The 2011 college football season officially starts four weeks from tomorrow, with several Thursday night games scheduled to help launch the new season. Those “first night” games will be lightweight events for the most part, with the meat of the action beginning on Saturday and running through Monday, Labor Day.
It has been a long, hot summer…are your ready for some football?!
Practice has begun and players are currently sweating it out across the country. Without a preseason set of games to get started, college teams routinely pad the first part of their schedule with cupcake games such as: McNeese State v. Kansas; Louisiana-Lafayette v. Oklahoma State; Montana v. Tennessee; and Troy v. Clemson.
There will be some interesting match ups that first weekend with Boise State traveling to Georgia; BYU visiting Ole Miss; Oregon v. LSU meeting in Arlington, TX; and South Florida traveling to Norte Dame. Okay, there certainly WILL be some good games to watch when the season unfolds early next month.
As always, there is plenty of pre-season buzz dominating college football including the following stories:
Fresh off the sudden dismissal of Butch Davis, the University of North Carolina has come to the realization that its athletic fund doesn’t have enough money to handle what could be a $2.7 million payout. Davis will definitely get the remainder of his $1.12 million salary for 2011, but could receive money for several more years if he doesn’t coach elsewhere reports WRAL.
The “other” Carolina has had its share of drama too. The University of South Carolina has suspended QB Stephen Garcia five times, the most recent for undisclosed unacceptable behavior states ESPN. For that offense Garcia was suspended for one week. Garcia won’t be tossed by the Gamecocks as he returns this season following a year where he threw for more than 3,000 yards and beat Alabama.
Villanova’s quest to jump up to the highest level of college football has encountered some road blocks. The school, a Big East Conference member in all other sports, was asked by the BE to move its program up from 1-AA to 1-A. Pitt, apparently, is leading the charge to keep ‘Nova out with reports that Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia have also set up roadblocks. SBNation is urging that Army and Navy be invited instead.
Football fanatics looking for a taste of the season to come may want to head over to the Sporting News to take in its Top 50 countdown. Yes, the chart stoppers may already need to be adjusted as #41 North Carolina is without Butch Davis at the helm. As of this writing, Sporting News has worked its way down to the #29 spot which is occupied by BYU. Other charters include Houston, South Florida, Northern Illinois (really!) and Arizona.
Barring major injuries — and you know that there will be some — coaches will be working on filling out depth charts in coming weeks to close whatever gaps remain. For some schools with deep and talented benches, that will be a formality. For schools barely competing at the BCS level, that challenge may be just one of many that can help avert a disastrous season.
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