follow guidelines” message popped up right away. Why? Because I wrote, “Hahaha!”?
I deleted that phrase. Still no good. I simplified it further using no off-color language, etc. though I felt like it. Still not following guidelines. Steamed, because Microsoft blocked a simple response for a correction, eventually popped up a drop-down. Only having generic choices that didn’t make sense to say, “this comment is not correct” regarding the original submittal. I eventually chose “Wrong topic”. I only typed in “Bethune-Cookman”. The point is, if Microsoft enforces guidelines for comment fields, they should be monitored by people who know about the topics being discussed. This is what I want to say directly to Microsoft now. “Don’t let your computer geeks monitor comments made by idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about. If you can’t, stuff it!” Anybody offended? Political comments are minimized overwhelmingly for sure, but comments about college football like this? They can just “stick it, too!” Offended? “Tough.”
Preseason’s Nos. two, three, and four
Ohio State, Georgia, and Clemson – three teams on our slate – already changed to Georgia, Ohio State, and Michigan. The Buckeyes had a tougher than expected time with Notre Dame. The Irish led 10-7, but OSU overcame, 21-10. Georgia wailed on Oregon under their former DC Dan Lanning, 49-3, basically signaling to all the world the PAC-12 falls out of CFP contention already (Utah, USC?). Michigan wrecked Colorado State, 51-7, to edge ahead of Clemson. More importantly, this reinforces our point pertaining to our Alabama 55 – Utah State 0 game review.
Jim Harbaugh’s U of M squad has the most pathetic slate of three opening non-conference games all at home. Colorado State, already decimated 0-2 Hawaii in Week Two, and then preseason No. 131 UConn! Question to pollsters: Michigan deserves to jump past Clemson, who whipped horribly coached Georgia Tech, 41-10, based on this alone? At least Tech is a weak Power Five, not a Bottom Five school! Even upcoming Clemson foes FCS Furman and LA Tech can probably beat all three.
Get it together coaches
If Nick Saban had the guts to call Harbaugh (or vice versa) and negotiate a home-and-home series to open on consecutive years to play one another, fans wouldn’t have to watch or pay to attend these horrific games. Play now and see who makes the playoffs. That would be tremendous to open the season with these two egomaniacs competing. Why not? Both teams have full seasons ahead to recover from a loss by winning their conferences. No guts, no glory – Bama and U Of M only pick on teams that don’t recruit on the same level! Please go back and read to our last game review.
Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins is done
We saw his debut season as HC at Temple. We respected the positive developments of that program prior under Matt Rhule (no pun intended). The Owls headed in the wrong direction under the former defensive coordinator of Urban Meyer’s Florida teams. Temple football played with no discipline. Mistakes and penalties pervaded under him with thug tactics. Collins stayed two years, and then he headed to replace Paul Johnson’s triple option offense at Georgia Tech. After Monday night’s loss to Clemson, his record at Tech stands at 9-26. He’s done nothing to improve this program. Johnson left behind an 82-61 record over 11 years despite supporters not taking a liking to his run-oriented offense. Collins’ forte sides on defense. Last season, opponents averaged 33.5 ppg against the Rambling Wrecks. In Week Two, this program is already done under Collins. Stick a fork in them and look for him to become a DC again elsewhere, maybe.
Other teams on our 2022 schedule heading into Week Two
Spence Rattler passed for 227 yard and one TD in his South Carolina debut against Georgia State last week in a 35-14 victory. He faces No. 16 Arkansas and No. 2 Georgia the next two weeks. We see him Week 6 at No. 20 Kentucky (1-0) winner over Miami (O.)…James Madison smashed Middle Tennessee at home in their FBS debut, 44-7. The Dukes passed for 287 yards and rushed for 261. The Blue Raiders returning QB Chase Cunningham threw for a meager 107 yards and the rushing game accumulated only 12 yards. JMU will visit Louisville (0-1, lost at Syracuse 31-7) on November 5 to become our 131st FBS team. LU’s Scott Satterfield sits on another hot seat… MTSU will be seen in action at home against UTSA (0-1) on September 30 and home against WKU (2-0, winners over Hawaii 49-17).
