Stock Up and Stock Down for the First Week

I am going to stay away from the individual performances for the first week, and hand out my stock ups and stock downs to teams.  My first stock up goes to the Michigan Wolverines.  The Wolverines were coming off a week where former players were coming out and saying that Rich Rodriquez was forcing long practice hours, which were against NCAA policy.  Add to that the fact that they came off one of their worst seasons in history, and you have a recipe for disasters.

But the Wolverines remained focused and their true freshmen Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson showed some speed and flashes of brilliance.  This is what Rodriquez's offense is suppose to look like.

Next stock up goes to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  All week we heard the talk how Nevada was the sexy pick to upset the Irish at home to start the season.  Charlie Weis and his team were going to have nothing to do with it.  The Irish scored 28 first half points on route to a 35-0 victory at home.  Jimmy Clausen picked up where he left off last year in the Hawaii Bowl completing 83% of his passes for 315 yards and 4 touchdowns.  But what impressed me most, was the big fat 0 on the side of Nevada.

My final stock up goes to a team that lost, but is showing it is on its way up.  Not much was thought of the Washington Huskies this season, but after their game against LSU, you can clearly see that Steve Sarkisian has the Huskies going in the right direction.  They gave the #11 team in the country all they can handle and I'm sure Husky fans are glad to have Jack Locker back.  Minus a pick six he had during the game, Locker looked in control and like a leader.  With the schedule ahead, if the Huskies can produce the same effort, they can maybe pull out 5 wins this year.

Next I give an emphatic stock down to the Oregon Ducks.  Aside from the disaster after the game with LeGarrette Blount, the Ducks looked disinterested and their play showed it.  Offensively they couldn't handle the Broncos defensive line and looked like a team in disarray.  If they want to sniff a chance at winning the Pac 10, they better right the ship this week against Purdue.

My second and final stock down goes to the entire ACC.  Minus the Florida State-Miami game on Monday night, the conference as a whole looked poor.  Both Duke and Virginia lost to FCS teams, Virginia Tech held tough against Alabama but once again could not muster any offense, NC State laid an egg against an average South Carolina team, and Maryland got waxed by California.  Those reasons right there are why the ACC is going to once again be labeled the worst BCS conference again this season.