Miami Bound - The BCS Hunt - First Week

College football kicked on Thursday with some exciting games. Rich Dansereau wrote a post about all the games In Division 1 NCAA. This is the debut of sorts of a weekly post that can only be read here on Athletic Alley. This post will take a short recap review of the top five teams and how they performed during that weeks games.

This years BCS Championship will be held in sunny south Florida. Miami Gardens, Florida to be more precise. It will be called the 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game. The game will be host in Dolphin Stadium in sunny Miami Gardens on January 8, 2009. This will be a great stadium to watch the championship game in as it houses 74,916 spectators for football games. Currently the stadium is home to the Miami Dolphins, the Florida Marlins, and the Univeristy of Miami Hurricanes.The AP and USA Today polls are almost identical in the top five except for the fact that they have USC and OSU flip flopped. All others are correct. For the sake of these post, we will be using USA Today.

1) University of Georgia Bulldogs

The Georgia Bulldogs destroyed the Georgia Southern Eagles in Athens on Saturday. We got to see the debut of UGA VII as well as Caleb King. From the looks of this kid, I would have to say we will see more of him. He led the rushing attack for the Bulldogs with 95 yards. Knowshon Moreno chipped in 59 yards with 3 touchdowns before he exited with “sore legs”. Matthew Stafford showed off his arm with 275 yards in the air and 2 TD passes. Most starters were out of the game by the 4th quarter. The defense did not give up a point unti the 4th quater. The final was 45-21. The Dawgs get set to “Hunker Down” in action against Central Michigan on September 6, 2008 at 3:30 PM EST in Athens, Georgia at their home field, Sanford Stadium.

2) University of Southern California Trojans

The USC Trojans showed why they think that they should be #1 in the nation as they marched into the University of Virginia’s back yard and pounded them like a school yard bully. Mark Sanchez got to test out his knee quick as he was the starting quarterback for the Trojans. Sanchez came away knowing that his knee was fine as he threw for 338 yards connecting 26 times with wide receivers and running backs. Mark shredded the defense as he threw for 3 TD’s. This team looked balanced as they scored both on the ground as well as in the air. And it seemed that everyone got into the stats if they stepped onto the field.  The final was 52-7. USC’s next game will be at home against the Ohio State Buckeyes On September 13, 2008.

3) Ohio State University Buckeyes

OSU celebrated the start of their 119th season along with 105,011 screaming college football fans by spanking Youngstown State. You really sensed that Youngstown State was over matched when the OSU Buckeyes scored on all 6 of their first half possessions. They scored 2 touchdowns and 4 field goals. Kicker Ryan Pretorius must have been a little sore kicking all those field goals. In the 4th quarter Ryan’s backup, Pettrey, Aaron, also got in on the kicking action converting on a career long 54 yard strike. Ryan had also nailed a 50 yarder in the first half. The game saw OSU dominate in both air and ground attack as they amassed 495 total offensive yards. The final score was 43-0. The next game for OSU pits them against Ohio at OSU’s home field of Ohio Stadium on EPN/ESPN2 at high non on September 6, 2008.

4) University of Oklahoma Sooners

I am not sure what Chattanooga, better known as UTC,  was thinking when they agreed to play Big 12 Conference powerhouse OU Sooners. It was evident that these two teams did not belong on the same field by the end of the first quarter. OSU lead 27-0 at the change of quarters. It would only get worse as the game progressed and by the end of the first half, UTC went into the locker room down by a score of 50-0. One thing I can say positive about UTC is they only allowed 7 points in the second half. Those 7 actually came in the 3rd quarter. OSU had their way with UTC on their way to piling up 487 total offensive yards. The final score was 57-2. OSU will face Cincinnati on September 6, 2009 at home.

5) University of Florida Gators

The UF Gators round out our top five routings with their own personal thumping. Florida once again showed Hawaii what it means to step on the field with one of the powerhouses of the SEC. It was clear that the Gators just over matched the Warriors of Hawaii. Florida truly ran all over Hawaii on their way to accumulating a total of 255 yards on the ground. Their air attack left something to be desired as they could only muster 151 yards thru the air. On their way to routing the Warriors, Florida was only able to collect 406 total offensive yards. This was the smallest amount of total yards by the 5 powerhouses. The final score was 56-10. Florida will visit Miami on September 6, 2008 at 8 PM EST. Game will be televised nationally on ESPN.