Preseason College Football Punditry Shames the Profession

Or does it? Let’s just say punditry is corrupted by bias and our minds come nowhere near the Divine. There’s a lot we don’t know and can’t comprehend.

The talk before the first snap among many Pac-12 punditry sites doesn’t match the reality after week 2 of the season. The proof is all over the place.

CJ Verdell of Oregon breaks free in Oregon’s 35-28 victory over The Ohio State.
Stanford players celebrate a touchdown in their 42-28 win against USC. on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

A common opinion before the first face-off was that the battle for the top was between Oregon and USC, with a favorable mention for Washington. Teams like UCLA and Stanford were relegated to middling status, or simply falling short.

Well, the Pac-12 acquitted itself well against non-conference foes, but also some of the conference’s powerhouses turned out to be busts. One huge caveat before we crown the early victors or condemn the losers is the obvious realization that games have to be played, and are not decided by fans at computer screens. In playing the game, some teams need a few games to gel. They mature the more they play. Sophisticated offenses and defenses take a while before 18- and 19-year-olds learn them at the intuitive level. Anyone heard of late-bloomers?

So, some teams blaze early and then fade, and some are a slow burn. Some are up and down and dangerously unpredictable.

Another word of caution stems from the fact that good teams who lose come back mad. Losing can be therapeutic. It works the other way too. Some teams after a big win come out flat the following week. If talent and coaching are present, managing the team psyche is the job of the head coach. That’s why they earn the big bucks. The best shrinks that I know are coaches.

Back to the record after week 2. Predictions are in a shambles. UCLA knocked off LSU. Oregon goes into the Shoe and punished The Ohio State. Washington gets derailed by Montana at home to start the season. They follow the humiliation with a thrashing by Michigan in Ann Arbor. Lowly Stanford, thought to have serious personnel issues like weakness at the quarterback position, put a licking on USC on USC’s home turf, the LA Coliseum.

The Stanford thumping of USC should not be surprising because Stanford, and Brian Shaw, always get up for the Trojans. Stanford’s unexpected performance presents caution about the other conference members. Many are blank slates. Who have they played? Oregon State, Washington State, and the Arizona schools come to mind. Colorado, Cal, and Utah are mediocre to start the season. They could easily fall into the dangerous category.

I suspect more upsets are in the offing as we wind through the season. Right now, the team to beat appears to be Oregon, not USC. USC has yet to prove its bonafides. When some people say “Follow the Science”, they really mean “Follow factual reasoning”. And in sport, talk is cheap. The game still has to be played, fact. Only then we will know. Sounds obvious, but it’s what we’re left with in this mortal world.

RogerG

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