Erick Blasco's College Huddle: Week 1

Monday night’s 24-18 FSU loss at Clemson was the same old result for the Seminoles: Another game against a competent defense, and another inept offensive performance.

In the past, the blame has been laid squarely at the feet of Drew Weatherford. But blaming Weatherford for FSU’s anemic offense would be taking the easy way out. Not only was he not the problem for the Seminoles against Clemson—he actually played reasonably well.

No, the problem for the Seminoles is their god-awful offensive line.

Three times in the first quarter, Clemson got pressure in the backfield and stopped runs behind the line. The only time Weatherford had a chance to step into a throw the entire game was on 15-yard touchdown pass to Richard Goodman...and even then he was hit in the mouth by a Clemson defensive tackle.

Other than a brief period extending from late in the third quarter to early in the fourth, the offensive line couldn’t create any running lanes, and over the course of the game allowed six sacks to six different Clemson defenders.

Sure, Weatherford doesn’t look like a potential Heisman trophy winner. He threw a couple of bad balls to the wrong shoulders of his receivers, and took a couple of sacks too many.

But he made a number of nice plays on the run (he was always on the run), made several big throws as the ‘Noles were trying to struggle back into the game, and kept his composure in difficult circumstances.

Weatherford can lead Florida State to success if he gets a little bit of time. But with the offensive line he has, particularly freshman left tackle Daron Rose, he'll be running for his life all year.

Clemson, for its part, had a flawless plan to start the game: Every play had a reverse or decoy reverse to keep the aggressive FSU linebackers honest.

C.J. Spiller and James Davis were explosive running the football, with Davis on one play breaking a tackle and making four separate cuts to get into the end zone. Once the linebackers stepped up to fill, bubble screens like the 41-yard touchdown to receiver Aaron Kelly, went for huge gains.

Cullen Harper managed the game smartly and made some good throws on some short passes, but doesn’t look like a guy who will make big plays. Still, his composure and his intelligence allowed Clemson's playcalling and talent to win the game.

Most importantly, Clemson’s secondary was solid, and the front seven was dominant. The Tigers blew up the line of scrimmage repeatedly, chased down the Seminole athletes, and generally made things miserable for Weatherford.

If Clemson can play a complete 60-minute game and shore up a few special teams gaffes, they can be dangerous in the ACC. Their lack of a great quarterback and their overall inconsistency will hurt them against more polished teams like Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

It took a little while to kick in, but the LSU Tigers showed us exactly why they're predicted by many to face USC for a national championship.

Last Thursday night, they dominated Mississippi State in every facet of the game.

The Bulldogs ran the ball 26 times. For 10 yards. QB Matt Henig threw the ball 26 times. Six of those throws were caught by LSU defenders.

Matt Flynn didn’t set the world on fire, but remember that this was his first start in two years—and it came against a respectable Miss State defense. Flynn went a solid 12-19 for 128 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.

The running game by committee rushed for nearly 200 yards. Ryan Perrilloux scored three touchdowns.

Flawless? Maybe not. Ruthlessly efficient? Absolutely.

Critics will argue that almost of all LSU’s scoring drives were the result of short fields. Why should LSU’s offense be blamed for scoring most of their points as a result of a short field?

Good teams force opponents into mistakes and then on them. LSU’s offense was excellent in that respect.

And even if the offense isn’t great at grinding out 80-yard touchdown drives, what teams will score on LSU? Virginia Tech will try this week, but they only put up 10 offensive points against ECU. Saturday’s game will be ugly for Tech’s offense.

And with the offensive playmakers the Tigers have to augment their defense, expect a lot of ugly games for SEC teams facing LSU this year.

QB Sean Canfield looked awful for Oregon State in their 24-7 win over Utah.

Though the Beavers have a talented defense and a sensational running back in Yvenson Bernard, star WR Sammie Stroughter left the team for personal reasons, and Canfield has a ways to go.

Suddenly my sleeper Pac-10 pick doesn't look so good.

One Pac 10 team that looked great was Cal. Their offense was fast. FAST. DeSean Jackson is lightning, and Nate Longshore looks more comfortable in the offense than he did at any point last year.

