Rooting for the Underdog....
You thought last year was the year of the underdog, just pay attention to this year. I find myself more than ever hoping for a good game at the college than a blowout with the team that I picked to win, and more times than not its turning out that way. Look at the score from the first weeks of the season.
Let's start with East Carolina. If you follow college football this is almost as big of a phenomenon as App. State over Michigan. The University of East Carolina, who are they? Now granted there is sleeper team who comes out of no where every year and causes buzz on every Sports Center, but I can't believe that this team beat Virgina Tech in week one, but then goes and crushes West Virgina. Maybe the college teams from Virgina are going through a rough patch, as Virgina University lost to USC, but Pat White and Noel Devine, arguably the two fastest players in the nation? . It was more than impressive.
Then Bowling Green runs over Pittsburg, UCLA comes back against Tennessee, Fresno State takes out Rutgers, and the huge upset, Alabama crushes highly rated Clemson. On top of that Juice Williams throws for five touchdowns and only loses by ten to sixth ranked Missouri.
In week two Vanderbelt shocks Steve Spurrior, Ohio State barely pulls it out against Ohio? Washington should've beat BYU in my opinion, Miami is within six for three quarters vs. Florida, Auburn only outscores Southern Miss. by fourteen, Central Florida and South Florida go down to the wire, 20th ranked Wake Forest barely pulls it out against Mississippi, Rich Rodriguez barely gets his first win vs. Miami Ohio, and Darren McFadden's Alma mater barely edges out Louisiana-Monroe. Although it was a great match-up, South Florida still beats higher ranked Kansas while Maryland beats 23rd ranked Cal.
Now its obvious that college football is weekly becoming more and more of a business which means there are going to be a lot more competition every year, but I am still impressed as to how many of these games are coming down to the last drive or two, and whose underdog will win despite their rankings. All of the sudden, in my eyes, storied franchises are getting beat, big time high school recruits are going to unknown schools, and college football is rapidly expanding.
Obviously it goes unsaid how many of these unknown schools' players get drafted high into the NFL. Leotis McKelvin from Troy goes to Buffalo 11th overall, Ryan Clady from Boise State goes 12th overall to Denver, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie goes to Arizona 16th overall from Tennessee State, Joe Flacco from Delaware and Chris Johnson from East Carolina, all in the first round in the NFL draft goes so far and does so much for their college programs.
All I'm saying is that this year could be even more exciting than last year with the increasing and incredible amount of time and energy put into recruiting, strategies, practicing, and stressing over winning at the college level. The amount of football games that are coming down the last two minutes are surprising for at least the first two and a half weeks of the college season.
Lastly, before you write off Ohio State tonight against USC, just don't forget about the underdog. Will the game depend on Binni Wells playing? I don't think so, despite the fact that I don't even think that Binni will sit out. This could be the closest game to being professional that college football has ever seen. I can guarantee that there will be at least a hundred NFL scouts at this game, and while South Cal looks unstoppable and Ohio State could possible be missing their huge, fast, powerful tailback, they have a pretty incredible defense that will have something to say to Sanchez and McKnight.
Thanks for reading, comment if you want.