College Football: What I learned from Opening Night

As you can already tell I'm very excited that College Football is underway. I live and breath College Football and all of Labor Day Weekend I will sit back and relax and watch some games that I've been waiting for ever since March Madness ended. Here's a few things I learned from Thursday nights' games.

LSU's Defense is absolutely solid and arguably the fiercest defense in the country.
After watching LSU pick off Mississippi St. 6 times last night and their front seven making many tackles behind the line of scrimmage, I have come to the conclusion that LSU has one of the best defenses in the country. They made the Bull Dogs look like they were a D-2 team playing out there. The D-Line, lead by Glenn Dorsey, were clogging the holes and making stops behind the line of scrimmage all night. The LBs were filling the gaps and sacking Michael Henig constantly. The secondary was very impressive taking the WRs out of their routes and staying at home and attacking the ball very aggressively, forcing Henig to throw 6 INT. Overall, the defenses' physicality was stellar and took it to Mississippi St. I am definitely looking forward to their match up next week vs. Virginia Tech.

Louisville's Offense will be one of the most high-powered offenses in the country.
Granted they were playing Murray St., but Brian Brohm looked incredible last night and will produce great numbers under Steve Kragthorpes new offense. He threw for 375 yards and 5 touchdowns, two of them to Harry Douglas. Louisville rolled up 655 yards of total offense, and worked with stunning efficiency. The Cardinals averaged a touchdown once every four plays in the first half, and their longest scoring drive with the starters in took all of 2:58. Brohm will be putting up some impressive numbers this year.

Iowa St. is bad
Good thing I picked them to finish 6th in the Big XII North. Last night they lost to Kent St. 23-14. I thought Brett Meyer would have performed better with his athleticism and experience, but he was horrible last night throwing 2 INT. He was throwing the ball up for grabs and into coverage almost all night. ISU's offensive line needs to improve drastically too and Meyer needs to mature or else it will be a long season for the Cyclones.

Florida is already looking good for '08
Emmanuel Moody, former USC RB, enrolled at Florida Thursday. He will fit well in Urban Meyer's spread-option offense with his elusiveness and shiftiness as a runner. Florida doesn't have much at RB and come next year he will be one of the best RBs in the SEC. But who knows , maybe Kestahn Moore, Brandon James, or Chris Rainey will show me something this season...

National Title Prediction
Okay before the first Saturday begins I need to make a national title prediction. I have USC vs. West Virginia vying for the BCS Title but I have been unsure of who to pick for a long time. My heart says West Virginia but my head says USC. Now since Complete Sports copied my title prediction now it's time for me to return the favor; West Virginia will be your 2007 College Football National Champion. I love their explosiveness offensively lead by QB Pat White, RBs Steve Slaton and Noel Devine, and one of the best WRs in the Big East in Darius Reynaud. They have an easier schedule than most and their defense will be improved.