Texas round-up
The UT San Antonio Roadrunners fell at the Alamo Dome to the No. 25 Houston Cougars who we will see play at Navy. The Cougars overcame a 14-point deficit in the final period to snap UTSA’s 10-game home winning streak in three OTs, 37-35. Houston QB Clayton Tune completed 22 of 32 for 206 yards and three TDs while rushing 15 times for 51 yards and a score. The Roadrunners’ QB Frank Smith completed 28 of 43 for 337 yards and three TDS while rushing 63 yards and one TD. These two will provide severe firepower against defenses when we see them face Navy and MTSU respectively.
Roll call
Navy was one of two FBS squads that fell to the FCS in their opener. Delaware won 14-7 under new HC Ryan Carty who led the Blue Hens as QB to their 2003 FCS national championship. Bad sign: first time in years Navy’s leading receiver outgained their leading rusher in yardage, 77 to 47. The Mids also fumbled three times in the first half. The first on their initial drive resulting in a Blue Hen score… Army (0-1) who we don’t see until Navy in Philly, lost to Coastal Carolina, 38-28. CCU QB Grayson McCall threw three TDs and ran for the clincher with 3:01 left.
For Week Two, in the best matchup among teams we’ll see this season, the No. 9 Baylor Bears (1-0) visit No. 21 BYU Cougars (1-0). We’ll see Bears at Texas in November. We saw the Cougars at Lavelle Edwards Stadium last season when they defeated UVA, 66-49. Without starting QB Jaren Hall in the Independence Bowl, we watched them lose to UAB, 31-28. With Hall returning healthy, BYU going against the tough Bear defense will be interesting. Baylor counters with their Soph QB Blake Shapen who keyed the defeat of Oklahoma State in last year’s Big Twelve championship. These two teams will be meeting for the first of many times as BYU joins the Big Twelve conference next year. Both programs should be fired up to learn more about one another in this one.
Other Week Two games of interest
We’ll see Texas State (0-1) host Louisiana Thanksgiving weekend. State fell to Nevada 38-14 to lower HC Jake Spavital’s record to 9-28. The future in San Marcos does not look good for him unless he starts to win early and often. Louisiana defeated SE LA 24-7 in HC Michael Desormeaux’s first game… Texas clobbered UL Monroe, 52-10, before facing Alabama this weekend. The following week, ULM travels to Bryant Denny to be “entertained” by Alabama. Good plan Nick Saban…Austin Peay recovered from last week’s loss to WKU by slamming the Presbyterian Blue Hose, 63-0. The foe we will see them play next comes September 24 as Eastern Kentucky. EKU came up short versus FBS eastern Michigan, 42-34…Auburn showed no mercy to FCS Mercer 42-16. San Jose is next before we see them host PSU.
Appalachian State kept coming back at home against North Carolina until time expired, 63-61. The Mountaineers travel to Kyle Field this week. Can HC Shawn Clark roust his defense and QB Chase Brice keep the wheels turning on offense to upend the Aggies in Week Two? Based on ASU history, we think they have a good shot…Troy (0-1) with recent WKU transfer QB Jarret Doege lost at Ole Miss, 28-10. The Trojans visit Appy State and host Marshall before heading to face his short-term WKU teammates (2-0) on October 1. We look forward to that one. Good move, Jarrett?… The other FCS win over an FBS program last Saturday: William & Mary 41 – Charlotte 24. Wonder if William made the difference in this game? Leaving this in my wake, can I say that without offending anybody?
Look for our book
ed. by – Steve Koreivo, Author of Tales from the Tailgate; from the Fan who’s seen ’em all! If you enjoy the articles on our blog, please click on the book title to above enjoy our unique story of attending games over 30 years to reach the goal of seeing every FBS team play at least once. Follow us through time on this fun journey!
