It's Too Early To Judge College Football Teams After Week One

It finally came and went.

Opening weekend for college football fans is an end to all the pseudo-expert rants and insider scouting reports from open practices. Now we actually have facts to back up the wild assertions of your cubicle mate.

Wrong—it will all start anew Monday.

The first week of college football games can actually add more confusion to an entire summer of hopeful speculation. With no real historical data, how can we judge the relative strength of an opposing team. For the most part it still primarily comes down to speculation. So and so QB "looked good" against what we assumed pre-season to be a good secondary, etc.

This exact reason is why BCS rankings do not come out until after the third week and why pre-season polls are idiotic.

Florida won?? Really?? Who could've guessed it?? Against Hawaii?? That must prove their strength, right?

Oklahoma proved they can give 4th graders a wedgie. LSU showed us nothing, either did Georgia. So, Dawgs eat cupcakes, we all knew that. Appalachian State, for all their press, is one small step above junior college ball.

What makes sense right now is to reward the highest ranked teams who actually played and beat ranked teams by moving them up in The AP.

Mizzou should jump ahead of everyone that beat a scrub and be No. 2 for beating Illinois. USC shold be No. 1. At least those schools proved something.

Ohio St., Florida, Oklahoma, and Georgia should all fall in the ranking for not playing a worthy opponent.

We have a little more information than not seeing them play at all, which is helpful, but not quite enough.

Case in point is the Michigan vs. Utah football game. It all comes down to a matter of perspective.

There are a few things we can all agree on after watching this game:

1. Utah is a better football team than Michigan. That's why they play the game.

2. Michigan is NOT back as a perennial powerhouse.

3. Utah's QB Brian Johnson CAN pass from the pocket.

4. Rich Rodriguez has some work to do, recruiting work.

5. Michigan's defense will not be 24th in the nation again this year.

6. Utah's offense will not be 79th in the nation again this season.

The only way everybody wins this scenario is if Utah has another "Cinderella" season and runs the table in a top-heavy Mountain West Conference. The only real test left for the Utes is BYU now that Oregon State has shown it's hand to be a two-nine off suit.

Tens of thousands of University of Utah fans are finishing their second beer since afternoon church services adjorned and the Sunday dinner discussion at mom's house is all about Utah's win in "The Big House" yesterday.

Don't get ahead of yourselves though, maybe Michigan is just that bad.

Nobody becomes a bigger fan of Michigan football for the remainder of the regular season than the Utes. They need a winning season from Michigan to add legitimacy to a win against their strongest BCS conference opponent all season. Please coach Rodriguez, on behalf of all Utah fans, pull it together and win some games this season.

In Michigan, hundreds of thousands of Wolverine fans are sealing their empty booster club donation letters with the blood from their own wrists. Michigan fans need Utah to get a BCS invite to soften their fall a little. Don't fire your coach yet Michigan, maybe Utah really is that good.

Bottom line is that the jury is still out on all these teams. A couple more weeks will give everyone a more accurate picture.