College Football Thoughts

After last night's games, a few random thoughts:

• After seeing LaGarrett Blount throw punches last night and get restrained from going into the crowd, I couldn't help but think "Figures. He's a juco." I may have a prejudice against junior college transfers. In fact, when I hear that a team has picked up a junior college transfer, it is similar in my mind to the team getting a kid directly from the local correctional facility. Any why shouldn't I make that association? Time and time again juco transfers end up under heat, most often for academic issues, but also quite often for ncaa violations or trouble with the law. These are guys that couldn't qualify academically in the first place, something that is extremely easy to do. If you have a 2.4 GPA and score a 860 on your SAT, you qualify. But, it's even easier than that as it's a sliding scale. If you have a 3.0 GPA, you can qualify with a 620 SAT. If you only had a 2.0 GPA in school, no worries. You can still qualify with a 1010. Bottom line is it's really easy. But these jucos couldn't qualify in the first place, went to an extremely easy CC for two years to "establish an academic record" and then joined a team they would have never qualified for in the first place. I'm not saying these guys should be outlawed by the NCAA, but if I were running a program I would be very wary about the jucos I was trying to recruit. If Michigan accepts a juco they better have a really damn good excuse for why they are a juco, like having to quit HS to get a second job to take care of their disabled mother or something. Yes, I realize this makes me sound like a huge fuddy duddy.
• Speaking of the incident last night, I always wondered what happened to Scott Frost, Nebraska's hero QB in 98, the year they split the NC with Michigan. He's now a Duck WR coach and he's still a hero, at least to Boise State fans as he saved all their lives by preventing Blount from going into the stands.
• After his inevitable suspension, the Ducks are going to suffer from not having Blount on the field, as nobody else will be able to do stuff like this. That said, notice how good the blocking was on that play. The completely new offensive line was the biggest reason why Blount couldn't do anything like this against Boise State last night. The Ducks are going to struggle until the OL can get it together.
• Boise State sophomore QB Kellen Moore is all he's hyped up to be delivering perfect throws all night. He wasn't tested much as Oregon was playing a soft zone and the DL wasn't getting any pressure so he could make his 10 yard throws all game, but it's obvious he knows what he's doing and is extremely accurate (hence the 70% completion percentage last year). BSU will probably go undefeated if he remains healthy.
• The new NCAA song on ESPN is performed by Kenny Chesney. We get to listen to this nice man all year. I fear that I will soon be yearning for the days of Big and Rich.
• As is always the case in the first week of college football, it was extremely sloppy in both games I watched. NC State and South Carolina was very, very bad football.