Finally – Opening Week Is Here! How About Some Predictions

I love the smell of a burning couch in the morning. It smells like…victory.

After a long hot summer of worthless polls, mind numbing ESPN predictions and sports commentators (yours truly included) desperately struggling to pound out something of value about the upcoming season, I finally have a weekend full of real live college football games on which to pontificate. The Vegas bookies have posted their odds, so the season must be under way.

Without further adieu, I bring you as many predictions as I can tolerate for one night. What we don’t finish tonight, we’ll get tomorrow or the next day.

Lets start with probably the most interesting game of opening weekend:

Illinois vs. Missouri (Missouri by 8.5, over under 50.5):

With all the expected blowouts and opening weekend 1-AA games, I really like this year’s Ill/Miss matchup. These guys first played each other in 1896. Seriously. Looking at past scores, there doesn’t look like a lot of close games and there have been a couple of trouncing including a 42-0 win in 1994 by the Illini.

This year will prove to be different. It is the first time in the meeting of these two teams that they are both ranked in the top 15 and they bring a couple of exciting quarterbacks to the field. Chase Daniels of Missouri has been mentioned more than once as a potential Heisman candidate and Juice Williams…well he’s Juice Williams.

What may be something of a surprise is the Illinois defense. Last year, Missouri pretty much walked all over these guys scoring almost 40 points in the first half. The Illinois return many of the same players and although you would think the offense would give coach Ron Zook something to brag about, according to Big Ten Blogger Adam Rittenburg over at ESPN, Zook seems to like this year’s defense.

And that’s what it’s going to come down to for Illinois. If the Illini D can bring the speed and keep the pressure on Daniel. If they can keep him from finding the yards to scramble, then they’ve got a game on their hands. Add another year of maturity and maybe, just maybe the Juice Williams that played against Ohio State and not the Juice Williams that we saw back in October will show up. Put those two together and you’ve got a win for Illinois. Without either of the two, and it’s too close to call.

I’ve got to go with my Big Ten team here and I’m picking Illinois to cover the spread. I’m not even going to think about the over under on this one.

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You want more? I’ll give you more:

Appalachian State vs. LSU (LSU by 24)

Two years ago and this game wouldn’t even have risen an eyeball. Yet here we are, one big Michigan loss and two national championships later and we’ve got something to think about. I don’t know if this has ever happened before but both LSU and App. State arrive as reigning national champions.

The biggest difference in this year’s LSU game as opposed to last year’s Michigan upset, everybody knows about last year’s Michigan upset. Last year, the Wolverines were walking around the preseason like the big man on campus. They were talking smack and way, way overconfident. In typical Michigan fashion, the sleep walked through most of the game and when they finally woke up, it was too late. History was written and the Wolverines through their national championship hopes out the window before the regular season even started.

This year however, LSU has seen the worst case scenario. And you can be sure, LSU knows that the college football world is watching that little school in Boone, NC. And there is now way, I repeat, no way that LSU wants the blotch in their history books that Michigan will face over, and over again (don’t worry, I’m here to help keep the memory alive).

Neither LSU nor App State will bring the same teams that we saw last year. There’s a lot of new talent on both sides of the ball and don’t know App. State. They picked up some good recruits off last year’s win.

But this year LSU will be expecting them and probably would like to be the ones to put an end to the Appalachian State miracle. So no matter how badly I want App. State to be the first to knock a beloved SEC team out of the BCS hunt, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Twenty-four points is a lot. If Appalachian State is going to beat the spread, they are going to need to play some seriously inspired football.

But isn’t that what we were saying around this time last year?

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What you want one more? But it’s late and really, you’ve read this far?

Michigan vs. Utah (Michigan by 4.5)

I know what you’re all thinking here. It doesn’t matter who Michigan is opening against, most of us are expecting them to blow it and blow it big. I’m not going to argue with you here. If a team ever had a point to prove, Michigan is the game. The problem is, do they have it in them.

Utah returns something like 14-15 starters after going 9-4 last season. Michigan can’t decide on a quarterback, not only that, but they can’t decide on the quarterback who will run coach Rich Rodregeuz’s beloved spread offense. Oh, and he’s going to run that spread offense behind an offensive line of sophmores. Heck, if I were looking at the quarterback position, I might be a little nervous also.

Now this is not to say that Michigan can’t win it. No matter what I anyone says, they’re still Michigan and I’m not ready to give up on their legacy entirely…yet (ok, maybe a little).

The entire state of Utah is excited about this game. They are excited for all the reasons people are going to watch LSU/App. State that I mentioned above. They see a window of opportunity that may not open again.

Meanwhile, Michigan needs this win more than they’ve needed almost any win in a long, long time. If they lose this weekend to Utah, all the nightmares will come pouring back. The questions will be answered and no matter what they do the rest of the season, perhaps for the next few seasons, the opening games of 2007 and 2008 will be remembered.

Can Michigan win this? At this point, I don’t think anyone knows. Can Utah? Yep.

Obviously, the bookies aren’t sure. If I were passing out the spreads, I’d give Utah a touchdown just because Michigan has the fan base and the legacy to pull up the bets. Personally, if I were a betting man, I’d stay away from this one.

Wow, you made it to the end — for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with more. More of what, I’m not sure. As I wrote this I kept finding other, probably more important Ohio State news I should be writing about. The Buckeye Depth Chart came out today and there were a couple of interesting points.

In all, it looks like it’s going to be a busy week.