Nevada (0-0) at Notre Dame (0-0),3:30 EST, ABC, Saturday, September 5
Why to watch: Welcome to the first game of the rest of Charlie Weis’s life. The pressure is on in what’s supposed to be a BCS or bust season for Weis and Notre Dame, but they’re not going to have a layup to open up the season. Nevada is looking to make a major national statement for itself and the WAC thanks to one of the nation’s best offenses with a running game that should finish in the top five. QB Colin Kaepernick is the best quarterback America hasn’t seen, but the Irish defensive front has had several months to focus on keeping him and the Wolf Pack attack in check. Will it matter? Will the Irish talent finally come through, or is this just an average team full of veterans? When it comes to what Irish fans want, will a good, tough win be enough, or does this have to be a blowout? It’s one of the most intriguing games of the opening weekend and could go a long way to determining a possible BCS spot … for both teams. Nevada has big dreams that this is the year the program has been shooting for over the last few seasons, while Notre Dame needs this with a trip to Michigan and a date with Michigan State to follow.
Why Nevada might win: The pass rush will be in Jimmy Clausen’s face all game long. The Wolf Pack doesn’t use a whole slew of funky blitzes, but it’ll bring pressure from a variety of areas when needed. Notre Dame improved by leaps and bounds in pass protection last season, but it’ll have a challenge on its hands with pass rushing terrors Dontay Moch and Kevin Basped each extremely dangerous. Notre Dame will have to show a little bit of balance to keep the Pack defense guessing, but it’s going to be tempting to throw, throw, and throw some more to try to keep pace with the Kaepernick-led rushing game that should crank out over 250 yards.
Why Notre Dame might win: 119 out of 119. Even with a pass rush that was among the best in America, the Nevada pass defense still finished dead last in 2008 giving up 312 yards per game. With so many problems stopping the pass, the squishy-soft run defense was overlooked. Yes, the Pack finished sixth in the nation against the run, but that’s misleading. Every offense spent all of its time and energy throwing the ball, and when teams wanted to power it, they did. Notre Dame will want to exploit the mediocre secondary, but it’ll be able to control the clock and the game with its ground game, too.
Who to watch: Who’ll be better, the Notre Dame receivers or the Wolf Pack running backs? Along with Kaepernick, a 1,130-yard rushing quarterback last year, Vai Taua was a terror rushing for 1,521 yards with 15 scores. Adding to the attack is Luke Lippincott, the star rusher of 2007 who missed last year with a knee injury. He’ll be used as a tight end and at fullback to go along with an occasional tailback work. For Notre Dame, Golden Tate will try to build on the Hawaii Bowl performance when he cranked out 177 yards and three touchdowns against Hawaii. Irish fans know all about him, but this could be the game when he grows into All-America-level status.
What will happen: It’ll be an entertaining shootout with each team coming up with huge numbers. Notre Dame won’t look like a world-beater, and there will be some who’ll grumble that it took so much work to get by some team named Nevada, but it’ll be a strong, sound victory that’ll be a good first step to what will be a bounce-back season for the program. It’ll be a tough game and then the Irish will open it up late.
CFN Prediction: Notre Dame 44 … Nevada 27 ... Line: Notre Dame -14
Must See Rating: (Mad Men 5 … NYC Prep 1) … 4
...
Free Expert Football Predictions
Navy (0-0) at Ohio State (0-0),12:00 EST, ESPN, Saturday, September 5
Why to watch: Ohio State is considered the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten title, and gets the lofty No. 6 preseason ranking, because it’s Ohio State. Quick, name one other player other than Terrelle Pryor (not you, OSU fan who writes it tOSU). This is as about as much of a rebuilding year as Ohio State might have with so much turnover in the linebacking corps, at receiver, and with a no-name group of future stars at so many key positions. Considering the way the Buckeyes have struggled out of the gate over the last few years, needing everything it had to get by Ohio and with the problems against Troy, Navy has a puncher’s chance. The Midshipmen are undergoing a massive talent overhaul as well, but it might be a case of plug ‘n’ play … it’s the system. Navy will be Navy again, but for all the big things it has done over the years and for all the wins, it doesn’t have a monster victory to hang its hat on (and that includes the Notre Dame win of a few years ago). A win in Columbus could qualify as the program’s biggest in roughly 50 years.
