NOW PLAYING with Scott Sowers

One month in, where we at?
With approximately 30 days under the belt of the 2008 college and NFL football seasons it's time to start looking at some of the early storylines and debate who's hot and who's not.

All summer, I, along with scores of people in the area (the longing came early due to the Braves going into the tank early in the season) dreamed for that first kickoff. Well, now it's here, and after each of the teams have played a few games, we can now start looking at preseason questions and what kind of answers were given.

Last year's college football season was deemed "the year of the upset" due to the nature of the top 10 constantly shuffling week in and week out with teams quickly moving up then getting shot down. Throughout the course of the year we saw games like awful Stanford beating number one USC on the road, and teams like Cal and South Florida move up to the second spot only to nosedive out of the polls.

So far, teams have stayed the course and the upsets have not been as hard to come by. On the first Saturday of the season, East Carolina knocked off top-20 Virginia Tech then followed that up with a dismantling of then top-10 West Virginia. They instantly became the new media darlings, but then went on to barely beat Conference USA foe Tulane, and left Raleigh last weekend with an overtime loss to a dreadful NC State team. Are ECU still for real? Only time can tell.

Clearly the toughest games are off their hands, and with a weak CUSA schedule (and an away game to awful, awful Virginia), things could still be good for Skip Holtz's crew. Maybe he'll bolt to Notre Dame at the end of the year like his father before him.

Then, on the other hand, there's a team no one's talking about creeping up into the polls that has tons of potential: the Vanderbilt Commodores. Long doormats of the SEC, this week marks the first time in 24 years they've made an appearance in the AP Top 25, coming in at number 21 with a perfect 4-0 record. This team has the potential for eight wins in the them, with contests away to Mississippi State, Duke and Kentucky, not to mention a weak Tennessee team coming to Nashville. Suddenly their game to end the season with my Wake Forest team has a little more intrigue than before. Could the Dores finally go bowling again?

What we do know for sure right now, is that there is a strong core of teams that are looking good for the national championship: USC, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri and maybe LSU. Most of these teams have been rolling through opponents and look unstoppable. But we know they can't all stay undefeated with the likes of the Gators and Dawgs hooking up in Jacksonville in a little more than a month, and the high potential for a Mizzou-Sooner Big 12 Championship. With the Pac 10 very weak this year, Trojan fans are likely already looking at flights to Miami in January. But never say never. Stanford certainly didn't last year going into the LA Coliseum as 41-point underdogs.

I will say, though, if a Big 12 and SEC team are both undefeated along with the Trojans, it may be hard to keep the first two out of the title game due to the weakness of the Pac 10.

Meanwhile, over on Sundays, things are getting a little more interesting. Already the two powerhouses in the league over the last few years look very vulnerable. The number one storyline coming out so far is certainly Tom Brady being lost for the year only about eight minutes into his week one game against the Chiefs.

The Pats had a good victory against the suddenly plucky Jets, but looked dreadful against the Dolphins last week, the worst team in football from a season ago. Ronnie Brown treated the field as his personal playground, racking up four rushing TDs and added on a passing one for good measure. Matt Cassel looked decent in relief duty in week one, and looked adequate versus the Jets but really struggled against the Fins. So much so Belichick might be considering his next move. If I were him I'd look to Tampa and see if I could pick off Jeff Garcia from the Bucs, who seem to have moved on to Brian Griese. But Belichick might be so stubborn to prove his system is what makes QBs great (and not just Tom Brady making him look like a genius all the time) so maybe he'll stick with Cassel and whoever else he's got.

The Indianapolis Colts, champions from two seasons ago, seem to be in mini-crisis mode. They sit at 1-2 after looking pitiful against the Bears to start the season then Peyton Manning had to mount an incredible comeback to beat the Vikings before they finally fell again to the AFC South-rival Jaguars. They're currently 0-2 in their new Lucas Oil Stadium and need to get things going quickly. Injuries on the offensive line as well as a gimpy Manning have made for some times in Indy. But hey, people said they looked awful to start their Super Bowl season, after beginning the year before that 13-0.

Now, in their stead, some other teams are starting to emerge in the AFC, namely the Titans and Broncos, both with perfect records. Add to that the Super Bowl favorite Chargers sitting at 1-2, and well, this could be the start of maybe a new era in the AFC.

Meanwhile, the NFC is looking the best it has since its heyday in the 80s and 90s when they dominated the AFC to the tune of 16-straight Super Bowls. Already this year NFC teams have beaten the Colts, Chargers, Steelers and Browns, among others.

The NFC East is clearly the best division in the game with the Cowboys looking to be on track for an amazing season, and the Eagles and Giants not ready to let them waltz to the division crown. Consider this, the division's composite record so far is 10-2, and those two losses have come from intra-divisional matchups. Last year the East took both Wildcard slots, which it certainly is on track to do this year. Matter of fact, can the NFC West just forfeit its playoff spot? Surely someone else in the NFC is more deserving than that weak collection of teams.

Football is the greatest sport, and while baseball is gearing up for its drama-filled finale to the season, my attention will still be on football, because it's only just starting to get good.
- www.gwinnettherald.com

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