Week 0 is in the books, and no team was more impressive than the Virginia Cavaliers, who dominated a pretty good NC State team in a 34-8 shellacking, outgaining the Wolfpack 413 total yards to 168. The Cavs' Beau Pribula only needed to attempt 11 passes behind a punishing ground game that amassed 258 yards on 57 carries! I know it's only one game but this was a CFP worthy performance. They won't be tested again until Week 3 when they face West Virginia in Charlotte NC.
And another shout-out goes to North Dakota St. The Bison dominated Jax St. 33-7 in their FBS debut, and served notice to the MWC that there may be a new sheriff in town.
And how about the Memphis Tigers, who claimed the only road victory of Week 0, a 27-21 win at UNLV. I'm really sold on HC Charles Huff. The dude does nothing but win, and the Tigers will certainly be in the mix for the Group of Six CFP bid.
Now on to Week 1, or maybe I should say "Weak" 1, because the slate of games is pretty weak. Of the 91 games on the docket 48 of them involve FBS-FCS matchups. YUCK! I have enough trouble keeping track of all the teams in the FBS without adding the FCS teams to the mix, so I'll let somebody else handicap those games.
So that leaves us with 43 games, and 25 of those feature matchups between Power Four and Group of Six teams. Of those 25 games, 20 have point spreads of over 21 points, and 11 of those have lines of over 28 points! The gap between the P4 and G6 teams has never been wider, thanks to the portal and NIL, and for the most part I won't be getting involved with those games either. USC led San Jose St. 35-3 midway through the third quarter before taking their foot off the gas in a 42-26 win, failing to cover the huge 38' point line. Florida St. had all they could handle vs. New Mexico St. in a 34-17 win that was closer than the score would indicate. The 31' point line was never threatened. Were they peeking ahead to next Monday's showdown with SMU? Bottom line, picking most of these P4-G6 games is a crap shoot.
Of the 18 games left nine involve P4 vs. P4 and the last nine are G6 vs. G6, which is more of a level playing field. THESE are the games I'll be putting most of my focus on, and like last week I'll be treading lightly and gathering Intel.
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