SAM'S COLLEGE FOOTBALL COLLAGE: A madcap review of last week's college games

I will look at last week's schedule and give my first thoughts on those games: Auburn's QB Newton may be a future Heisman candidate... West Virginia's coach Bill Stewart is lucky his Mountaineers came back. I still think he's the biggest question mark on that team...Georgia's a favorite in their contest over Ark. Huh? Maybe the linemakers are expecting a bounce-back after the Bulldawg loss to South Carolina. How about this: Ga. now 5-11 after a loss under coach Richt in the last 6 years...I have written that if Temple can beat UConn, and, at least play PSU tough, they can end up in the Top 30...
I still believe Alabama's defense will face some tough times this year. Do not be surprised if Duke scores decent points on the Bama defense... Iowa's coach Kirk Ferentz continues to be tremendous in the home favorite role(now 30-18 over last ten years)...coach Dan Hawkins went from a star in Boise St. to being on the verge of losing his job on Colorado...I like the Notre Dame program, and feel Notre Dame being good is good for college football. But, there just seems to be something missing. I feel this season may be tougher than anticipated...QB Pryor just looked so much cooler in the pocket than in his freshman and sophomore years. I was surprised. His performance vs. Miami has really raised OSU's stock as a national title contender...Nevada's coach Ault now a mind-boggling 20-4 as a home favorite...

THE SERVICE ACADEMY DILEMA: Air Force had NO offensive linemen back from '09, and they were playing a team in BYU that has had a lot of success defending the vaunted Falcon option. I fell into a trap I decided years ago I would not fall into: over-rating the lack of returning starters on a service academy offense. The service academies have JV teams. On those JV teams the players who are not on the "varsity", are still working on the intricate blocking patterns that make the option so difficult to defend. So, in past years, when a service academy had few returning starters on offense, its been my practice to stay away from those teams until I can judge how well the option is working. I went against my rule, made a MAJOR PLAY on BYU, and paid dearly for that pick. The moral of the story: never under-estimate the ability of the service academy option attack!