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Buffalo
at
Rutgers
7:00 PM
Why to watch:
Playing the role of Cinderella,
Rutgers was one of the
stories of college football in
2006. Playing with a target on
its chest, however, is virgin
territory for a program that
starts a season ranked for the
first time in school history.
The Knights’ journey toward a
third straight bowl game begins
with a visit from Buffalo, the
likely MAC doormat and a school
that hasn’t won more than two
games in a season since 2001.
Rutgers returns many of the key
elements of last year’s 11-win
team, including Heisman
candidate Ray Rice and
All-America DE Eric Foster. If,
however, the Knights are going
to contend with West Virginia
and Louisville for a Big East
crown, they’ll need more from
erratic quarterback Mike Teel.
Second-year coach Turner Gill
has the Bulls headed in the
right direction, but the road to
respectability is long and
unpaved. While returning eight
starters to each side of the
ball helps, it won’t be nearly
enough to catch Rutgers napping
by landing a signature upset
over a far superior opponent.
Why Buffalo might win:
Not since last September have
the Scarlet Knights played an
opponent this weak, so they
could be susceptible to looking
uninspired and ahead to next
week’s visit from Navy. The
defense will be breaking in five
new starters, which will allow
versatile Buffalo RB James
Starks to make things happen on
the ground and as a low-risk
option for QB Drew Willy. The
sophomore led the Bulls in
rushing last year and caught 34
passes.
Why Rutgers might win:
Buffalo simply doesn’t have the
big bodies on either side of the
ball to compete with the Scarlet
Knights or hold up at the point
of attack. Behind the
outstanding tackle tandem of
Pedro Sosa and Jeremy Zuttah,
Rutgers will pile up yards on
the ground, and give Teel all
day to locate his receivers and
build his confidence. On
defense, Foster and the speedy
ends, Jamaal Westerman and
George Johnson, will endure
little resistance from a Bull
front that’s allowed 85 sacks
over the last two seasons. The
mismatches in the trenches will
resonate throughout all facets
of the game Thursday night.
Who to watch: If Teel’s
going to make strides in 2007,
he’ll need help from a young set
of receivers that flashed a ton
of potential last fall. The
go-to guy all year figures to be
6-4, 205-pound sophomore Kenny
Britt, who hopes to continue the
momentum he built with a
breakout second-half last
season.
What will happen: This is
the type of game that the old
Rutgers might fumble, but not
anymore. This is a completely
different program. The Knights
will gobble up more than 500
balanced yards, get a feel-good
game from Teel, and get good
looks at the new starters at key
positions on both offense and
defense.
CFN Prediction:
Rutgers
45... Buffalo 7... Line: Rutgers
-32.5
Must See Rating:
(5 Hef wants you to take his
place on The Girls Next Door,
but you can’t because you have
to watch this game - 1
Cavemen) ... 1.5
Final Score:
SE Missouri State
at
Cincinnati
7:00 PM ESPN 360
Why to watch:
Cincinnati begins a new era with
Brian Kelly at the helm and a
more wide open offense that’s
designed to spread the ball out
and move the turnstiles at
Nippert Stadium. Sure, Kelly
coached the Bearcats in last
season’s International Bowl
victory, but that was hardly
enough time for the coach to put
his stamp on the program. While
you can expect to see more
passes than in previous years,
these are still Mark Dantonio’s
recruits, so the running game
won’t be abandoned and the
defense will carry the team for
awhile. Wake Forest transfer
Ben Mauk has narrowly earned the
right to be Kelly’s first
triggerman in the Queen City,
holding off Tony Pike and Dustin
Grutza with a solid fall camp.
Southeast Missouri State is an
Ohio Valley Conference also-ran
coming off a disappointing 4-7
season. In last year’s lone
game against an FBS program, the
Redhawks were trounced by
Arkansas 63-7. Eleven starters
are back from that team, the
best of which is all-league LB
Adam Casper.
Why Southeast Missouri State
might win: The Bearcats are
going to thrive under Kelly at
some point, but they’re still a
major work-in-progress in 2007
that lacks the right personnel
on offense and perennially
allows too many sacks. At 6-6
and 260 pounds, NC State
transfer Quentin Brown is just
the type of powerful end that
can frustrate the Cincy tackles
and force Mauk into costly
turnovers.
