Slowly–no, glacially–fall is gradually coming into the picture, even if said picture is a de facto photo op considering we’re sweltering through a downright East Coast-like humidity and heat wave even on the West Side of Los Angeles. My store is abuzz with Halloween wizardy once again, pumpkin beverages are back at Starbucks (thankfully, the majority are iced) and real, regular season college football is back.
Officially, it’s Week Zero, which as late as a couple of years ago was merely an outlet for a trickle of games in order to provide ESPN with some meaningful live content on a truly slow August day. But thanks to some recent NCAA decisions that decided to give some opportunities for the schools they still exert some control over–those in the Football Championship Series–last night alone we got more than more than 20 such tilts, the majority available live on ESPN Unlimited. Most were non-competitive pairings of schools otherwise recognizable for their basketball programs with even smaller programs–the kind that dominate their pre-Thanksgiving schedules. Only a couple even warranted recaps on ESPN’s scoreboard, and unless you’re a degenerate gambler or someone with an outsized investment in how someone named Jerry Kaminski did against your dad’s Long Island University alma mater (he’s from North Dakota, so I don’t think he could fully appreciate a Brooklyn bagel), we can safely call this an exceptionally soft launch.
We get a tad more meaningful tomorrow morning when the bonny shores of Ireland host a meaningful matchup that doesn’t involve Notre Dame or even anything distinctly connected with the country but arguably brings an even more significant football name there for the first time, as THE BIG LEAD’s
Bill Belichick and the North Carolina Tar Heels have officially arrived in Dublin, Ireland, as the college football season opener against TCU rapidly approaches. The eight-time Super Bowl champion was among the UNC contingent arriving at Dublin Airport Thursday ahead of Saturday’s Aer Lingus College Football Classic at Aviva Stadium. Belichick was captured leading the Tar Heels down the escalator at Dublin Airport, providing a memorable arrival for one of the biggest names ever to coach American football.
The trip marks Belichick’s first game in Ireland as North Carolina’s head coach and the beginning of his second season in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels are hoping for a dramatically different result after opening the Belichick era with a 48-14 loss to TCU last season. UNC went just 4-8 in Belichick’s first season, making Saturday’s matchup an important early opportunity to show that the program has made progress. The Tar Heels have overhauled their roster and quarterback room during the offseason, with Billy Edwards Jr. taking over as the starting quarterback.
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s Logan Lazarczyk explained that while the rest of his storied team–embattled general manager Michael Lombardi, ailing assistant coach and number one son Steve and his party animal girlfriend Jordan Hudson won’t be offering much actual help, he’s at least thinking about making his second season slightly more representative of his storied track record:
“The big focus for us is just TCU,” Belichick said. “In training camp, we work a lot against each other and just generic fundamentals on making sure that we know what we’re doing, but now we’ll tailor that to what TCU does or what we expect them to do and try to get ready for some of their tendencies, and some of the players that they have.”
“Week 1 is always the hardest game because you don’t know as much about your team and you don’t know as much about the opponent’s team, and certainly we look at TCU, and their offensive coordinator came from UConn last year, so we have to respect what he did there.”
Nomenclature accuracy aside, it does provide an intriguing veneer to this now annual international lid-lifter. And at least if things don’t materially improve there’s plenty of pubs where the Carolina contingent–and Jordan–can drown their sorrows in.
As far as the pros go, the last wave of meaningless pre-season tilts began last night–with a truncated three-game season, very few top tier players of any caliber got on the field. Belicheck’s old NFL teams clashed in Cleveland where the drama kings of August tossed yet another otherwise forgotten quarterback into their controvesy. Per NFl.com’s Grant Gordon:
Despite starting six games last season, Dillon Gabriel was never really in the mix for Cleveland’s starting quarterback spot this year. On Thursday night, he might have been auditioning for a new squad, and Gabriel was stellar against the Patriots backups, stacking three first-half touchdown passes to go with 186 yards on 12-of-15 passing for a sterling 157.9 rating. Todd Monken’s offense accentuated Gabriel’s positives, rolling him out and giving him high-percentage opportunities, and he flourished.
Naturally, the same #2 jersey-wearing yentas clamoring for Shedeur Sanders to be anointed came out and begged Cleveland management to reconsider Gabriel and further accelerate DeShaun Watson’s being run out of town on a rail. Probably not gonna happen but maybe some savvy squad will provide him the chance to legitimately being in waiting for an injury to occur. We know how fragile Jaxxon Dart is already, and strange things do happen when the Giants and Jets square off. I’d take Gabriel’s upside and character over Jameis Winston any day of the week.
Meanwhile, the rookie veneer of top draft pick Fernando Mendoza took another tarnishing; a tepid 31.0 passing rating and a pedestrian 7-14-57 yards log line in a second half title against the Raiders’ erstwhile Bay Area rival 49ers backups was anything but newsworthy. But if you are looking for a breakout rookie, maybe we got a sign on the shores of Lake Amer–er, Ontario, as Gordon’s comrade-in-arms Bobby Kownack shared:
Fourth-round rookie Skyler Bell missed Buffalo’s first two preseason contests and a little over two weeks of training camp due to a groin injury. After returning to practice this week, he made his first game appearance Thursday and likely left no Bills fan unsatisfied. The highlight of Bell’s night came on a 28-yard end around touchdown. He was aided by defensive back Doneiko Slaughter slipping while trying to course correct after the misdirection, but Bell nonetheless beat everyone to the end zone down the sideline. He was third-string quarterback Shane Buechele’s favorite target, seeing 10 targets and catching seven of them for 49 yards. The Bills got the ball to him in myriad ways beyond his TD carry — crossers, designed screens and the first two plays of Buffalo’s first-half two-minute drill. Bell also came open for what should’ve been a gain of at least 25 yards, but Buechele missed him. There’s a logjam in front of Bell with DJ Moore, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman and Josh Palmer, but it’s not unthinkable he challenges the latter two for opportunities as the season progresses if his debut was any indication.
Consider him bookmarked. And now it’s on to Tipperary–or at least its general vicinity.
Courage…