Different kind of season

The 2024 football season is off to a rip roaring start. Last year’s national champion Michigan Wolverines were humbled by the Texas Longhorns in week one and the runner up Washington Huskies were defeated by the WSU Cougars last Saturday at Lumen Field in Seattle. It was a great win for the Cougars who played the Huskies tough at Husky Stadium last November nearly upsetting the Dawgs until a gutsy 4th down play brought them new life leading to a game winning field goal.

The new look Pac 2 Cougars with a running QB have started the season 3-0 and the Huskies of the Big 10 are now 2-1. One never knows how these rivalry games will go and of course since the mega conferences won’t feature the late season rivalry games unless both teams are in the same conference then a September game for all of the marbles works for me.

You have to admit that traveling over Snoqualmie or Stevens Pass in September beats doing the same thing over Thanksgiving weekend. Now maybe more families will enjoy their turkey this year rather than worry if they can get tickets to the Apple Cup game. I’m sure that everyone had concerns about the playing of the traditional game. After yesterday it seems to be okay unless you were wearing the purple and gold. The only thing that I wasn’t happy about was broadcasting the game on the Peacock channel. After watching the Oregon blowout of Oregon State UW-WSU would have been a better choice for Fox but that is my humble opinion.

There are a couple of teams from Florida that are longing to play each other not just because they are rivals but because they are in need of a victory. The Florida State Seminoles, who finished last season undefeated only to be snubbed to get into the college football playoff (CFP), have dropped their first three games against teams they were supposed to beat. The Florida Gators are 2-1 with losses to the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M Aggies. They did beat Samford which is a FCS school and a team they should beat. After yesterday’s losses both coaches were subject to some interesting questions. With the past success that these programs have had I’m sure the media is searching for better ways to ask why the programs are in decline without driving the coach into a tirade.

But that is the nature of this year’s beast in trying to make it into the final round of 12 teams. So yes the final 12 will have several teams with at least one loss and a team or two that may have two losses. There will be more upsets this season as many teams want to make it to the playoffs. Stay tuned.

No. 1 Georgia beat Kentucky on Saturday 13-12. The Kentucky coach Stoops is under scrutiny for going for it on fourth down instead of punting. They didn’t make the first down and when they finally got the ball back they weren’t able to get into field goal range and lost a heartbreaker. If the same result would have happened with a punt the same people would have scrutinized that decision. Coaches have to trust their players and instill confidence in them that they can make the first down. It is more important that the players trust in the coach than for any fan to be upset with those decisions.

Every week there are plays that are called that you could hear someone scream “What are you thinking?” The team may have worked on a play that has shown signs of success in practice or used the previous week but a missed block or a defender jumping into a certain gap can change the outcome of a play quickly.

There are other teams like Alabama, Missouri, Texas, and supposedly Oregon who played their best game against Oregon State on Saturday. But how good is Oregon State since they replaced 40 players on their roster and probably haven’t meshed yet with their new coach.

I didn’t mention Ohio State because they’ve scheduled an early season list of cream puff teams. That may help them in the late season to keep players fresh and get young players more reps. With a 12 team playoff they can get by with this schedule and hope for big wins in the Big 10.

It is a different season than last year and it will interesting to see how teams navigate their conference and nonleague schedules. The cream rises to the top but an upset or two is inevitable.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].