Last Sunday, this past weekend looked to be the worst of the 2006 college football season. Most of the games did little to buck that expectation. In fact, it may have been even worse than predicted. Texas and LSU were up a combined 58-14 at halftime on Iowa State and Tulane. The rest of the top ten struggled, often against mediocre to awful opponents. Here were some of this week’s halftime scores:

– #24 Penn State 3, #1 Ohio State 0. Ohio State’s defense finally picked off Nittany Lion QB Morelli to end the game late in the fourth quarter.
– #2 USC 3, Arizona 0. The final score was USC 20, Arizona 3. Didn’t ESPN say USC’s offense reloaded?
– #4 West Virginia 14, East Carolina 7. East Carolina’s mascot is a pirate. They have lost to Navy and UAB. Those facts alone show how silly this score looks.
– #5 Florida 12, Kentucky 7. Kentucky isn’t in Mississippi, but still…
– #6 Michigan 10, Wisconsin 10. This one isn’t that embarrassing, I guess.
– #8 Louisville 10, Kansas State 0. Kansas State beat Illinois State by one point to open their season.
– Colorado 13, #9 Georgia 0. Without two fourth-quarter touchdowns, Georgia would have lost to the Colorado team that lost to I-AA Montana State the first week of the season. If quarterback troubles continue in Athens, I don’t see Georgia beating Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, or Georgia Tech.
– #3 Auburn 10, Buffalo 0. Auburn did pull away to a 38-7 victory (well below my 117-0 prediction). However, Auburn’s defense, run and pass, looked anemic against Buffalo’s offense. This is Buffalo’s offense about which I am talking! I’m going to give myself an extra point for not ending the previous sentence with a preposition.

Speaking of extra points, I bet Alabama placekicker Leigh Tiffin wishes he could have the one I just gave myself after his performance on Saturday. He is shaping up to challenge John Vaughn for “Least Clutch SEC Placekicker.” Everyone says they feel sorry for these guys, but I’m not so sure we should. When a quarterback throws three interceptions in a game (see Drew Stanton against Notre Dame), no one cuts him slack. Why should we cut a kicker slack for missing three, four (see Tiffin against Arkansas), or five (see Vaughn against LSU in 2005) kicks that would have made the difference in the game?

On a random note, I wore my authentic Mexican sombrero to the Auburn/Buffalo game this weekend. I told people that if Auburn was going to schedule opponents as ridiculous as Buffalo, I was going to dress for the occasion. In addition to being hilarious, the sombrero provided some welcome shade from the blistering sun, which produced an 85-degree heat wave in Jordan-Hare. I’m not sure if the people behind me appreciated it as much as I did.

Thankfully, some tidbits of college football news offered hope rather than leaving question marks. Florida State destroyed Rice 55-7. Mississipi State finally won a game, beating UAB 16-10 in overtime. Actually, I guess that was all the hope I saw in the scores. I’m proud to say that Laura watched most, if not all, of the Michigan State/Notre Dame game. I am only sorry that the Spartans could not hold on to the ball long enough to pull off the “upset” for her.

Next weekend looks to be a slight improvement over the previous one, although that isn’t very hard to accomplish. #3 Auburn goes to South Carolina Thursday night (7:30 PM ET, ESPN). On Saturday, #5 Florida hosts Alabama (3:30 PM ET, CBS). Both should be closer games than the rankings would indicate. Georgia Tech visits Virginia Tech (3:30 PM ET, ABC), and Ohio State goes to Iowa (8 PM ET, ABC). I’m looking forward to both of these games but for different reasons. The first might decide the ACC Coastal Division champion, while the second is another chance for Ohio State to lose. Go Hawkeyes!

Hi, I’m Nick’s brother. My idea is to start this blog’s second weekly feature: On the night of or day after the slate of games, I’m going to post an On Notice board that gives you a precise, 8 point recap of the day’s key actions. Without further ado, here’s the first edition:

1. Michigan State University – You’re on notice for blowing a 16-point 4th quarter lead against the most overrated team since last year’s BEST TEAM EVAR?? USC team.
2. Drew Stanton – Your incompetence will somehow be attributed to Charlie Weis’s playcalling and Brady Quinn’s “mental toughness”. Seriously, 3 turnovers on the last 3 drives?
3. Brent Musberger – Removed his lips from Weis’s ass just long enough to say that an obviously rattled Brady Quinn was “mentally tough”.
4. Lee Corso – For saying that Stanton’s incompetence keeps ND in the national title race. Hate to say it, Lee, but USC would’ve hung 70 on the ND defense tonight.
5. University of Colorado – Um…guys…if you’re beating UGA 13-0 in the 4th quarter, try to play some defense next time. Also, you only get 4 downs in football.
6. Boston College – For losing to NC State on a last second drive, saving Amato’s job until he loses to another MAC team.
7. MSU Defense – You guys looked really good for about a quarter…what happened? Everyone knows that ND refuses to run the ball – either keep blitzing (GT style) or prepare to get reamed by their offense. Guess what – any QB can look really good when he has all day to throw.
8. VPISU – You’re up next on the GT schedule – there’s nothing I’ve seen that would make me believe that you should lose, except that first-year starters don’t play well against GT. It won’t be 51-7 again, though.

