FOOTBALL

What a wild weekend in the football world as the college football season was under way.

First up, everyone was curious how well Notre Dame would fare this season.  They’ve had a lot of preseason hype, and everyone knows that their coach, Brian Kelly, is a proven winner.  Coming into the season, they were ranked #16, and hosting a USF team coming off a poor season in 2010.  Notre Dame was expected to trample them.  That didn’t exactly happen.  USF got up to a 17 point lead, before a huge lightning storm invaded South Bend.  The game was postponed for hours, until Notre Dame retook the field and just couldn’t get it going against the USF Bulls.  The Bulls, on the other hand, looked pretty good and are expected to be quite competitive in the Big East this season.  Rough start for Notre Dame, but they’re hoping to rebound and show this was a fluke when they take on Michigan next weekend.  USF 23, Notre Dame 20.

And people had big expectations for TCU coming into this season.  After all, they finished #2 in the country last year, even beating an extremely difficult Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.  Even though they lost their star quarterback Andy Dalton to the NFL, they were still expected to be dominant.  They didn’t realize how good the unranked Baylor was.  Baylor is helmed by QB Robert Griffin III, and he was absolutely extraordinary, posting 359 yards and 5 touchdown passes.  The man was on fire!  However, TCU came storming back in the 4th quarter to cover a 24 point deficit.  Baylor simply fell apart.  But then — Robert Griffin III came alive again.  Except this time, he hiked the ball, lateraled to a receiver then went out to catch the pass that put the Baylor Bears in field goal range.  That’s all they needed to ice the victory and pull off the big upset of TCU. Watch out for Baylor this season.  Baylor 50, TCU 48.

And, finally, the marquee match-up of the season:  #3 Oregon vs. #4 LSU at Dallas Cowboys stadium.  Basically, the loser of this game could kiss their championship hopes goodbye.  Going into the game, there was a lot of worry on the LSU side because their starting star quarterback Jordan Jefferson was suspended for getting into a brawl at a bar.  However, these concerns were curbed when the stadium was loaded with LSU fans.  After all, it’s right next door, AND Oregon fans don’t exactly travel well.  The game started off mistake-ridden, but it still remained rather neck and neck. Then, in the second half, LSU, and replacement quarterback Jarrett Lee, started to pull away.  All he had to do was just keep the ball moving, and let the LSU defense do the rest.  Oregon stars Darron Thomas and LeMichael James did everything they could to try to keep Oregon in the game, but the LSU D (and it’s home crowd) were too overbearing.  Oregon will definitely drop in the rankings, and will have to run the table, win the Pac 12, and hope for the best if they are to revisit the BCS Championship Game.  LSU 40, Oregon 27.