This Week’s Top 5 Storylines….College Football
Another big slate of games this weekend and plenty of compelling storylines to dig into. Here are the top five:
1. Georgia heads West: Some of the Bulldogs’ parents weren’t even born the last time UGA headed this far west for a regular-season game. Host ASU is now looking to do more than just defend Pac-10 honor. The Sun Devils are trying to rally from a stunning upset against UNLV. Hard to call any September non-conference game a “must-win” but it is for ASU. A loss here, especially a bad one, and the Sun Devils could might just be staring at a 2-5 start with their next games being at Cal, at USC and then against Oregon.
This game got a lot of hype in the off-season because it was expected to provide debate fodder for West Coast football fans who constantly feel like their schools don’t get the respect they deserve. Truth be told, a lot of that charge went out the window when the Pac-10 went 0-4 last week against the Mountain West. Still, this road test is a good one for a UGA team hoping to impress pollsters. Georgia head coach Mark Richt said he had hoped ASU would’ve won last week because they might’ve come into the game with a different mindset: “I wish they would have won it so maybe they would be flying a little higher and not have a chip on their shoulder,” Richt said. I’m sure he also would’ve liked to played a team that didn’t just get shrunk down. Now thumping ASU doesn’t look so impressive, because, after all UNLV just beat the Sun Devils.
espn.com
9/16/08
