COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 1 OBSERVATIONS

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

No major conference consistently takes more shit for its suckiness than the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC is This past offseason, college football fans were merciless in their appraisal of what is almost universally considered, the worst of all BCS conferences. After the first weekend - and mind you, it was only one weekend, but still - it looks like that trash talk did not go far enough.

It has been well documented by now, so I'm sure you know that week 1 for the ACC was an utter disaster. Virginia Tech, 2007 conference champ, and thought to be in the mix for the conference title in '08, was beaten by East Carolina. In yet another game that makes you wonder what Tom O'Brien was thinking when he left BC for NC State, the Wolfpack was crushed by South Carolina 34-0. Two teams, Maryland and North Carolina, sleepwalked through one-score nailbiter wins over 1-AA schools. Virginia was absolutely destroyed by USC 52-7 (more on that later). And finally, we come to the #9 ranked Clemson Tigers. The team that was picked by many to win the conference and carry the flag for this oft-ridiculed league. I think that is where we will start with our first observation:

- I am not a Clemson hater. I swear. If I am hard on this team, its because I hate to see coaches that are horrible at their jobs continue to be employed. If I were a Clemson fan, I would be fed up at this point. It was so predictable that this Tiger team, with all of this talent, and all of these expectations, would eventually crap all over themselves in a big game (as they have repeatedly under Tommy Bowden), but even I didn't think it would come this early, or be this bad. The Tigers looked completely lost, almost from the opening kickoff, against Alabama Saturday night, in a 34-10 game where the score does not even come close to telling the story. Clemson looked completely uninspired in getting crushed by a middle-of-the-pack SEC team. Speaking of which...

- Again, its only the first week, but the SEC looks legit. This conference may be even deeper than we thought it could be. Everyone knows about Georgia, Florida, LSU, and Auburn, but even Ole Miss and Kentucky looked impressive. I can't possibly see anyone going undefeated in this conference this year, and going through with only 1 loss looks tough.

- The earlier the powers-that-be decide to eliminate preseason rankings, the better. Do they really think fans are so stupid that they would be lost if they watched a weekend or two of football without meaningless rankings based on nothing? Why was Pitt ranked in the AP top 25? Why was Michigan in the coaches' poll? Did any knowledgeable fan in his/her right mind think that either of those two teams was one of the top 25 teams in America, even before they both lost home games to unranked, non-BCS conference teams this past Saturday?

- Without question, the most impressive team from the weekend was USC. Yes, it was only Virginia, but UVA is (theoretically) a BCS conference team, and it would have been very easy for the Trojans to be distracted, or take the Cavaliers lightly with their big showdown with Ohio State coming up next on the 13th. They didn't. They pistol-whipped UVA 52-7, and probably could've beaten them worse if they wanted to. I don't see anyone else in the Pac-10 that even looks like they should be on the same field as USC. But again, it was only one week.

- Speaking of Ohio State, step away from the ledge Buckeye fans.

Photo: AP