College football kicks off with a bang

Chris Olave 2021 Ohio State vs Minnesota

It was quite a weekend for college football, as many of us who love the game saw the crowds return and bring back the magic of the game. Yes, we still have issues with this top-heavy sport with Alabama and a few other dominant teams, but the traditions, crowds and games themselves make this an irresistible sport. No, NIL won’t ruin it. It will just continue to evolve, and likely in a better way.

As for the games this weekend, Ohio State and Minnesota kicked things off on Thursday night, as the Gophers came out to play and made things interesting for the first half. The Gophers have a monster offensive like in front of star running back Mo Ibrahim, and the Buckeyes have a young defense that clearly needs some more time to gel.

Meanwhile, C.J. Stroud was making his first start at quarterback and struggled in the first half. He had trouble throwing accurately on the run and couldn’t consistently get the ball to Ohio State’s talented receivers. That changed in the second half as Ryan Day schemed the receivers open and Stroud hit them in stride. The Buckeyes showed how Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and the rest of the Buckeye receivers will torch opponents all season. And they have running backs as well, as Miyan Williams and true freshman TreVeyon Henderson both scored on long touchdowns.

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Can Jim Harbaugh survive another season at Michigan?

Let’s face it. Jim Harbaugh has been a disaster at Michigan despite the huge expectations. He can’t beat Ohio State, and the Wolverines are no longer a top-tier college football program.

Can Harbaugh save the situation? It’s doubtful, and Paul Finebaum explains it well in the video above. And as he points out, many Michigan fans have had enough. It also appears that Michigan is having a problem with the number of players entering the transfer portal.

Ohio State destroys Clemson

Clemson was heavily favored, and Dabo Swinney ranked the Buckeyes #11 in his coaches poll. On ESPN, “analyst” Bart Scott said Ohio State was the “JV” team that had no chance against Clemson who was favored by over a touchdown. And Justin Fields had to hear about his subpar performance against Northwestern.

And of course, last year Ohio State outplayed Clemson but suffered a crushing defeat after several ridiculous calls and missed opportunities by the Buckeyes.

So the stage was set, and what transpired was the most satisfying victory for Buckeye fans since the 2014 National Championship. Ohio State whipped Clemson, dominating on both sides of the ball. Clemson was simply outmatched by a better football team that had something to prove. Ryan Day called a brilliant game and Justin Fields had the game of his life while the Buckeye defense teed off on Trevor Lawrence.

This one was sweet.

Ohio State destroys Michigan . . . again

The domination continues. The Ohio State Buckeyes smacked the Michigan Wolverines again, making it eight straight wins in what many consider to be the best rivalry in college football and one of the best in all of sports.

This rivalry has an amazing history, reaching its apex during the ten-year war between Woody and Bo, but the programs are in very different places right now. The Big Ten used to be dominated by the Big Two – Michigan and Ohio State. Now the conference is dominated by Ohio State and Michigan is trying to stay relevant in the second tier with Wisconsin, Penn State and Iowa.

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Justin Fields flashes talent and areas to work on

Ohio State fans have been anxious to see just what the Buckeyes had in Justin Fields after his adventure with the transfer portal. After the Buckeyes jumped to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter against Lane Kiffin’s over-matched FAU squad, we learned a few things but not that much.

We knew Fields is blazing fast, and we saw him explode untouched for an easy 51-yard touchdown run off a read option. That wasn’t a surprise. We also saw him hit wide open receivers in stride, confirming that he has a good arm.

But we also saw Fields and the Ohio State offense get conservative and stall a bit after building that huge lead. Ryan Day seemed happy that Fields didn’t come close to throwing an interception. Fields often defaulted to running with the ball as opposed to trying tougher throws. We’ll see that a lot this season, but we’ll also need to see in coming weeks if Fields can make the tough throws when needed.

As for the Buckeyes, things looked so easy early on, and then FAU decided to start playing. The young offensive line certainly needs to develop more. We should have seen them control the game with J.K. Dobbins runs after building that lead, but FAU was able to stuff the Buckeye running game too often for comfort.

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