Sports

The meaning of week #1 in college football

Commentators (and even some of us uncommon ‘taters) have been anticipating the first week of college football to be the biggest and bestest ever. Whether it lived up to expectations remains to be seen. In any case, here are my random fan reflections on the whole shebang.

1. The SEC as a whole looked weak today. Auburn, LSU, Kentucky, Mississipi State, and Mizzou all lost to non-conference opponents. Overall, the SEC went 6-5 against non-conference opponents. That is not good. The old gray mare just ain’t what she used to be.

2. Preseason rankings are notoriously inaccurate, but this year’s appear to be really off. Two out of the top 5 have already fallen. The only safe bet looks to be Alabama.

3. Louisiana Tech looked great today. They almost knocked off Arkansas but fell short by one point. They lost, but I was proud of them. They are scrappy and talented. I am looking forward to great things from them.

4. LSU was definitely overrated. They obviously shouldn’t have been number 5. They may not even be top 25. They have the best offensive player in the country in Leonard Fournette and are loaded with elite talent, yet they scored only one offensive touchdown.

Everyone knew last year what needed to change in order for Fournette to be successful and for LSU to be a contender. They needed to pass the ball more in order to get the defense out of the box and open up the field. Miles promised in the off-season that such changes were in the offing. Today revealed that the offensive strategy hasn’t changed. Passing was infrequent and inefficient. Consequently, Fournette was not a factor against an unranked Wisconsin team.

The result: LSU loses its first non-conference game in the regular season since 2002. LSU hasn’t lost a single one of these games in fourteen years, but that streak ended tonight. To add insult to injury, the game ended with a disgraceful cheap shot (see video above).

LSU may have better players, but Wisconsin was the better team today. My hunch is that LSU will be lucky to go 8-4 this year. There’s a lot of football left to play, but the calls for Miles’s dismissal will begin immediately in Baton Rouge. This is on him.

Here we go…

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