Why Navy might win: USC. With so many new starters and so many players trying to figure out what they’re doing, Ohio State might really be focusing on trying to get past Navy. However, these 18-to-22-year-olds wouldn’t be human if they didn’t at least have a sizeable portion of their attention span on what’s coming up next. The date with USC next week should be the non-conference game of the year, and when the task at hand is dealing with the Navy option game, there could be problems. Ohio State is going through a wholesale change at linebacker and the last thing a green group needs to do is show enough discipline to handle what the Midshipmen will throw its way.
Why Ohio State might win: Nate Frazier. The undersized, undertalented (no, it’s not a word, but it works here) Navy defensive front wasn’t going to be a brick wall against the Ohio State running game, but it was going to at least be feisty and annoying. It’s not a stretch to say that Frazier, the former Navy nose guard, was going to be the best lineman on the field for either side, and he was the one player the Midshipmen couldn’t lose. They lost him. Kicked off the team for unspecified reasons, the loss of Frazier leaves a gaping hole in the middle of the Navy D. End Jordan Stephens will give it a shot on the inside, but now the OSU gameplan changes a bit. The offense should be able to hammer away as much as it wants to on the inside, and it couldn’t do that with Frazier clogging things up.
Who to watch: Can Terrelle Pryor throw? He worked his tail off this offseason to become a more consistent passer and a playmaker who can make his receiving corps better. It’s this simple: if he can’t make things happen against the Navy secondary, he’ll have no chance whatsoever next week against the USC defensive backfield. This needs to be a rebirth type of game where he shows more downfield passing skills. On the other side, Ricky Dobbs has to be a superstar. The new starting quarterback for Navy has a green group of running backs to work with, so every decision has to be sharp and every run has to be decisive. He can’t afford to make any mistakes.
What will happen: The Navy offense will annoy the heck out of the Buckeyes and it’ll hang on to the ball for over 35 minutes, but the Midshipmen won’t have any answers on defense to stop the Buckeye running game. The OSU offense won’t be crisp, but it’ll be strong enough in the second half to pull away and be able to start thinking about the bigger fish to fry next week.
CFN Prediction: Ohio State 37 … Navy 13 ... Line: Ohio State -22.5
Must See Rating: (Mad Men 5 … NYC Prep 1) … 2.5… Free Expert Football Predictions
Army (0-0) at Eastern Michigan (0-0),7:00 EST, ESPN, Saturday, September 5
Why to watch: It’s a battle of two of the nation’s perennial doormats who could all of a sudden get a whole lot more exciting. Army brings in Rich Ellerson, the coach who made Cal Poly an FCS superpower with a thrilling option offense and an attacking defense is expected to do for the program what Paul Johnson did for Navy. Eastern Michigan has always been knocking on the door to get out of the MAC basement, but it hasn’t had any sort of luck and it hasn’t come up with wins. In comes Ron English, a defensive coordinator by trade, who should provide an instant impact. Each team is seeing this as a chance for win with schedules that could be hard to find victories.
Why Army might win: The defensive line should be Eastern Michigan’s weakness early on. The last thing a team can afford when going against the triple option is shoddy line play, and it could be a little while before the Eagles are up to Ron English’s snuff. Losing leader Daniel Holtzclaw from the linebacking corps won’t help. He would’ve been a 20+ tackle force in a game like this.
Why Eastern Michigan might win: Offensive experience. Army’s offense will eventually be explosive, but Ellerson has to find the right guys to do things the way he’d like to. On the flip side, the Eastern Michigan offense that was so dominant throughout the last few games of last year gets most of the key parts back and has the potential to be consistently unstoppable when everything is working. Army will be swarming and more aggressive defensively, but it could get burned too much if it has to take too many chances into the backfield.
Who to watch: Can Andy Schmitt keep up the momentum from the end of last year? The Eagle quarterback threw eight touchdown passes completing a record-setting 108-of-156 passes for 1,000 yards over the final two games of last year. There will be more running to start out the year, but Schmitt is a good veteran who has to be the difference in relatively even games like this.
What will happen: Army won’t be perfect, but the offense will show signs that it will eventually be tremendous. Eastern Michigan will be steadier and should be able to pull away late.
CFN Prediction: Eastern Michigan 31 … Army 26 ... Line: Eastern Michigan -4.5
Must See Rating: (Mad Men 5 … NYC Prep 1) … 2