The 2007 college football season has officially commenced and many of the outcomes of Thursday's night slate of games were very predictable, the only one that many might not have predicted was Kent State defeating Iowa State on the road. If you followed the Golden Flashes at all last season, you would realize they had a very good team, a sound defense and a very slippery signal-caller, which made that upset more than realistic. Let's get down to it, shall we?

(2)Louisiana State 45 Mississippi State 0
Initial thoughts, I have to give alot of credit to Mississippi State's quarterback Michael Hening, even though he did throw six interceptions and take them out of this game. He was bruised and battered for the entire game and was limping to the sideline on nearly every play. That LSU defensive front was leveling him on nearly every play, but he kept getting back up and taking his punishment like a true warrior. There was one hit where I saw him get sandwhiched in between two LSU defensive lineman in which both players delivered crushing hits on both sides of him. I got alot of respect for him, even though he did cost them the game. Nobody else was really getting anything going for the Mississippi State offense, so Hening really had no other option but to air it out. LSU did an excellent job of turning the interceptions into points, and that in the end is what really cost the Bulldogs.

They also could find no answer for Early Doucet, who Flynn hooked up with several times. There were no surprises there, Flynn spent extra time working with Doucet in the off-season and it is pretty clear he is his favorite target out there! He was nailing Doucet with those crossing routes and the Bulldogs couldn't stop him. Doucet ended up hauling in 9 passes for 78 yards and 1 touchdown. We should see a huge year from Early Doucet, first because the chemistry between him and Flynn is nearly flawless and the second reason is because Dwayne Bowe and Craig Davis are off to the NFL, leaving Early as the only primary receiver.

That hit! Oh me oh my. That had to have been one of the hardest hits I've ever seen in my life, where Brandon LaFell leveled Zach Smith of Mississippi State, that one is going to end up on YouTube pretty soon. What a devastating block. Bone-rattling to say the least.

I was very impressed with LSU's defense and it definitely lived up to its hype. Those defensive lineman are big, fast,strong, and are ferocious hitters. They pack quite a punch. They limited the Bulldog rushing attack to just 13 yards on 25 attempts, a stat that undoubtedly will have defensive coordinator Bo Pelini smiling.

I was also impressed with LSU's secondary. Safety Craig Steltz had a huge day, picking off three passes. With a stat sheet like that, he's already got a big head start for a few first team All-America lists. Jonathan Zenon only got beat on that one deep ball. It was an amazing pitch and catch by Hening as he was getting laid out. Definitely the best ball he threw all game(although that isn't saying much). Hening overthrew receivers time and time again and just gave the ball right back to LSU. Make mistakes against a defense as talented as the Bayou Bengals' and they will punish you.


LSU backup QB Ryan Perriloux also looked very strong and poised out there as well. He's going to be a great one and I think even if Fynn goes down, the Perriloux will pick up right where he left off. He's not quite as fast as Flynn but is a physical runner who is not afraid to take a hit and was throwing some pretty balls(even though he only had 3 passes). Not to mention he had a run in which he just tried to bulldoze the Mississippi State defender. He's very physical in the open field.

One positive for MSU-the play of stud linebacker Titus Brown... he was a "heat-seeking missile" out there and constantly in the Tigers' backfield. It wasn't enough. Look for big things from Titus this season.

Check out the highlights on ESPN.com here: http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/ivp/index?id=2998659

Kent State 23 Iowa State 14
Alot of people are going to hype this one as a huge upset. It's not that much of an upset if you look at the players that Kent State has, they have one of the most talented signal-callers in the MAC in Julian Edelman. He's a beast and the guy rushed for over 600 yards last season. Edelman had over 200 all-purpose yards against Iowa State. Bret Meyer is a talented signal-caller for the Cyclones, but clearly not much has changed since he still has interception problems. He had two in this game and those were pretty costly. Ohio-Kent State is going to be a great, great game here in a few weeks. Running back Eugene Jarvis is another name to keep your eye on from the Golden Flashes.

Oregon State 24 Utah 7
It's a shame Oregon State doesn't have Sammie Stroughter out there. That's a huge loss that he isn't around. Even if he was, I'm not sure if Canfield could get him te rock, because he had some pretty bad numbers(8/19, 87 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT). Those two factors tell me one thing, running back Yvenson Bernard is going to get an unreal amount of touches this year. Like Pac-10 player of the year type amount of touches. I'm not sure his team will help him out enough to get respect from voters, but the fact remains that he is one of the best all-purpose backs in the country and had 188 all-purpose yards and 2 touchdowns in his first game. Very impressive.

With Stroughter out and a young QB out there, I look for Bernard to carry the Beavers. He's going to be the horse this year. Look for huge numbers from him this year.

Boise State 56 Weber State 7
No surprises here folks, Ian Johnson had a big day(128 rushing yards) and they probably pulled him early. Senior quarterback Taylor Tharp had a pretty sharp day(14/19), but it was against Weber State, let's be honest. The funny thing is Boise State scored 49 of their 56 points in the first half folks! That's pretty ridiculous. They really could've run it up and had a backup running back(Avery) who had 10 yards per touch and racked up over 100 yards and two touchdowns. Boise State looking very strong. The November 23rd matchup with the Hawaii Warriors looms down the road as the game to enter the BCS for both teams.

{mosimage}Rutgers 38 Buffalo 3
This one easily looked the worst in the highlights. Time and time again, Scarlet Knight offensive players(mainly Ray Rice and receiver Tiquan Underwood) ran through the Buffalo defense like a hot knife through butter. It was a pretty pathetic display and Turner Gil still has plenty of work to do there in Buffalo. The Bulls' secondary looked like it was lost the entire time and they weren't anywhere near the receivers, leaving huge gaping holes for Underwood to exploit. Mike Teel is a solid field general, but certainly not an "elite" signal-caller. This game was the first 300 yard game in his career. He should be sure to send a thank you note to the Buffalo secondary, because those holes were just ridiculous.

Not to mention the defensive line of Buffalo just plain doesn't know how to make open field tackles. That's pretty much an uphill battle, because who the hell would want to come to Buffalo to play football where it snows all the time? I can't imagine the campus atmosphere being too lively at Buffalo either, but who knows. Either way, Gil has to land some players that can tackle and in a hurry, or else he is going to be out of a job. That Buffalo job is a death-trap and I bet he is regretting taking it. Solich actually advised him to take it, which in my opinion, was a bad move. But we'll see what Gil can do. Buffalo is just looking like Duke, different year, same old team. They just make terrible fundamental mistakes that can't happen if you want to win football games and I witnessed it first hand when they played in Peden last year. Their kick returners would hold on to the ball for like five seconds then decide to come out, then kneel, forgetting where they were on the field. Buffalo ball at their own 1. Ridiculous. Football basics. Always know where you are at on the feld when you are returning a kick.

That said I would like to see Gil turn it around up there, but I'm just not sure if he can land any kind of talent up there, Schiano is probably wrapping up all he upstate New York players and like I said, Buffalo is just an undesirable place to want to play football.