Here’s an Early Glimpse of College Football’s Opening Weekend, Featuring a Double-Dose of Erin Andrews
College Football, Erin Andrews, Media Gossip/Musings August 31st. 2009, 4:55pm
Finally: Football. Technically it’s 72 hours away. In the event you’ll be away for Labor Day weekend, here’s what you’ll be missing: Four games involving Top 25 teams, the debut of Greg Paulus the QB, and the return of Erin Andrews.
Thursday
7 – South Carolina at NC State – Throwaway game, except for the fact that Erin Andrews returns to the sideline. Barring a morning TV appearance on GMA prior to Thursday night, the sideline will be the first time anyone has seen her since the unfortunate video appeared. [Update: Andrews has taped an Oprah Winfrey episode that will air on September 11.]
10:15 – No. 16 Oregon at No. 14 Boise State – The Ducks are four-point dogs, even though they should contend for the Pac-10 title. Boise State won last year, 37-32. Should be another shootout, but we’ll go with the green to win on the blue turf.
Saturday
12 – Minnesota at Syracuse – Greg Paulus makes his college debut at QB for the Orange.
3:30 – No. 13 Georgia at No. 9 Oklahoma State – One of the best non-league matchups of the season. Georgia has a new QB and new RB; OSU returns one of the best QB-WR-RB trios in the country. But we’d give Georgia the defensive advantage and wouldn’t be stunned with an upset. The Cowboys are 5.5 point favorites; we’d take the Bulldogs.
8 – No. 5 Alabama vs. No. 7 Virginia Tech - From Atlanta, where Gameday will be. Virginia Tech will have a rotating cast of untested youngsters at RB with Darren Evans out for the year, which worries us against a team with All-Americans at NT (Cody) and LB (McClain). Until Evans went down, we had Virginia Tech winning this because it too, has a strong defense, and Alabama’s offense features a new QB. We’ll be pulling hard for VT; we have a bad feeling Alabama wins.
Monday
8 – Miami at No. 18 FSU – A once-great rivalry takes center stage. Andrews will be on the sideline for this one. And Jacory Harris will probably be on the ground alot … this season. But not against a defense with just three returning starters. We’ll take the Hurricanes (six-point dogs) in an mild upset.
We’ll probably roll out some type of rankings Wednesday or Thursday. Haven’t decided if we’d do Top 10 or 25 like the actual poll.
33 Responses to “Here’s an Early Glimpse of College Football’s Opening Weekend, Featuring a Double-Dose of Erin Andrews”
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August 31st, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Be still my heart.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Go Broncos.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Jimmy.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:58 pm
The Vols will be #1 based on number of posts this summer.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Would’ve never guessed.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:00 pm
beadle > andrews
August 31st, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Who’s this “Erin Andrews” of whom you speak?
And just do a Top 10. It gives more chance to talk about the teams and the reasons — giving us more ammo with which to mock you.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
False. Should be a very entertaining game. Two good young QBs to watch. Neither team will be big-time noisemakers this year, but both are going to be top 15 teams in 2010.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Color me shocked. It’s 5:00 and we have a college football post. It’s almost here ladies and gents. I want to get excited for the Free Show-Miami contest, but I see this one being like the last two on Labor day…laborious (zing!!).
I think the Bama game will be much closer than last year’s Clemson beat-down. You’re right about the UGA-OKST contest, TBL. It should be great. My head tells me UGA should win, but my gut has turned over the last 2 weeks and it says bad things for UGA.
Paulus or no Paulus that Syracuse game will be painful to watch. Here’s hoping he gets blindsided and we get to see what it’s like when he falls due to real contact. As for the South Carolina game…meh. It will be a snoozer I’m afraid, but that Boise State game is going to kick ass. Should be a fun shootout and (hopefully) one BCS buster will fall by the wayside after week one.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:05 pm
What’s the point? You *have* to go chalk.
/thinking outside the box is teh st00pid.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Falser. Wilson is overrated and South Carolina will never be a top-10 team. They don’t (and won’t) ever have the depth. Sure, some idiot voters may put them there in the preseason, but that won’t last.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:10 pm
This past weekend I cleaned the garage, basement, and had dinner with the wife’s work friends, hoarding good husband points if you will. I plan on redeeming all of those points over the next two weekends.
