LSU 2-0 But Doesn’t Dominate Vandy
LSU took their first SEC game last night as they defeated visiting Vanderbilt 23-9 last night. The game was played in the rain and was still close going into the fourth quarter. The Tigers grabbed a bobbled pass on a Vandy drive deep into their territory to shut down a potential touchdown and preserve some level of comfort. However, the following quotes from one game summary I read don’t help my confidence about the team:
LSU made five trips inside the Vanderbilt 20, and three of the first four ended in field goals.
LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson had trouble finding open receivers downfield, constantly checking down to receivers running short routes.
To his credit, Jefferson did not throw an interception. That’s important in any game, but even more so when the game is was played in the rain. So we’ll chalk this one up as a victory and move on to next week.
In other news around the conference…
Georgia and South Carolina put on an offensive show, with Georgia winning on the final play. South Carolina was driving and went for a touchdown on fourth down on the last play of the game. The Georgia defense rose to the occasion and batted down the pass, giving the Dawgs a 1-0 mark in the SEC East.
For some reason, I got to watch Troy versus Florida on TV here in the Dallas area. 
I can only guess they wanted to put Florida on as a preview of the match next week against Tennessee. It wasn’t close. Tebow got five more touchdowns (four passing, one rushing). I don’t really expect Tennessee to be much of a challenge; they opened against a patsy (beating Western Kentucky 63-7) but showed their lack of talent against visiting UCLA. I think Tennessee has problems at quarterback… and at coaching, to be honest. We’ll see just how things go in the Swamp next week.
Alabama also played a “pre-season game” and handled Florida International without much trouble. At least they opened their season against a ranked opponent. We won’t see Alabama challenged much until they visit Mississippi on October 10th.
In the Big 12, Texas remained tough winning at altitude (7,200 feet! 
) in beating Wyoming, 41-10. In a real shocker, #5 Oklahoma State lost to Houston. At home. Houston has had some great teams in the past (David Klingler played there, setting all sorts of records) but hasn’t been a top-25 team recently. Yet there was the final score 45-35 in favor of the Cougars.
Oklahoma managed to squeak past Idaho State, somehow, without Bradford. 
Oh yeah, the final score was 64-0.
The best games of the day, however, were in the Big 10. Michigan came from behind on their final drive to take down Notre Dame, which now must win out if they’re still going to be in consideration for a national title. And USC won their game with a go-ahead drive with about a minute left, defeating Ohio State 18-15. Both of those games were exciting as the teams were evenly matched. I want to see how Michigan and the rest of these teams (including USC, to be honest) fare against other quality opposition. Two middle-tier schools can put on a great show when playing each other (could that be the case of Georgia and South Carolina) but can falter against higher quality opposition. I am not on the USC bandwagon; I think they’ll lose at least 3 games this year, one of them to Notre Dame later on.
Time will tell if I am smart or crazy to be saying that. 