The top ranked Sooners are stacked on both sides of the ball and while they are big favorites against a legit Tulsa team that won 10 games last season, was victorious in the Hawaii Bowl, and finished the season ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 1991.
Texas is coming off a disastrous season where they went 5-7 and did not play in a bowl game for the first time since…forever and face a Rice team that was 4-8, but has hope returning most of their starters and will use a new spread offense that may give the Longhorns’ defense nightmares.
In the season opener for both teams Baylor is a dark horse in the Big 12 conference behind their Heisman candidate QB while TCU has National Title hopes, but has to get by Baylor on the road in this game as well as deal with Boise State later in the season.
College football’s opening weekend marquee matchup will kick off on Saturday night in front the legions of fans that are expected to pack Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Texas, as the No. 3 Oregon Ducks square off against No. 4 Louisiana State.
The neutral site game being dubbed the “TicketCity Battle by the Bay” will get under way on Saturday night as Candlestick Park plays venue to its first ever regular-season college football game when the California Golden Bears host the Fresno State Bulldogs for just the third all time meeting between the two schools.
It all begins with a win on Saturday if Cougars head coach Paul Wulff wants to stay in Pullman for another season, and it would appear that Washington State could walk away one victory closer to matching their win total of 2010 by beating a downtrodden Idaho State Bengals on Saturday at Martin Stadium.
The Oregon State Beavers will look to rebound from its first losing season since head coach Mike Riley too over the program with a win over non conference Sacramento State in Corvallis on Saturday.
Quarterback Case Keenum will enter his sixth-year with the Cougars after patrolling the sidelines for most of 2010 with a torn ACL, and will attempt to reverse last season’s loss at UCLA with a win in Houston’s home opener at Robertson’s Stadium on Saturday.
The USC Trojans open the 2011 season, serving their second of a two-year NCAA sanction, but it won’t deter them in wanting to get off to a good start as they attempt to win their 14th consecutive home opener when they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday in Los Angeles.
The Sun Belt may be the most appropriately named conference in college football. When I hear the words “Sun Belt,” I think of a relaxing, warm sun and happy, carefree times.
Is the Western Athletic Conference officially the redheaded stepchild of the FBS now that Boise State has departed for the Mountain West?
We’re down to the nitty-gritty conferences in our 2011 college football previews. The Mid-American (MAC) certainly qualifies as one of them.
Look out for Conference USA. Sure, this conference isn’t elite yet, but it’s certainly on the rise. Last year, both UCF and Tulsa cracked the AP Top-25 season-ending poll, marking the first time in 15 years that Conference USA boasted two nationally ranked teams.
Over the last half decade of college football, it’s been then other conferences…and then the SEC. Home to the last five BCS title game winners, the SEC was on another level.
The Pac-12 Conference has no shortage of interesting football storylines for 2011.
The Mountain West is becoming more and more relevant.