Cal's defense still needs to get better, but they made every important play this weekend. Things are definitely looking up in Berkeley.

Washington is going to be good next year. Their schedule and inexperience will lead to some growing pains in the Northwest, but the Huskies should come together by the end of the year—and will have some talented, confident players heading into 2008.

Michigan's loss isn't the end of the world. Appalachian State gets all the good athletes who aren't good enough to play for elite teams like Michigan and would rather play for championships than play on a middling BCS conference team, or a good non-BCS team.

In all honesty, Appalachian State would probably destroy Arizona, Stanford, UConn, Minnesota, Indiana, and Miss State. This doesn't excuse the loss—it just tempers it a bit.

Think of it as Michigan losing to Illinois instead of Michigan losing to "We Suck University."

Virginia Tech still doesn't have an offense. Their defense and special teams alone will beat a number of teams, but can Va Tech beat a squad with a decent defense and playmakers on offense? It doesn't look that way. Next week's game at LSU will be an ugly win for the Tigers.

Wyoming is looking to crash the Mountain West party this year. They got off to a good start and were a brick wall in their 23-3 win over Virginia.

Wisconsin is faster than people give them credit for. Their power running game will be great once they get cranked up, and the Badgers always have good defenses. This year, they might have the playmakers to really challenge for the Big 10.

Did any teams look more impressive in their opening week victories than Nebraska and Oklahoma?

Did any teams look more pathetic than Notre Dame?

The Irish offensive line was a wreck, and their playmakers are all in the NFL. Charlie Weis makes his living by setting up defenses with a short and clever passing game, with big strikes and running plays scattered here and there. 19 runs in 20 plays isn't Weis.

The run defense was horrible, the entire offense was horrible, and Weis' squad looks like they're in for a horrible 2007.

BYU's defense shut down Arizona 20-3, and TCU manhandled Baylor 27-0. Granted Arizona and Baylor aren't USC and Texas, but TCU, BYU, and Wyoming all demolished BCS conference teams. What's more Utah hung close with a good Oregon State team, UNLV knocked off Utah State, Colorado State took Colorado to overtime, and Air Force destroyed South Carolina State. We know you can ball, Mountain West.

NC State had about a three- or four-year period where it had Philip Rivers, T.A McClendon, and a filthy defense. They accomplished nothing during that time frame. Now, they are losing at home to UCF.

What was Arkansas State doing losing by only eight to Texas? Every year there's a random Sun Belt team (read Troy State) that manages to either upset or at least stay close to some team it has no business playing. This year was Arkansas State's turn.

Vanderbilt is five wins away from a bowl. Yes, I'm counting.

Yeah, ummm, why were so many people predicting Oklahoma State to beat Georgia? Mark Richt coached up a very young defense very quickly this summer, and Georgia neutralized everything Oklahoma State wanted to do. That's why Mark Richt is an elite (and very underrated) coach, and Oklahoma State is a midlevel Big 12 team.

Every game Auburn plays is ugly. The thing that makes it worse is that they make their opponents play just as ugly as they do. Kansas State played tough, physical, mistake-filled football. The problem is that Auburn makes its living by playing tough, controlling the special teams, making mistakes, forcing you into making worse mistakes, and then breaking off a random big play that breaks your back.

Beating Auburn isn't about playing great football. It's about surviving torture. Few teams are mentally tough enough to handle it.

Someone predicted San Jose State would go on the road and beat Arizona State. Yeah, that was (looks around room), that was that guy (points at nobody and runs away).

Before I go, here's My Top 25 after Week 1:


Top 25:

1) USC
2) LSU
3) Florida
4) West Virginia
5) Louisville
6) Cal
7) Wisconsin
8) Texas
9) Virginia Tech
10) Oklahoma
11) Nebraska
12) Rutgers
13) Arkansas
14) Ohio State
15) TCU
16) Boise State
17) Georgia
18) UCLA
19) Georgia Tech
20) Tennessee
21) Auburn
22) Oregon State
23) Penn State
24) Michigan
25) Hawaii