Smashing Premiere

Random thoughts from week one so far...plenty on USC/Arkansas (because that's what's on right now), then to the rest of the week:

• John David Booty has certainly impressed the hell out of me. Arkansas isn't chopped liver folks, and they were hanging in with last season's runner up for a good while. But Booty made sharp accurate throws to shred their secondary.

• On the other side of that game: Mitch Mustain chucked an interception upon entering that game...but on the very next drive, he hooked up with his high school teammate Damian Williams on a 44 yarder pass, followed up by Mustain scoring on the QB draw. It was the second team USC defense...but still the USC defense that he beat fresh out of high school. Of course, Mustain threw another pick soon after that.
• Finally...finally...a useful report from the sidelines. ESPN's Holly Rowe made a great catch by noticing that after both Mustain's TD drive and his second interception, neither first string QB Robert Johnson nor second string QB Casey Dick would say a word to him. I suppose you can't expect a high level of maturity out of college kids, but wow...All these guys have heard all off-season has been Mitch, Mitch, Mitch. No small wonder that the two older quarterbacks must feel like Jan and Cindy to Mustain's Marcia.
• This could turn out to be a legitimate rivalry in two years. Between the maturation of Booty and Mustain, and the fact that Arkansas will keep the mental images of Booty throwing the ball up by 23 in the fourth quarter, this is going to eventually become a much more competitive game. Arkansas has plenty of good recruits on both sides of the ball to make future games fun.

And the rest of week one:

• Colt McCoy was impressive, but seemed to rely on the talents of Limas Sweed to carry him past North Texas today. Next up? How will McCoy fare when he faces a pass rush and can't rely on the five yard curl?
• I know it's not going to be like this every week, but how does Grambling and Hampton wind up on ESPN2, while other games involving top 25 teams wind up on ESPN360 and freakin' pay per view? I sense some conference commissioners are not too pleased this week.
• That being said, Grambling and Hampton probably played the most entertaining game of the afternoon. Grambling State has the ball inside Hampton's 10 yard line and somehow doesn't score, Hampton then ties the game with under two minutes to go to force overtime. Hampton scores a TD to lead off OT,...Grambling State then matches the touchdown, but gets the extra point blocked to end the game. They don't call them the Worldwide Leader in Sports for nuttin', folks.
• You can definitely tell that the Colorado Buffaloes have been cleaned up. Their good citizens can't even beat the Bobcats of 1AA Montana State!
• Notre Dame? Many thought Georgia Tech could upset them, and they were almost right. The Irish are in the same position, to me, as West Virginia. Last season was a renaissance season for them and now they're on everyone's radar for the first time since Ty Willingham's second year. We know how that turned out.
• If California is going to lay claim to having this great defense, it would be nice if they could tackle somebody, no?
• Let's not forget Rutgers. They marched into Chapel Hill and held a supposedly high powered North Carolina offense to sixteen points. Could Ray Rice really win the Heisman? Could the most coveted individual trophy in college football end up in Piscataway? Yikes!
• What formation, exactly, were the Chippewas running at the end of the game against Boston College?
• If you haven't seen Jonathon Holland's catch against Nebraska, go on ESPN's website or You Tube or something. Of course, it was Louisiana Tech's only highlight today as they lost to Nebraska 49-10. How scary is Nebraska? Sam Keller is their scout team QB this season. Something tells me Bill Callahan is going to start looking a lot smarter.

One man's Heisman list:

• Steve Slaton/WVU
• Drew Tate/Iowa
• Ray Rice/Rutgers

Just because.