College football open thread & notes (week 8)

October 22nd, 2022 | Written by Rob Staton

This weeked I am watching the following:

Syracuse vs Clemson
Ole Miss vs LSU
Mississippi State vs Alabama
Washington vs California

My focus will mainly be on defensive players this week. I will watch the quarterbacks as usual when those become available (I will aim to watch all 2022 games of the big name QB’s) but I also want to get an angle on the defensive class.

Due to work commitments no notes this week but a quick plug — if you’re in the UK (and you might be able to listen globally online) — I am hosting the BBC’s national radio coverage of the NFL tomorrow and the featured game is none other than the Seahawks vs Chargers. I’ll post a link tomorrow and if you get a chance, check it out.

65 Responses to “College football open thread & notes (week 8)”

  1. Peter says:

    Seahawks v. Chargers.

    Is this a random move or concerted choice by higher ups due to your seahawks/nfl knowledge?

    Any chance the ESPN gods will let you catch Ucla v. Oregon even later or in truncated form.

  2. Blitzy the Clown says:

    Watching Syracuse at Clemson and Brian Bresee is looking good early. Very good.

    Saw some of Tulsa at Temple last night and I’ll be keeping my eye on Temple RSo LB Yvandy Rigby.

  3. Mark says:

    Rob, if you ever want to come across the pond and do NFL commentary here in the states a lot of us would welcome you.

  4. cha says:

    What does the coverage include Rob? Play by play and color like the American broadcasts?

    What role will you be doing?

  5. Chuck says:

    Congrats on the announcing gig, I hope to be able to catch it!

  6. Roy Batty says:

    Ohio State fizzling on the Iowa side of the field. Stroud missing some easy short passes. Iowa is not a pushover, so he is looking average, so far.

    Iowa QB, Petras, looks terrible. Two INTs (one a pick six) that looked like they were intentionally thrown to the defender. They were that bad.

  7. Peppapig says:

    Hi Rob
    Is it radio5 live?

  8. Ashish says:

    Russ ruled out for Jets game due to Hamstring injury. Denver pick will be higher than Hawks turning into reality.

    • Elmer says:

      Unless their backup QB has a great game. If so there will be a lot of noise from their fans.

      • Peter says:

        Jets defensive vs broncos back up oline with a back up qb and a fumbling running back….I could see like every year a good game followed by a three int game. Seems the nfl is good for one or two of those every year.

    • dand393 says:

      Sounds good and all but is the back up QB going to actually play worse then Russ is anyways maybe it will give there offence a boost, might not be a good thing as Russ seems pretty broken right now

      • AlaskaHawk says:

        Denver has a tough defense. So if anyone can give the offense a boost it will help them win a game.

  9. Thomas says:

    Rob,

    Can I listen to your BBC coverage in the U.S.?

    • Sea Mode says:

      😲

      So he’s like the offensive version of Tariq Woolen…?

      Harrison is a big dude at 6-3 1/2, 206 pounds. He benched 380 pounds this offseason, doing 22 reps at 225. He clocked a blistering 3.94 pro shuttle time and did 10-9 on the broad jump. He’s maxed out running at 23 mph.

  10. Blitzy the Clown says:

    Clemson are limiting Bresee’s snaps but when he’s in there he’s making plays.

    Trenton Simpson notched his first sack of the season. He wasn’t blitzing either. He was in a shallow zone about 5 or 6 yards off the LOS either looking for short crossing routes or spying on Syracuse QB Shrader, who first was pressured to step upfield and then looked like a threat to run but Simpson shot forward to sack him before he could. Simpson’s athleticism and burst are evident.

    FWIW, one of the announcers mentioned that Simpson is at WILL this year, a new position for him that takes time to learn and also has him covering more than focused downhill at the LOS.

  11. Blitzy the Clown says:

    Give me Charbonnet in this draft. Trade down one of our two R2s and pick him in the 55-65 range.

    And sorry doubters but DTR is in command of his game. That first TD will be negated by a holding call, but otherwise he’s just dialed in.

  12. DriveByPoster says:

    I am watching the UCLA game. Charbonnet is a monster. DTR is being a bit of a try hard at the moment but I expect him to settle into the game as it goes on. But, most importantly, the black Oregon uniforms with the yellow & pink highlights are super cool!

  13. Blitzy the Clown says:

    Perfect throw by Nix

  14. TomLPDX says:

    Special Teams with an awesome play. Pretty cool execution. Lanning might be here for a few years!