I’d like to welcome my brother to the blog. He’s also a GT student but is co-op’ing back home right now.

I was almost completely wrong about CU @ UGA. But, hey, when you need a last minute TD to beat a team that lost to Montana State….

Also, I guess Matt Stafford is no longer the second coming of Christ.

I immensely enjoyed our game last night. I had not seen us beat UVA since I got here, so seeing us destroy them was great. Even better was seeing Calvin Johnson hit in-strike over the middle…wow. I also liked the 70’s unis. What a night. The only thing better would be a win at VPI next week, giving us our best win so far and putting us in the driver’s seat for the division.

Poor Virginia, though. I don’t think they’re the best oppenent we’ve beaten this year – I think Troy could probably take them by a touchdown or two. Did you see their “passing offense”? That guy made Reggie look positively awesome (Reggie’s never been as bad as that guy was). I think my brother summed it up best: “These guys couldn’t score against air.” The UVA QB threw everywhere but at his receivers, and in the off chance he actually got it to them, I think they were so surprised they just dropped it.

Our receivers are okay this year – we’re lining up playmaker Rashaun Grant in the slot and have shown depth behind Calvin. Our running game could use some work, though – I like that we’re trying to use the option, but Reggie pitches too soon and Choice seems to have trouble turning the corner and running upfield.

Our kickoff coverage still sucks, but it’s getting better.

I’ll now try to sum up all of Saturday’s games that will be on TV, since for the first time I’ll actually be able to watch them all. Onward!
Noon games:

• UNC @ Clemson (ACC regional): Watch one of the many trainwreck ACC teams this year get destroyed by Clemson.
• Colorado @ UGA (SEC regional): About the only way Colarado wins is if Ralphie gets loose and tramples the entire UGA team. Additionally, as a Tech fan, I’m conflicted by who to root for here, by which I mean, should I root against UGA (and for CU), or just not watch it all. The latter seems a better option.
• Cincinatti @ VPI&SU (ESPNU): Virginia Tech wins again. Over/under on unsportsman like penalties in this game is approximately 15 for both teams.
• Wisconsin @ UMich (ESPN): Michigan cruises again. Man, the games today suck, but I think I already elaborated on that.
• Minnesota @ Purdue (ESPN2): I always enjoy rooting for Purdue. They’re the Big Ten’s version of Georgia Tech: an engineering school focused on academics. Tech has a better football history, of course, but hey.
• Louisville @ Kansas St. (FSN): Petrino-ball continues.

3:30 games:

• Penn St. @ Ohio St. (ABC): Is this really the best game available at this time slot for ABC? Since the alternative is another likely blowout (ISU @ Texas), probably.
• Alabama @ Arkansas (CBS): Go Razorbacks!
• Rice @ FSU (ESNPU): Why? Maybe FSU’s offense will look good for the first time this year.
• Arizona St. @ Cal (FSN): The game isn’t at ASU, so there probably won’t be much to look at here. Cal probably wins.

Everything else:

• WVU @ Eastern Carolina (4:30, ESPN2): Yarr! ECU loses, though. At least WVU’s offense is fun to watch.
• UCLA @ Washington (7:00, TBS): UCLA dares to find out if it is indeed harder to “push across” U-Dub’s “line than to pass the Dardenelles.” And yes, I know where and what the Darndenelles are.
• Miami (OH) @ Syracuse (7:00, ESPNU): Everyone hates it, but I think Otto the Orange is an awesome mascot.
• USF @ Kansas (7:00, FSN): FSN continues on their parade of crappy Big 12 teams against Big East oppenents. Neither KSU or KU will win, likely.
• UK @ UF (7:45, ESPN): I’d be a lot more interested if this were a contest between each schools’ basketball team.
• ND @ Mich. St. (8:00, ABC): I’d prefer Notre Dame lose most of the time, and I still sorta do. But if they build up another winning streak, they’ll a) make us look better and b) build up some momentum heading into Los Angeles. I think they’re the ones with a chance of beating USC this year.
• NCSU @ BC (8:00, ESPN2): Watch Chuck Amato continue his quest to get fired!

That’s all, folks. Also, Tito, I hope the Harris Poll voters thing the same way the AP guys do. And if your schedule is better, then the computers will help you out. If those two things happen, then you’ll be ahead of USC in 2 of the 3 polls. Also, while USC may play more ranked teams than you guys, if you beat both UGA and UF you should gain ground in the coach’s poll, and you’re only down by 60 votes to begin with. (Hopefully, that will also be UF’s only loss – I’d, of course, like to see UGA lose at every oppruntunity.)