2015 Week 3 College Football Predictions

2015 Week 3 College Football Predictions

"Hey Jerrod Heard, do you wanna come to Texas and be the savior of the program?"

"Yeah, sure. That sounds cool."

2015 Season Record 9-2

Well last weekend was quite the rollercoaster. Virginia, Tennessee, Jacksonville State, East Carolina, and Arkansas State all failed to pull off the upset and give us some early season fun. Toledo, however, pretty much ruined the Arkansas Hype Train. Ohio State is still solid, although there may be a controversy brewing at quarterback. Michigan State out-greened Oregon, but it was a good game and I think they're both top 10 teams the rest of the season. Ole Miss hasn't really played anybody amazing, but they're averaging 70 points a game right now, so keep an eye on them. And Texas did some good things! 

Texas A&M 45 - Nevada 17

Well, I don't think we can ignore Texas A&M right now, no matter how hard we try. The combination of good recruiting classes and adding in John Chavis has produced immediate results. Their rapid improvement is going to further cloud and already confusing SEC West. For now, they get to beat up on mid-major teams and further solidify their offense. In a few few weeks they'll have to prove it on the field against real competition. And in 6 months, Kevin Sumlin will accept a job with the Jacksonville Jaguars and College Station will Lose. It's. Shit.

LSU 27 - Auburn 21

Auburn was predicted to finish in the playoffs and I want it known that I said that was stupid before the season even started. Jeremy Johnson so far seems to be playing drunk at QB and Auburn has struggled mightily in two games against pretty weak opponents. Now they have to play LSU and Leonard "Swamp Thing" Fournette (I'm really not sure why this nickname isn't official yet). LSU has only played one game due to a bye in the first week, but they look pretty solid and are going to be one of the top teams in the West. Honestly though, I'll watch this game simply because Les Miles is going to be on camera a lot. One day we'll all look up and he'll be like 85 and there will be an intern wheeling him around the sideline while he yells "PUNT TEAM" at nobody in particular. He's a college football treasure and we need to relish every second of his insanity. 

Georgia Tech 24 - Notre Dame 23

I'm picking this game blind on the Georgia Tech side. I don't even know. Not even going to look up any stats on them. They still run a triple option, which is goddamn hilarious, and it's effective, which is even funnier. I'm sure they have a decent 5'11" option quarterback, 6 running backs of various sizes and speeds who will all get carries, and 1 monster receiver that obviously doesn't know what "triple option" means for his receptions and yardage numbers. This is just how life is at Georgia Tech. Notre Dame is coming off an insane win against stupid stupid Virgina (yeah I left the "I" out on purpose here), who apparently doesn't teach their safeties how to play coverage. They lost their quarterback, Malik Zaire, for the season. But they still have a deep enough roster to compete the rest of the year against the super scary ACC schedule they lined up for themselves. Whatever, go Yellow Jackets. 

Georgia 31 - South Carolina 17

Well, here it is. Right about this time last year, Georgia started screwing me on games they should have won. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they lost 7 fumbles and only put 8 people on the field for the final play of the game to lose here because that's just what they do. But they have all the pieces to beat South Carolina and I'm going to trust them for one game. Just oooooooone game. That's all they get. If they betray me here, I'll treat them like Clemson for the rest of the year. As for South Carolina: come on, Steve! The SEC is way more fun when you have a good team and talk shit to everyone. Watching you stumble around and lose to Kentucky is pretty damn tough. Get it together!

Texas Football

This season isn't going to be good for my health. The emotional swing from loss at Notre Dame to the win against Rice was pretty severe. Let's start with the good news here: 

#1 Sweet taste of victory

#2 Actual emotional energy from the team

#3 Touchdowns! MULTIPLE TOUCHDOWNS IN ALL PHASES OF THE GAME!

#4 Jerrod Heard should play the rest of this season 

#5 We played so many young freshmen who are only going to get better as the season goes on

The bad: It was Rice. 

The ugly: Steve Patterson's exit. I'm still not sure what I think of it.

Let's dive a little deeper here. Special teams is the clear winner of this game. A few amazing returns kept us in the driver's seat all game. Our offense looked like it had some life for the first time in about 15 games. Heard is going to struggle with short and medium range throws, but if we can tailor an offense to suit his skill set, we can probably make due for the rest of this year. The line maybe played better? I'm not really sure since the Rice D-line averages like 195 lbs. But we had a decent running game and Jerrod had some time to throw when he dropped back. Silver Star, offensive line. Defense was.....interesting. Not bad! Just interesting. It was such a strange game in terms of time of possession and number of plays run that's it's hard to say with certainty how our defense played. They had to spend the entire first half on the field even though we were dominating the scoreboard. I'm choosing to believe that the 3rd quarter where we shut them out, forced turnovers, and had a defensive score is our real defensive ceiling. We played freshmen on offense and special teams, but I feel that defense is where we're really going to notice it all year. The highest of highs (Malik Jefferson scoop and score) and the lowest of lows (Malik repeatedly missing tackles). This game was great for Texas fans mentality though. We at least proved to ourselves that we're not in the same class as Rice and gave us hope for the future, both long and short term. Which brings us to Cal:

The Bears are going to have a fast paced offense that's put up a lot of points in the first 2 weeks. Albeit against Grambling and San Diego States. Against Notre Dame and Rice we showed that we clearly can't get pressure with our front four. Unless something drastically changes, we'll have to bring pressure against this offense, which puts our defensive backs in man coverage for the majority of the game. Texas' offense should find this matchup similar to Rice. The internet informs me the Bears return 9 starters from a defense that gave up about 40 points a game last season. The bad news is their rushing defense is decent, so we'll probably have to throw a little more this week to have success. In any event, I'm just happy to be predicting an actual game as opposed to "Well, maybe we'll have 3 points by halftime." Let's still remember this is a rebuilding effort in Texas and a loss here isn't the end of the world. At the end of the day, we're just looking for incremental improvement, and I really think we'll see it here. Hook 'em. 

Texas 31 - Cal 24