  15. Big Mike says:

    Anyone know what happened to Miami today? They got hammered by Duke for heaven’s sake.

  16. Blitzy the Clown says:

    There’s Bobo. Noice one hander

  17. Blitzy the Clown says:

    Oregon just shredding a very good Bruin defense that came into this game #1 inFBS in yards and points per game

  18. Volume12 says:

    Cincy LB Ivan Pace just keeps putting up #s. My goodness

  19. TomLPDX says:

    This is the best OR offense I’ve seen in quite a while. Who is this Bo Nix dude!

  20. Blitzy the Clown says:

    Some of the hogs on the Oregon OL are pretty damn good. Forsythe in particular.

    Credit to Oregon their offense thoroughly outplayed the Bruins defense and their defense did enough to prevent UCLA from keeping it close.

  21. HOUSE says:

    Looks like we had scouts at the UCLA/Oregon game. I’m interested to see who they were looking at. I know there are easily 4-5 names between those two teams.
    https://bleacherreport.com/post/seattle-seahawks/beb0d756-c9a8-4db2-9e4f-01080421e026

  22. KD says:

    LOL at good ‘ol Marchawn Lynch “All these muthafuckas…. oops”

  23. Jaden Daniels! Wow! He’s on my radar!

    • At one point Daniel’s had 10 straight completed passes in a row and broke school record. Not even the almighty Joe Burreaux didn’t do that. I always say, you can’t teach accuracy. Excellent decision making. Also had 3 rushing g TD’s to go with 2 passing TD’s!!! Daniels could come out early, but if he stays, expect LSU to pass A LOT next season!!

  24. KD says:

    Man, for a year of CFB that has been at least interesting, this was a really boring day. 🙁

  25. Vs. Ole Miss today: “Harold Perkins Jr., No. 40, is LSU’s five-star freshman phenom linebacker from Texas who has been an impact player for LSU, but it’s been tricky getting him on the field. As a freshman, he doesn’t have full knowledge of the playbook. And against spread-out teams like Tennessee and Ole Miss, LSU often is forced to play nickel and dime defenses with sometimes just three linemen and two linebackers. And LSU’s outside linebacker happens to be its best player, projected first-round NFL draft pick BJ Ojulari.

    This time, though, LSU did something bold. It played Perkins over Ojulari for large stretches. This wasn’t because Ojulari was doing something wrong. It was because Ojulari is more of a true edge rusher, and Ole Miss’ offense forced LSU to play that position as more of a hybrid — out in coverage and along the edge in run defense. Perkins was a better fit. So LSU let him spy the quarterback, drop into coverage and cause havoc in pass-rush situations.”

    Ojulari is one I will definitely be watching in the upcoming draft. We need better LB’s in Seattle.

  26. Jed Simon says:

    KD says:
    “Oregon has no business whatsoever being ranked #15”

    Rob Staton says:
    “💯”

    Seven NFL teams sent scouts to Autzen to check out DTR, Charbonnet, Bobo, and Osling, all of whom put up big numbers—against a team that doesn’t belong in the Top 15. Asterisks, stat!

    • KD says:

      Yep. I was wrong on that one. Oregon’s looking pretty good now

    • Jed Simon says:

      . . .Just having fun with ya, Rob.

      • Rob Staton says:

        And when Oregon play non PAC-12 teams they’ll be found out again

        • Jed Simon says:

          Exactamundo, Rob. . .because this year is exactly like every other: The usual suspects occupy Tier One; everybody else is Tier Two.

          Tier One always wins the National Championship; Tier Two never does. Oregon and UCLA are Tier Two, but I’ll admit those sure are fun teams to watch when they’re not going against a Tier One opponent. Ducks-Bruins was wildly entertaining, featuring high-level offensive line play by both teams, and outstanding performances by all the main skill players. No sacks, only one quarterback hit, no drops, just a single turnover—even batted balls were being caught to move the chains. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if these two rematched in Vegas six weeks hence.

          Though the Wack-12 is generally an embarrassment to “collegiate athletics”, one could fairly speculate that any of Oregon, UCLA, or USC could legitimately challenge Clemson, Michigan, Tennessee, or TCU in a non-playoff bowl game—because those teams are all Tier Two, too.

  27. sonicreducer says:

    ESPN reporting Carolina turned down 2 1sr round picks for Brian Burns. I really, really hope it wasn’t PCJS.

  28. Sea Mode says:

    Twitter in a nutshell (thinking back on that comment from a few days ago)

    https://twitter.com/InternetH0F/status/1583871536217276416