Gettin' started (UPDATED)

(UPDATE #1):Let’s nip any rumors in the bud right now. Just as we don’t believe in any Sports Illustrated jinx or Madden jinx, there is no Beers with Demo jinx. Our choice to run with Sam Bradford’s picture in yesterday’s original post was in deference to his ’09 campaign where he will be defending his Heisman trophy and the lack of pass defense in the Big 12 and had nothing at all to do with the sprained shoulder he experienced in the closing seconds of the first half of BYU’s 14-13 upset victory over the Sooners yesterday.

The extent of the injury and how long it will keep Bradford out is unknown at this time, though, in a sense, if it was going to happen then this was the time for it to happen. Though certainly a setback, Oklahoma’s BCS dreams are not dashed as there is plenty of time to make up for lost ground in the polls and the Sooners have Idaho State, Tulsa and a bye coming up in the next 3 weeks.

On the flip side, BYU climbs the first rung of their potential BCS-busting season. They take on Tulane next week and then get #18 Florida St. at home in another out-of-conference showdown.

Other notables: We're not saying coaches actually like these kind of games but do you think that coach Jim Tressel might just have the ears of his Ohio State Buckeye players after nearly getting upset by Navy yesterday, 31-27, in practice this week as they get ready to host USC next week? And what do USC’s players think they have to work on after crushing San Jose St., 56-3? Coach Pete Carroll will think of something – he always does.

Guns up: Oklahoma St.(#9) takes it to Georgia(#13) in Stillwater, 24-10.

Iowa (#22) survives Northern Iowa, 17-16.

Washington showed some grit but still fell to LSU(#11), 31-23.

Touchdown Jesus (#23) thumps Nevada, 35-0.

And in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score would indicate, ‘Bama(#5) rolls up 268 yards of rushing offense (498 total) in beating Va Tech (#7), 34-24.

(here endeth the update)
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The long national nightmare is over. Today represents the first full slate of regular season big boy football after the NFL pre-season winds down and a couple of un-satisfying appetizers on Thursday night kicked-off the college season.

South Carolina snoozed their way past NC State, 7-3 in the early game and 19th-ranked Utah finally put away pesky Utah State 35-17 but the game that everyone was talking about was Boise St.’s (#14) win over the Oregon Ducks (#16) as Boise St. through its miscues did everything possible to keep Oregon in the game after thoroughly out-playing the Ducks for the vast majority of the game.

Oh, that and the fact that things got a wee chippy afterwards. The newly-minted pre-game mid-field sportsmanship handshake did not deter the fracas captured below.



The puncher, Oregon’s top rusher, Lagarette Blount has been kicked off the team and to ensure nothing like this will happen in their game, there will be no pre-game handshake in the Georgia-Oklahoma St. game today.

Notable games today (all times PDT):

Navy @ Ohio St. 9 AM on ESPN
Nevada @ Notre Dame 1230 PM on NBC
Aforementioned Georgia @ Oklahoma St. 12:30 PM on ABC
BYU vs. Oklahoma (in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,TX) 4 PM on ESPN
Alabama vs. Virginia Tech (in Atlanta) 5 PM on ABC

(pictured: Defending Heisman tropy winner, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma)