College Football: Week 2 Preview

Saturday, 11AM: Channel Flip: Central Michigan at Michigan State/ Fresno State at Wisconsin
I’m busy Saturday morning and neither game is really worth a DVR spot so we’ll see how much I catch, but I’m looking to do some Big Ten scouting. The Spartans are supposedly revived, Bret Bielema’s job is definitely on the line at Wisconsin (deservedly so, since the Badgers have really underperformed recently), and both teams face decent opponents. In fact, Wisconsin very nearly lost to a pretty mediocre Fresno State team last year. If you’ve never seen Central Michigan QB Dan LeFevour, you’d do well to get yourself a look. He’s the small school Tim Tebow and he gets better every year. If he’s improved his passing a bit, he’ll have an outside shot at the NFL next year.
Prediction: Hard to say, since I didn’t watch any of these teams last week. Michigan State won’t have much trouble, but Wisconsin could. I’ll call the upset – Fresno State over Wisconsin.

Saturday, 2:30PM: #18 Notre Dame at Michigan
Game of the week for me. It’s rare to get a ‘Come to Jesus’ (pun intended!) game this early in the season for either Notre Dame or a Big Ten team and there’s a real Lazarus feel for both, which have suffered mightily in the last year or two. Both teams looked sharp last week, but how will they handle an opponent (roughly) their own size?
ND Offense/Mich Defense: The Irish have a decent 1-2 punch in receivers Golden Tate and Michael Floyd and I expect Michigan to have some trouble with them. As usual, pass rush is the key. I’m still not sold on Clausen, but I do know that he’ll manage to get the ball to those receivers if Michigan doesn’t put some pressure on him. If Clausen wants to be an NFL prospect, he’s going to have to look like one here.
Mich Offense/ND Defense: The Irish did a good job bottling up Colin Kaepernick last week, but they didn’t have to worry too much about his passing. If Tate Forcier can establish the pass early, he’ll kill ‘em with the run in the second half. Denard Robinson provides a nice burst to the offense, but looked a little ‘sandlot’ for my taste last week. Notre Dame freshman linebacker Manti Te’o had a great debut last week and Michigan’s O-line and tight ends will have to handle him to establish both the running game and the pocket.
Prediction: It absolutely kills me to say this, but Notre Dame by 10. (Go Blue!)

Saturday, 7PM: #3 USC at #8 Ohio State
I would be surprised if this one was close, but it will be interesting to see a) if Matt Barkley is at all nervous in the Horseshoe and b) if Ohio State at least looks like they belong on the same field, which they didn't last year. Ohio State's only hope is that Barkley looks like a freshman. He wasn't asked to do much besides screens at San Jose State, so he's still relatively unproven, Pete Carroll's drooling notwithstanding. On the other side of the ball, I see a game much like the Terrelle Pryor parts of the OSU-Penn State game last year. Essentially, Penn State put nine in the box and Pryor ran on every play anyway, usually for 2-3 yards and a monster hit. That's one way to know what your coach thinks of you!
Prediction: USC pretty easily. OSU desperately needs a QB.