2021 Watch Party: Week Zero

[IrishLion]

COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK.

Kind of.

It's week zero, meaning we get a random collection of games a week early this Saturday... but any college football is good college football, and this should be a nice little warmup to stretch out the gameday muscles, start prepping for how you're going to tell your wife that you can't go to Michael's for Fall decorations because the game is on, and to figure out the sweet spot on timing the crockpot chili.

1:00PM	Nebraska @ Illinois	FOX	- The return of Bert Bielema! Illinois goes from whatever Lovie was doing, to Man Ball... or do they? Will Bielema run a mix of power and spread as his roster transitions? - On the other side, Scott Frost is melting on the hot seat. Nebraska needs to bounce back, and getting a comfortable win in week one would be a good start to build confidence. - Adrian Martinez at QB for Nebraska is nothing if not entertaining, and former scUM QB Brandon Peters should start for Illinois. What a heavyweight clash!
2:00PM	UConn @ Fresno State	CBSSN	- It's football that's on! Flip over during the Nebraska/Illinois commercials. - Fresno State's QB, Jake Haener, was on pace to throw for 4000+ yards and 30 TD's last year had they played a full, 12-game season... he's gonna sling the ball around.
3:30PM	Hawaii @ UCLA	ESPN	- Chip Kelly returns 20 starters to a team that was okay at times last year, headlined by an athlete at QB and a good OL. They also use a lot of 12 personnel, which is weird for Chip Kelly. - Chevan Cordeiro, Hawaii's QB, is a student of Brett Favre's school of 'Throw the Ball into Triple Coverage and See What Happens.' He might throw for 400 yards, 5 TD's and 5 INT's.
10:00PM	Southern Utah @ San Jose State	CBSSN	- San Jose State was a pretty good Cinderella story last year, going 7-0 in the regular season (until they got railroaded by Ball State in a bowl game). - San Jose State is lead by super-super senior Nick Starkel, who is definitely not ass, my dude (shoutouts to Tathan Martell). He's gonna put up video game numbers in this one.

So we've got two name-brands (Nebraska and UCLA), a rehab project (Illinois), and some MWC teams that will surely be entertaining.

Not bad for a week zero! Football is back, and as Bert Bielema would say... that's borderline erotic.

 

[NDTH91]

I mostly lurk, but since no one else has commented yet, I wanted to say thanks for this thread IrishLion! I always love these and the little bit of analysis/buildup that you include makes each game all the more enticing. Especially loving the inclusion of links on this one

FOOTBALL IS BACK, BABY!!!

 

[IrishLion]

I mostly lurk, but since no one else has commented yet, I wanted to say thanks for this thread IrishLion! I always love these and the little bit of analysis/buildup that you include makes each game all the more enticing. Especially loving the inclusion of links on this one

FOOTBALL IS BACK, BABY!!!

My man!

I'm glad someone enjoys the small morsels of "analysis," though you use that term very loosely lol

 

[IrishLion]

It's week zero for me, too... I realize our in-house tables present poor formatting for mobile viewing.

Week one is back to the standard list form I guess, which is a bummer because I think the table looks great on desktop

 

[DONTH8]

Appreciate this thread! The originator of it is back I see, but where has YJ been? Great snippets considering the "down" week. Looking forward to the Nebraska/Illinois game for the sole fact that if Nebraska somehow loses the game, you gotta wonder how much longer the fans will hang onto their savior Scott Frost. I dont see how they lose, but stranger things have happened.

Again, big thank you to Lion!

 

[IrishLion]

Appreciate this thread! The originator of it is back I see, but where has YJ been?

That's a good question... haven't seen him around in a bit. Maybe the start of a new season brings him back.

Great snippets considering the "down" week. Looking forward to the Nebraska/Illinois game for the sole fact that if Nebraska somehow loses the game, you gotta wonder how much longer the fans will hang onto their savior Scott Frost. I dont see how they lose, but stranger things have happened.

The cool thing about Bielema's style is that it is a great equalizer for under-manned teams, as long as his team is embracing the system. If they have some capable fullbacks and tight ends, they could end up winning a surprise game or two right away in year one, just by virtue of the power offense being 'unique' in the current game.

