College football is finally here, and with it brings the return of new articles to JIB Sports!!! Following tradition of “Sunday Headlines” from last year, “Headlines” will preview the upcoming weekend’s action in college football by providing you with headlines you might see in your Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday newspaper, or online, or on your favorite sports show. Let’s face it, we are long past the time when games were only played on Saturday and we all read the Sunday newspaper. One final point of business, JIB Sports uses the USA Today Coaches Poll in all our articles, which is one of the components used by the BCS to “calculate” who the best teams are. It’s great to be back, now let’s get down to the real business!

We can say without hesitation that college football is the most anticipated sport in America. Nothing compares to the passion and rivalry in college football. Families are torn, alliances are made, and grown men paint their faces and scream shirtless for hours in the bitter cold to rear their team to victory. We as fans really feel like we are part of the team. If given the opportunity, I’m sure many of us would quit our jobs to be a water boy for our beloved teams. Opening week this year is bound to be a great one. Breaking the tradition of top schools playing cream puffs, there will be three matchups with six schools in the top 25. Thursday features the most intriguing matchup of #14 Oregon and #16 Boise State. Then on Saturday #3 Oklahoma and #24 BYU will play in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and #5 Alabama will square off against #7 Virginia Tech.

Boise State QB Kellen Moore will lead another high scoring offense in '09.

Broncos Send Ducks Waddling

This year has the writing on the wall of USC giving up their PAC-10 Conference Title for the first time since 2001. Oregon is looking like one of the schools that might claim it, and this first game will show us how good the Ducks really are. On the other side, as sad as this may seem, Oregon is the only road block in Boise State’s quest for an undefeated season. The next speed bump they will have is Nevada, and that isn’t saying much. With the increase of non-BCS schools qualifying for BCS bowls, an undefeated season with a weak schedule might not be enough anymore. The Broncos beat up on the Ducks last year in Eugene, so they have all the confidence coming into the game. The Broncos also have the comfort of playing on their blue home turf (also named the “Smurf Turf.”) Donald Duck used to be Oregon’s actual logo, their mascot is most likely a retired Donald Duck costume from Disneyland, and first year head coach Chip Kelly will be cussing up a storm in true Donald Duck fashion after this game.

Weber State Strikes Again

If you are a college sports fan then Weber State might ring a bell. Weber State, a small subdivision team from northern Utah, made some noise in the ‘99 NCAA basketball tournament by defeating the mighty North Carolina Tarheels, a few years earlier they ousted Michigan State. The Wildcats are giant killers, but the Wyoming Cowboys are not giants. However, the Mountain West Conference, which the Cowboys belong to, is a giant right now (or a pain in the butt depending on who you talk to). With all the ruckus the MWC has caused this off-season with the BCS, and being the first non-BCS conference to have three teams in the pre-season top 25, the MWC has some pride. After Wyoming’s loss to Weber State, it will be just one more knock on the conference. Fact is that Utah, BYU, and TCU are BCS caliber schools, the other six in the conference are not even close. If a tree falls in Laramie, Wyoming and nobody hears it, did it really fall? Yes!

Need Mor Skoring

No, my spell check is not broken, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game will leave us desiring more scoring and less defensive struggles. The Alabama Crimson Tide and Virginia Tech Hokies were both in the top 10 defensively in points allowed last year and neither had stellar offenses. The Hokies ranked 90th in offensive scoring, scraping by less than a touchdown in six of their games last year. Alabama ended last year with their poorest offensive performance in a beatdown at the hands of the Utah Utes. The Crimson Tide only averaged 189 passing yards per game last year and that number won’t get better with first year starter Greg McElroy as quarterback. Much of this game will be between the tackles going up and down the field at the pace of turtles with gimp legs.

#1 Florida – Charleston Southern / #2 Texas- Lousiana-Monroe / #3 Oklahoma – #24 BYU / #4 USC – San Jose State / #5 Alabama – #7 Vriginia Tech / #6 Ohio State – Navy / #8 Penn State – Akron / #9 LSU – Washington / #10 Mississippi – Memphis / #11 Oklahoma State – #13 Georgia / #12 California – Maryland / #14 Oregon – #16 Boise State / #15 Georgia Tech – Jacksonville State / #17 TCU – Virginia / #18 Utah - Utah State / #19 Florida State – Miami / #20 North Carolina – Citadel / #21 Iowa – Northern Iowa / #22 Nebraska – Florida Atlantic / #23 Notre Dame – Nevada / #25 Oregon State – Portland State

Tags: NCAA

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under NCAA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.