What I'm Watching - 9/12/09

I didn't post the tv games I was watching last week because I was in Seattle for LSU/UW. I did catch most of Okie State vs UGA and BYU vs Oklahoma, however. I wish I had posted because I was telling everyone I knew that BYU would cover the +22 against OU, but I was not confident BYU would actually pull the win. Anyways, here are the games for the 2nd Saturday of the season.

Early Games
Fresno State at Wisconsin, 12 pm ESPN or ESPN2 - Can the Bulldogs pull off a win against Wisconsin, one of the first BCS teams they knocked off to get on the map at the beginning of the decade?

Iowa at Iowa State, 12 pm, FSN - Was Iowa asleep at the wheel against Northern Iowa, or is this team not for real?

Syracuse at Penn State, 12 pm, BTN - Game 2 of the Greg Paulus experiment. He actually looked good last weekend against Minnesota before throwing the pick in OT. Penn State completely dominated their game against Akron, only allowing 8 yards of offense in the first half.

Afternoon

Notre Dame at Michigan, 3:30, ABC - One of the biggest games of the weekend. Both teams had nice blowout wins last week, but the winner of this game announces their reemergence on the national scene.

UCLA at Tennessee, 4:00, ESPN - Tennessee looked awful against UCLA last season and through the rest of the season, but great against Western Kentucky. Does Kiffin have the offense going already? They need this game if they want to go bowling with the schedule they have.

Evening

South Carolina at Georgia, 7:00 pm ESPN2 - UGA had issues on offense against Okie State last weekend. South Carolina seems to have issues on offense against everyone. Will Joe Cox start for UGA? Can Spurrier find anyone to sling the ball around? Both defenses should be good, look for a final score of 17-14 with the home team pulling it out.

Purdue at Oregon, 8:00 pm, FSN - Oregon looked AWFUL last Thursday, and is now without their top RB. Purdue didn't play great, but put up 1,028 combined yards with Toledo a week ago. In that game Purdue RB Ralph Bolden ran 21 times for 234 yards and two touchdowns, and Toledo WR Stephen Williams caught 15 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. The Pac10 will get plenty of buzz if they win the other big game in this slot, but an Oregon win over Purdue would definitely help the league's image of dominance over the Big10

Vanderbilt at LSU, 7 pm ESPNU - homer pick that I'll be watching on the small tv. On my big screen will be...

USC at Ohio State, 8 pm, ESPN - The biggest OOC game of the season could be right here (if BYU goes undefeated they might point to their upset of OU as being the most important OOC game, but Sam Bradford's health will determine that). Everyone is on USC, and it seems to be the smart choice, but at some point Tressel will shake this monkey off of his back and win a really big game again. A true freshman starting only his second game and it being on the road at the Shoe, add in the fact that USC still coughed it up against San Jose State last weekend and didn't score for almost an entire half makes me think tOSU really has a shot.

Late Games

Utah at San Jose State, 10:30, ESPNU - Was the struggle against Utah State just cobwebs? Does San Jose State have anything left after getting punished by USC? Utah needs to crush people to keep up with BYU.

Oregon State at UNLV, 8 pm, CBS College Sports - Oregon State looked fantastic crushing overmatched Portland State last week. With Oregon imploding, will the Badgers emerge as a legit threat to USC's Pac10 dominance this year (along with Cal)?