The Sunday Blog comes at you after a late night because some of us are college football crazy and stayed up to watch everything.
1. One of the dumbest cliches in sports is that teams have their most improvement from their first game to their second. A college football team has nine months to get ready for its opener and a week to get ready for its second game. And we saw it on Saturday. Not only were there major upsets, but even the best of teams struggled. Except Ole Miss. That team hasn’t played anyone but scoring in the 70s twice to start the season is impressive. It should be an epic game in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night.
2. I don’t know if I have ever seen a coach as mad in a postgame press conference as Jim McElwain or a coach as sad in a postgame presser as Steve Spurrier. Coach Mac had every right to be angry, but one of the biggest turnovers in the game falls on his shoulders. Why do you put Mark Herndon in the game when you have three quality tailbacks? The fumbled exchange between Herndon and Treon Harris, who has just been reinserted into the game, gave East Carolina new life in a game that seemed to be decided. Meanwhile, the head ball coach knows that he may have a better defensive coordinator, but the Gamecocks may be heading for another average season. South Carolina has to go to Georgia, Missouri, Texas A&M and Tennessee and has LSU at home. That sounds like 6-6 all over again.
3. One of the reasons I was up late was because BYU was playing Boise State in the wee hours of the morning. And, of course, winning on a late bomb of a touchdown pass. Tanner Mangum, the BYU quarterback, should pull a Flavia Pennetta and retire. Just drop the mic and walk away. It’s not going to get any better than his first two games.
4. Nice Saturday for the SEC. But what a weekend for the Stoops family. Bobby pulls off the 17-point comeback in Knoxville, Mike’s defense limits Tennessee to 66 second-half yards and Mark ends a Kentucky road losing streak by winning in Williams-Brice Stadium. Sounds like some cold ones might be in order.