Why Cincinnati might win:
Even without leading sacker
Trevor Anderson, who’s following
Dantonio to Michigan State, the
Bearcats have an underrated,
veteran defense that’ll
suffocate the feeble Redhawk
offense. Led by feisty Terrill
Byrd on the line, and Mike
Mickens and Haruki Nakamura in
the secondary, Cincinnati will
keep SEMO from reaching
double-digits unless it gets a
score from the special teams or
defense.
Who to watch: Kelly’s
need for depth at receiver was
magnified when last season’s
most dangerous pass-catcher,
Derrick Stewart, was declared
academically ineligible. If the
aerial attack is going to be
better than average this fall,
it’s incumbent upon Dominick
Goodman to evolve into Mauk’s
most reliable option.
The junior was a smash hit in
his only game under Kelly,
catching seven balls for 109
yards and two scores, and has
the heft necessary to catch
passes in traffic and bounce off
would-be tacklers.
What will happen: While
this early test won’t answer
much about Cincinnati, it will
give the Bearcats a chance to
work out some offensive kinks
before Oregon State visits next
Saturday. The star of the night
will be the aggressive Cincy
defense, which doesn’t get
nearly the recognition it
deserves.
CFN Prediction:
Cincinnati 34... Southeast
Missouri State 7... Line: No
Line
Must See Rating:
(5 Hef wants you to take his
place on The Girls Next Door,
but you can’t because you have
to watch this game - 1
Cavemen) ... 1
Final Score:
Murray State
at
Louisville
7:30 PM ESPNU
Why to watch:
On a map, Murray State and
Louisville are separated by a
little more than 200 miles of
Kentucky highways. On grass,
the Racers and Cardinals
couldn’t be further apart.
Louisville begins defense of its
Big East crown with a lay-up
versus an opponent that was 1-10
in 2006 and was picked to finish
seventh this year in the
ten-team Ohio Valley
Conference. For Louisville
fans, this will be their first
good look at new head coach
Steve Kragthorpe and his
high-octane offense that’ll
spread out the field and produce
similar results than when Bobby
Petrino was on the sidelines.
Quarterback Brian Brohm begins
his quest to become the school’s
first Heisman winner,
distributing the ball to
dangerous receivers Harry
Douglas, Mario Urrutia and Gary
Barnidge. With the outcome
likely determined long before
halftime, the best reason to
stay with this game in the
second half will be to monitor
the Cards’ replacements for
Amobi Okoye at defensive tackle
and William Gay and Gavin Smart
at cornerback. The Racers
return 17 starters to a team
that had just one shining moment
in 2006, a 59-40 blowout of
Indiana State, in an otherwise
dreadful season. Hope can be
found in LB Nathan Williams, who
led the conference with 100
tackles last season.
Why Murray State might win:
The Racers will attack the
Cards’ glaring weak spot on
defense, their secondary, with
redshirt freshman QB Jeff
Ehrhardt, a gifted passer who
beat out an incumbent to win the
job. At 6-4 and 200 pounds with
a strong arm, he looks more like
one of Kragthorpe’s recruits
than Matt Griffin’s. Ehrhardt
will hook up early and often
with Rod Harper who had eight
touchdown receptions in 2006,
and has the ability to really
test that rebuilt Louisville
defensive backfield.
Why Louisville might win:
Williams aside, Murray State has
no one on the defensive side of
the ball capable of providing
any resistance to the potent
Cardinal offense. With Brohm at
the controls, and George
Stripling and Anthony Allen
running behind a veteran line, P
Corey Goettsche won’t need to
dress on Thursday night. If the
Racers allow less than 50 points
here, label it a moral victory.
Who to watch: While his
presence won’t effect the
outcome of the opener, CB Woodny
Turenne will be one of the
pivotal players for the 2007
Cardinals once the competition
stiffens in a couple of weeks.
He’ll be making his debut in the
‘Ville after a celebrated career
as one of the nation’s premier
junior college players.
What will happen: The
last time these two schools met
in 1990, Louisville won 68-0.
While it won’t get that out of
hand this time around, it
certainly could if Kragthorpe
chose to keep his foot on the
gas for four quarters.
CFN Prediction:
Louisville 57... Murray State
7... Line: No Line
Must See Rating:
(5 Hef wants you to take his
place on The Girls Next Door,
but you can’t because you have
to watch this game - 1
Cavemen) ... 1
Final Score:
Big
East Week One Fearless Predictions, Part
2 |
