The first week of the season has come early with a smattering of games on what is known as week zero in prep and NCAA terms, so here's the first first regular season edition of Notes on a Pac 12 Scorecard. We still miss you, Jim Murray.
Summaries
Colorado State 58- Oregon State 27: The Rams gave the CSU faithful a wonderful housewarming gift by opening their new stadium with a dominant win over the Beavers. The first half was a see-saw affair with the Rams looking sharper than OSU, but holding just a 24-20 lead at the half thanks to a really bad call and even poorer replay review of what should have easily been a Beaver TD pass. It then turned out that that play didn't really matter as the Rams dominated the second half, outscoring OSU, 31-7. CSU won this game in the trenches as their OL and DL owned the line of scrimmage. The Rams OL allowed QB Nick Stevens to complete 26 of 39 passes for 334 yards and three TDs. WR Mike Gallup was Stevens favorite target, hauling in 11 passes for 134 yards. For the Beavers, touted QB Jake Luton completed 27 of 47 throws for 304 yards, 2 TDs and 3 big interceptions. Beaver RB Ryan Nall led all rushers with 115 yards and a TD, but 75 of his yards came on his lone TD jaunt early in the second quarter.
Telling Stat: An offensive eclipse; CSU held OSU to just 90 total yards in the second half, forcing four turnovers and scoring a TD of their own to hand the Beavers their 14th straight road loss.
Stanford 62- Rice 7: Stop me of you've heard this before. Stanford used their punishing OL and Ginormous TEs to humiliate an undermanned opponent. Everybody played but the trombone player as the Cardinal cooked Rice in Australia. SU RB Bryce Love played about a half of football and rushed for 180 yards on 13 carries with one TD to lead the Cardinal's rushing attack. Meanwhile, QB Keller Chryst completed 14 of 24 tosses for 253 yards and a pair of scores in about one half's worth of work. Rice's offense didn't do much against the Stanford defense amassing a dismal 241 total yards and scored late TD well after the benches had been emptied.
Telling Stat: 75-66; En route to their 38-0 halftime lead over Rice, Stanford marched 75 yards for their first score. Rice gained 66 total yards in the first half.
Observations
...Needn't have been revived; Michigan is wearing all-maize uniforms for it's tilt with Florida this week. They haven't worn all-maize since 1928. I wished they'd keep it that way.
...A long era for Ara; Many folks said that Ara Parseghian retired too soon from the sidelines. However by his retirement at age 51, he had already been a head coach for 24 years.
...40 years- big deal; Colorado State is very proud of their new yard and playing their first game on campus in 40 years. Funny, USC hasn't played a game on campus for 94 years and nobody cares.
...Gophers pony up; The hiring of PJ Fleck isn't the only big thing going on with the Maroon and Gold. A new 166 million dollar athletic village is under construction to help elevate the status of Gopher athletics as a whole and football in particular. The Gophers have eyes on returning to Pasadena for the first time since January of 1962.
...Hell and High Water; Rice went through the hell of getting embarrassed by Stanford, now they can't return home to a flooded Houston and will be staying and practicing at TCU. Ouch.
...At the feet of the masters; Without a doubt Ara Parseghian played for and coached for some greats. He played for Paul Brown at Great Lakes Naval Station and with the Cleveland Browns. He also played for Sid Gillman, and was an assistant under Woody Hayes at Miami (OH).
...This just in; Oregon State stinks.
...June up north; As of 8/24, former Hawaii and SMU HC is now in charge of the CFL's 0-8 Hamilton Tiger-Cats. This was a feel good story until Jones decided to try to hire former Baylor HC Art Briles as an assistant coach. The controversy over the hire, then subsequent non-hire of Birles has dominated the Canadian sports news. Here's s link to the homepage of 3 Down Nation. It's one of the best CFL blogs around. A lot about Art
...Underrated; I'm thinking right about now that Oregon State folks are realizing just how good a HC Mike Riley really is.
...Wet, Sticky Rice; With the Rice football team being in Australia while hurricane Harvey strikes Houston, I couldn't help but think of USC's hurricane connection to Rice. The Trojans faced Rice in Houston back in 1971. Hurricane Edith had made landfall in Louisiana three days before kickoff, but major rain was still set to hit Houston as kickoff approached. I was filled in on how the game went by Craig Fertig a few years back, "The temperature was in the mid 90s with over 90 per cent humidity. We knew the storm was coming, so McKay did something I'd never seen him do. We threw the ball early. He wanted to get out fast and built up a lead before the storm hit. The storm hit around halftime and nobody could do anything in the second half." A drenched SC did throw early and walked away with a 24-0 win.
...15 minutes of vindication; When South Florida was trailing San Jose State, 16-0 in the first quarter, you know every Texas fan thought the firing of Charlie Strong was being validated for all to see.
...Vikings, Tigers, Oh My!; After struggling to beat Portland State, 20-6 in Provo Saturday, you can see how Cougar fans may not feel very confident heading into their matchup with LSU this week. Note: This game was supposed to be played at NRG Stadium in Houston. It will be now be played in New Orleans at The Superdome.
...Lost in the shuffle; If Rice and Stanford hadn't have hooked up in Australia, Hawaii's six time zone trip to UMass would have been the longest road trip for an FBS team this year.
...Clean slates; I always like seeing the first game of the year for Ohio State. It's pretty neat seeing all those shining helmets without a single buckeye on them.
...No Game Today; How many games on all levels will be cancelled along the gulf coast this week?
...They've met before; The Houston Cougars have left home and are now staying at the University of Texas due to hurricane Harvey. I bet that's kind of awkward for UT HC Tom Herman to run into the Cougars squad he left behind for the Longhorns last winter.
...Pretty cool; Larry the Dr. Pepper guy will be back for the 2017 season. I crack up at those commercials all the time.
...The new millennium is at hand; With a birthdate of January 23, 2000, USC freshman CB Je'Quari Godfrey is the first Trojan football player born in the 2000s.
Ugly Uniform of the Week
The week zero games didn't really provide us much fodder for the award, so i'll just let this promotional pic of Michigan's all-maize uniforms they plan to wear v. Florida stand as an early entry for next week's selection.
A Lee by any other name or Irony; thy name is Lee
ESPN removed announcer Robert Lee from calling Virginia's home opener because his name is basically the same as Robert E. Lee. I think this is a bad overreaction by the boys in Bristol. Many folks pointed to Lee the announcer being of asian heritage and having no relation to the old general's family in their disagreement with ESPN's ridiculous decision. This where the irony in my life kicks in. I have an old friend named Bobby Lee. Bobby and I have known each other since we played tee-ball together. Bobby is half Asian. His father met his mother while overseas as a U.S. soldier. Bobby's dad is related to the Lees of Virginia. So, my friend Bobby is Asian and descendant of the Lees of Virginia.
Special Section: In Memoriam
Ara Parseghian (5/21/1923-8/2/2017)
Frank Broyles (10/26/1924-10/14/2017)
This Week's Three Notes About Nothing...
Watching your baseball team play meaningful games in August is pretty neat.
Getting packages from Amazon is a novelty that doesn't wear off.
Late summer sunshine is a one of the true joys of life.
Until next week folks, remember that without an O-line, you don't have an offense.
-The Commissioner