 

[Irish#1]

Appreciate this thread! The originator of it is back I see, but where has YJ been? Great snippets considering the "down" week. Looking forward to the Nebraska/Illinois game for the sole fact that if Nebraska somehow loses the game, you gotta wonder how much longer the fans will hang onto their savior Scott Frost. I dont see how they lose, but stranger things have happened.

Again, big thank you to Lion!

I noticed John hasn't been on in a while I'll shoot him an email and see what's up.

Thanks Kyle.

 

[calvegas04]

Feel like Martinez has been QB at NU for 20 years

 

[NDBoiler]

Feel like Martinez has been QB at NU for 20 years

I was thinking the same thing but I think there might have been more than one Martinez there?

 

[Riddickulous]

That play by the Nebraska returner is one of the dumbest plays I've ever seen. What the hell was he thinking?

 

[Irishize]

Forgot Stepp transferred to NU

 

[Henges24]

Forgot Stepp transferred to NU

Lots of former targets in this game. These two teams are also Transfer U, too, wow.

 

[SBirishlawyer]

Yeah noticed that. Did not realize martin had a stop at iowa too.

 

[IrishLax]

Charbonet going OFF … why did he transfer from Michigan? Because they suck?

 

[greyhammer90]

The biggest indictment against Frost is that the best QB he has after that many years is Martinez. Dude is just not a good QB.

 

[Crazy Balki]

The biggest indictment against Frost is that the best QB he has after that many years is Martinez. Dude is just not a good QB.

Frost has no one to blame but himself for that.

Frost flat out did not land a QB commit until this year's freshman class. How do you manage to f*ck that up?

 

[IrishLax]

Frost has no one to blame but himself for that.

Frost flat out did not land a QB commit until this year's freshman class. How do you manage to f*ck that up?

Frost failing at Nebraska after what he did at UCF is an all-time shocker for me. I thought he was a sure thing.

 

[Dale]

Frost failing at Nebraska after what he did at UCF is an all-time shocker for me. I thought he was a sure thing.

They said in the pre-game Frost told them he felt they had a lot of self inflicted wounds decide close games or something to that effect. Then proceed to watch the first points of the year be a safety on a punt return mistake. About sums it up. Always having a bunch of those type things happen starts with the HC

 

[Dale]

UCLA has the chance to be a pain in the Pac 12. They don’t strike me as a team we will see in the Pac 12 championship game (USC or ASU from the South) but could trip up the other contenders from the North or South for sure

 

[ACamp1900]

Let’s go Miners!!! Got some students that should get some playing time tonight. Just finished the Cali battle of 1-10 (Galaxy vs LAFraudC) now on to Texas/New Mexico battle of 1-10,…. UTEP vs NMS.

HYPED

 

[SBirishlawyer]

Where you find that game to watch?

 

[ACamp1900]

Where you find that game to watch?

Flosports for National,… it’s on my local ABC however as I live in town.

and,….. Touchdown Miners!!!

17-0 thus far

 

[ACamp1900]

I remember when I moved here I thought UTEPs blue helmets and mixed unis were lame,… these orange and white unis are fire. Huge upgrade

 

[SBirishlawyer]

New mexico state still independent or in conference usa now?

 

[tussin]

Frost failing at Nebraska after what he did at UCF is an all-time shocker for me. I thought he was a sure thing.

I feel bad for the Nebraska fan base. I’m getting sick of this era’s CFB elite class and think a Husker revival story would be great for the sport. Unfortunately it looks like Nebraska is a permanent third or fourth tier program now. They can’t develop and they can’t recruit.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Ooof Nebraska. This kinda hurts to witness. You just can't go losing to the Illini like that

 

[Valpodoc85]

Nebraska will find a way back. Suspect they make noise before Tennessee

 

[calvegas04]

Week Zero felt like week zero, UCLA looked the best out of everyone this weekend

 

[IrishLion]

Week Zero felt like week zero, UCLA looked the best out of everyone this weekend

On the plus side, that was a nice warmup and now I’m pumped to tweak the format and get the ‘Week One’ thread posted on Tuesday/Wednesday.

It’s nice to discuss the general slate of games again lol

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

I'm really excited to see what Beilama can do with the program at Illinois. He knows the Midwest very well and I think it's a good fit. Have to be impressed with their effort in game 1 after Peters went down and their backup seemed out of sorts for the first couple of drives before settling down pretty nicely.

Nebraska on the other hand....yikes. I suspect we will be seeing a coaching change by 2022.