The Morning Haul: 9/6

Yes, hello, good morning. It’s me, Evan! How ’bout them Devils last night, eh? Oh wait, wrong fan base. Really though, it’s encouraging to see ASU take care of business, rather than pull an Oregon State (I’m guessing this won’t catch on like “couging it” has).

We should have a good weekend of football ahead of us. First of all, the Seahawks play their first game on their path to a Super Bowl. There’s also a solid slate of college games on hand. Georgia apparently did something to piss off the schedulers, as it plays its second straight top-10 team to kick off the season. I think Washington State has a legitimate chance at upsetting USC on the road. WSU impressed me at Auburn, while USC still needs to officially name a quarterback. Meanwhile, I think Notre Dame-Michigan should be the best game of the weekend. Onto the links!

Stories especially worth reading:

The TNT’s Todd Dybas talked with UW defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, who was apparently not impressed by a defensive effort that didn’t allow a touchdown. He noted 17 missed tackles as something that needs to be improved upon. Still, that number was nearly half the amount of missed tackles as Boise State. The one that stood out to me was Shaq Thompson’s on either a third-or fourth-and-short.

Over at Pacific Takes, they gathered a roundtable of SBNation writers to debate whether or not the Huskies are ready to become elite this season. The general consensus was if it’s based purely off the Boise State game, then probably. But we need to wait and see if UW keeps it up and if Boise is having a down year. I agree, as you can read in our roundtable debating if the Huskies warrant the hype they’re getting after beating Boise State.

USA Today assembled a panel of 16 college football writers to put together a mock playoff after Week 1. USA Today’s Dan Wolken and Dan Shanoff both put UW in his four-team playoff. Wolken had the Dawgs third, while Shanoff put them fourth. Stanford only received one vote.