Big Ten Roundtable - Week 2

While I was absent last week (or all summer...depending on your perspective), you cant keep the DCfW down. Let's get it on!

There Is No Name On My Jersey brings us a good series of questions for the Week 2 Edition of the Big10 Roundtable.

And away we go...

Clearly, Week 1 was a huge week for upsets with Appalachian St. beating Michigan and Clemson beating FSU (though if that really shocked anyone I'd be surprised). What are your upset games for Week 2 and why?

Upset Special #1
#22 TCU at #4 Texas – Let’s face it. Without UM’s collapse against App State, Texas’ performance against Arkansas State would have provided a great deal of message board fodder and material to the blogosphere. They were borderline terrible after the first quarter and were lucky to win this game, from some post game reports. We have all heard about TCU’s defense this off-season. Don’t think that the Frogs haven’t had this one circled all summer. It is going to be a war. It will be interesting to see how many shots a beef-up Coly McCoy can take from this defense, because TCU will bring the house every chance they get on Saturday.

Upset Special #2
#12 Cal at Colorado State – This is a classic “let-down” game. Colorado State has never been an easy place for visiting teams to win. Yes, Cal has the talent, but is the motivation there? Fortunately for Cal, this is not a night game.

Upset Special #3
Alabama at Vanderbilt – For those of us not fortunate enough to see Vanderbilt’s entire season on the Jefferson-Pilot Network, Vandy was a force to be dealt with in the SEC last season. Neither team is ranked, but common sense would tell you that Alabama is just another class above Vandy…WRONG! We’ll see if Saban’s Alabama squad has an answer for the sweet combo of Chris Nickson (19 of 25 for 284 and 4 TDs against the mighty Richmond Spiders) and Earl Bennett (13 catches for 233 yards with 3 TDs).

2. What do you think about the BTN? How'd it look? How were the announcers? Did the first weekend change your opinion of the BTN?

- Overall, the BTN was a success this weekend. A lot of the mainstream media seemed to have issues with the BTN commercial spots being played over and over again, but it is obvious that the BTN knows that most of us were watching it in a bar or at a friends house. So for the Dodd’s and Fiutak’s of the journalism world…”DEAL WITH IT!”

- I primarily stuck with the OSU-YSU game, but the announcers put together a good product. Tomczak and Twibell did a decent job of making the game interesting, which YSU’s decent play in the first half was a great help, as well. I would say that the current level is above the old ESPN+ game crews and below ESPN2 MAC game crews at this point. I think that once the HD feeds are settled the BTN will be a great product.

- My opinion of the BTN is unchanged after this weekend. I want it at home. However, COMCAST wants to give me a steady diet of the Food Network, Oxygen, and WE. Seriously…How many Daphne Zuniga movies can be shown in one weekend?

3. Now that we're a game into the Season evaluate the Big Ten's strength.

- Linebackers – Connor, Lee, Laurinitis, Leman. The linebacker play over the course of the first weekend was what we all expected from these four. 20 tackles for Leman and a big game from Sean Lee with 2TFL, 1 sack, and a forced fumble. Linebackers are still all the rage in the Big10 this year.

- Wide Receivers – Brian Robiskie is the next OSU receiver stud with his 9-catch 153-yard performance on Saturday. Luke Swann put together a nice afternoon with a 170-yard performance. Notice, I made no mention of all-world receiver Mario Manningham or James “The Gigantor” Hardy.

- First-Year Starting Quarterbacks – There were a lot of question marks for Wisconsin and OSU starting some new blood under center this season. It looks like some of those concerns have been alleviated for the time being. Todd Boeckman, Tyler Donovan, and Brian Hoyer all had nice starts in some “cream-puff” type of games.