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That was a nice warm-up for the upcoming weekend.
No game did end with an upset from my point of view, even if some teams had some more trouble than expected.
For me was the South Florida game really the most anticipated, since I was curious how Charlie Strong would handle his team.
So let us track the games in the BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP 3 GAMES FOR WEEK 0
Sat. Aug. 26 - 2:30 pm ET
Oregon State @ Colorado State
This was an open game until halftime.
After that did CSU pull away and did break all barriers in the 4th coring 24 points in that quarter.
I'm not sure what to take away from that game.
I think the Rams offense will score a lot this season, and their defense did generate some opportunities.
The Beavers on the other hand were quite error prone and I hope that Andersen get stop that before the conference games start.
Overall, a setback for the Beavers, especially with that score result and a chance for CSU to start on a high note.
Oregon State 27 - Colorado State 58 -> Jacks TOP 3 GAMES Score: 1-0
Sat. Aug. 26 - 6:00 pm ET
Hawaii @ UMass
This game went back and forth the whole game and call it luck or call it talent (or whatever), Hawaii was able to score a game winning TD with 48 second left to play.
Not sure why the game was closer than expected, maybe UMass is better than I think, or Hawaii did not progress as expected.
Or maybe it was just that jinx driven 1st game where not all is in synch and the motivation is maybe not 100%.
It will be interesting to see, how both teams will develop in the next few weeks.
My gut feeling is still that Hawaii should be way better than what we have seen, so I will have an extra eye on UMass, since it might be that they start to become what they always thought they should be, a better team.
Hawaii 38 - UMass 35 -> Jacks TOP 3 GAMES Score: 2-0
Sat. Aug. 26 - 6:00 pm ET
#19 South Florida @ San Jose State
And here comes my most anticipated game and it was not as expected, at least in the first half.
My expectation were that over the first 2 drives USF would outscore the Spartans and then slowly taking the speed out of the game until Strong would have seen all players playing.
Because the Spartans were a mess and the Bulls were not, last season.
What happened was that the Spartans did outscore the Bulls in the 1st quarter and the Bulls then turned the game around with some great interceptions and following TDs with their offense.
At halftime, the power levels were sorted out and the Bulls did lead 28-16.
Still closer than I expected.
The 2nd half was then that slowed down matchup I expected, where USF still won every quarter.
But this was an easy test of the Bulls and if they want to win the conference, they need to be focused early on.
The Spartans might be better than I expect them to be, only time will tell.
Hopefully the letdown in the 2nd quarter was not because of talent, but experience on the Bulls side and that 2nd half was only a reaction on that dramatic turnaround.
A good team needs to stay focused even in such a situation.
South Florida 42 - San Jose State 22 -> Jacks TOP 3 GAMES Score: 3-0
Other interesting games:
Sat. Aug. 26 - 10:00 pm ET
#14 Stanford @ Rice
This game was played in Sydney, Australia and went totally as expected.
My guess is, that Rice will likely look for a new coach next season, while Stanford might have a better than rebuilding season.
Stanford did win 62-7
Jacks interesting games Score: 1-0
And some other results which might be interesting:
In the only game left not featured in the preview did BYU beat FCS team Portland State 20-6. I hope that this was only a matter of getting rid of the dust, because Portland State is not a tough team and winning only by 2 scores at home is way worse than I would expect in such a game.
Tags: Block of Granite
