"Two and Oh." Say it with me now.
Sure, there is a lot to be concerned about, like the lack of depth at running back, Braxton Miller's workload, a slow start out of the defensive front, secondary lapses, penalties and turnovers, but the Buckeyes played an at times listless game and still handled a relatively decent UCF squad with ease.
We'll gladly take the win and as a kicker, Urban Meyer, Mickey Marotti and crew get to spend an entire week of practice telling the team that they are not very good at football with the requisite running and conditioning that entails.
Meyer's team welcomes Cal this week and UAB the following week before a showdown with fellow league unbeaten and conference favorite Michigan State in East Lansing.
Let's hope Miller is still in one piece for that clash.
B1G LIFE, B1G STAGE, B1G PROBLEMS. There's no other way to put it. Saturday was Big Ten football at its worst and it's unanimous.
ESPN's Adam Rittenberg:
If Jan. 1, 2011, was the worst on-field date in league history -- Big Ten teams went 0-5 in bowls, including a Wisconsin loss to TCU in the Rose Bowl -- Saturday came pretty close to the worst regular-season date on record.
Bleacher Report's Adam Jacobi (emphasis his):
It was an embarrassment nonpareil, as clear a message as possible that the Big Ten is not a nationally relevant football conference in 2012.
Even BTN columnist and party spokesman Tom Dienhart had to acknowledge that Saturday "was not a great showing for the Big Ten" and that the league "needs to bounce back next week."
The conference finished 6-6 on the day, which would be fine for a Saturday in October, but not so much for the second weekend of college football. Against BCS-level competition, the league struggled its way to a 1-6 mark.
Let's see... Iowa lost the Cy-Hawk Trophy at home to Iowa State1, UCLA handled Nebraska, Arizona State clobbered Illinois, Notre Dame topped Purdue, and Virginia edged the corpse that is Penn State football in no small part due to PSU kicker Sam Ficken missing an extra point and four field goals.
Oregon State, a team that went 3-9 last season, giving up a minimum of at least 21 points in every game out, held Wisconsin to 35 yards on the ground and 7 points, handing the two-time defending league champion their first loss of the season2. Late last night, Bret Bielema attempted to right the ship by firing offensive line coach Mike Markuson. Bielema's got a plan, everyone! The team's offensive quality control guy, Bart Miller, is expected to take over o-line duties which means "Say hello to your very own Nick Siciliano, Badger fans!"3
The league's lone victory over a BCS conference opponent came courtesy of Northwestern, who topped Vanderbilt in Nerd Bowl. Yes, it's a win over an SEC foe, but as Johnny put it: Vanderbilt is about as SEC as computers and modern orthodontics are.
So, two weeks into the season, the league's standard-bearers are a team that's on probation, the nerdy whipping boy of the conference and a team whose logo triggers the involuntary SPARTY NO! response.
All hail Yeti BuckeyeTHE SACK-12. What's the opposite of the Big Ten right now? The Pac-12, of course4.
The storyline heading into the season for the league with the best logo was that of fresh blood. New coaches were in place at Arizona (Rich Rodriguez), Arizona State (Todd Graham), UCLA (Jim Mora) and Washington State (Mike Leach). On Saturday, they all delivered.
Wisconsin and Nebraska were both ranked, losing to unranked Oregon State and UCLA, respectively, while Rodriguez and his Wildcats provided the league's third upset of a ranked team with its 59-38 drubbing of #18 Oklahoma State. That's your karma for hanging 84 points on Savannah State in week one, Mr. Gundy.
So while the Big Ten was sputtering through its worst regular season weekend in ages and the SEC saw one of its marquee teams upset by a Sunbelt Sunbeast team, the Pac-12 is looking like the nation's best conference top-to-bottom.
BRING ON THE BEARS. Ohio State will have a chance to avenge the Pac-12 on Big Ten slaughtering of last weekend when the Cal Bears visit for the third game of the Meyer era.
Cal was stunned in their opener, losing late to Nevada at home, before bouncing back Saturday with a sluggish win over FCS Southern Utah. Like Meyer, Cal coach Jeff Tedford was not thrilled with his team's performance:
"Penalties, too many penalties. We cannot continue to do that, shoot ourselves in the foot and expect to win close football games. We broke it open in the second half with a lot of big plays, but we are really hurting ourselves a lot. We have to clean that up for sure. We are making positive plays, but shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties"
Tedford was referring to the 12 penalties for 106 yards his team racked up against the Thunderbirds. The Bears, despite playing Nevada and Southern Utah to start the year, are also 103rd in the NCAA in 3rd down conversions, good on just 32.0% of all attempts.
For these reasons and many others, veteran Cal beat writer John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Chronicle is seeing a glass half-empty:
If this is the best Cal can do against a lower-division opponent like Southern Utah, what’s in store for the poor old Bears against Ohio State and USC on the road the next two weeks?
I shudder to contemplate the possible scenarios.
Unless coach Jeff Tedford’s team gets a whole lot better in a week’s time, the next two games could be really ugly. I don’t see any way Cal avoids a 1-3 start to the season, which would make a winning record difficult the rest of the way.
#BearNationProblems
ETC. Suggested Twitter follows ahead of Saturday's game with Cal... George O'Leary after his team took a false start penalty to start their second drive... Mike Bianchi goes off on one more blast. This is some Fatal Attraction type stuff at this point... Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel just found out that he's moving... Rising ticket prices + a bad economy = sellout problems... New IDs are coming, Ohioans... Truth... Happy fourth birthday, LHC.
- 1 Iowa State has now won 9 of the last 15 in this series. How does that happen? Is this a good time to remind everyone that with a league record of 57–47, Kirk Ferentz is the second-highest paid coach in the Big Ten? ↑
- 2 With the 3-0 run against the Big Ten on Saturday, the B1G is now 5-28-1 at Pac-12 schools since 1993 when Penn State joined the conference. ↑
- 3 I don't want to say I told you so, but oh... why not... Soon after Wisconsin's staff exodus hit in January, I took to Twitter declaring that the Badgers would not win the Leaders Division in 2012. At the time, it was thought that Ohio State would be ineligible to win the division so that should tell you how bearish I was on the Badgers. ESPN's Adam Rittenberg and MGoBlog's Brian Cook thought it was crazy talk at the time. Today, I'd like to double-down on that talk. ↑
- 4 Technically, this should read the Pac-10 because, Colorado and Utah, you guys kinda suck. ↑