Don’t sleep on Minny, they’re improving and could pull an upset or two this year.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I love it. I told my wife that she can expect to never see me for the next 18 weeks. She has all of the spring and summer, I get the fall and winter. I’m like a little girl I’m so excited for football season.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I am weeping tears of joy. TBL heard my prayers.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Gonna have to agree on this one. She puts up with Shrutebag, too. I’ll be participating in the Hayden Fry look-a-like contest this weekend. Quite excited.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Here’s hoping he gets blindsided and we get to see what it’s like when he falls due to real contact
So true. Will be interesting to see if attempts a flop in a college football game.
I am interested to see the Alabama-V.Tech game. Cody destroyed Clemson last year. Wondering if he does the same to V.Tech this year.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Solid first weekend. Of course, there could be no Top25 matchups and it would still be solid since it is the first weekend of football.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I can understand why you listed the shit show that will be S.C.-NCST, but this game. Really?
August 31st, 2009 at 5:18 pm
The best thing about the Cocks and the Pack kicking off at 7 is that the Oregon/Boise game follows… I CANNOT wait for the game on the blue turf. It’s already a hate-fest.
I will be DVR’ng the Syracuse/Minny game while at the Navy/OSU game. I want to see Paulus just absolutely get destroyed, even by Minnesota’s defense.
Georgia and OK State is the best of the best this weekend though. OK State is the potential party crasher in the Big 12 South, but have to get through the Dawgs minus Stafford, Moreno and Co., which is no easy task.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Because it involves TBL’s true love, college basketball. We all know TBL only follows college football enough to complain about the BCS, make bad bets, and preview Oregon.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:20 pm
If Wilson stays healthy this year, I don’t think he will be overrated at all. Guy can play.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Excellent.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I am excited to watch Maryland-Cal because I want to like Cal this year, but know nothing about them other than Best, and Maryland pretty much embarrassed them last year. Would not be surprised if they do again, though I would by no means bet on it
August 31st, 2009 at 5:25 pm
How can you forget Eastern Kentucky at Indiana on Thursday?? Should be the high point of Indiana’s season.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Diesel, that game on TV?
August 31st, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Big 10 network will have every B10 game not on espn/abc. You’ll have to check your cable, but there should be multiple B10 Alternate channels, so if there are several games on at once it might be on one of the Alts.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Minnesota -7 over Syracuse.
Yes please.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Go Hokies!
August 31st, 2009 at 6:23 pm
the only thing that i can find interesting about the arkansas-mizzourah state game is that it is in little rock and it is a great tailgate atmosphere.
GO HOGS.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I would be very surprsied. Besides Cal having more talent and the memory of last year beatdown, they are paying them back in the start time department. Last year Maryland gave them the early east coast game, which was way fucking early for Cals inernal clock. So of course Cal went night game for this game, meaning it will be 10pm for Maryland by kickoff.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
the sideline will be the first time anyone has seen her since the unfortunate video appeared and sent TBL’s weekend pageviews way up
You know it’s true.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Disgree completely, but I can easily see why you feel that way. The fact is, however, that they continue to load up in recruiting, and probably are going to have more depth in 2010 than at anytime since they joined the SEC in 1992. Just because Spurrier didn’t make the overnight turnaround doesn’t mean it isn’t coming.
If Ole Miss can be a top 10 team, then SC certainly can be. They have an intrinsic advantage in EVERY facet…much larger budget, SC HS football much better than MS, better facilities, etc.
Do I think SC can be a consistent power? Nope. Can they have the peculiar excellent season? Yep, and I expect 2010 to be that season.
As for Wilson being overrated, tell me how many times you watched him last year? I saw 6 games…overrated, my ass.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I will be @ the OkSt vs UGA game OSU wins, the defense is better than people think….(season ticket holder) Tune in to see the new stadium, its quite the looker…along with hopefully the UGA and OSU girls…which never dissapoint.