Editors Note: This article was written Monday, but because of the Labor Day holiday, wasn't published until Wednesday.

Finally

Welcome to Monday’s Classroom, where every Monday for the rest of the season I’ll take a look at the top seven stories of the college football weekend. This week’s word of the week is finally.

Finally, the college football season is upon us. It was starting to get old watching the reruns of last year’s games on ESPN Classic. Wives and girlfriends will now have to battle with the TV to gain their significant other’s attention. Now that we have a weekend behind us, let’s talk about what happened.

1.  Fists of Fury

The now infamous punch by Oregon running back LaGarrette Blount was probably the most talked about game over the weekend. But the thing people should be talking about is how Boise St. easily took care of Oregon before Boise’s Byron Hout shot off his mouth and got a right-handed jab to the jaw.

In what ended up being an extremely ugly game, Boise’s defense dominated Oregon’s offense like Blount’s fist dominated Hout’s face. The big picture from this whole event is that Boise St. has an extremely easy road to a BCS game while Oregon will try and win eight games without their 1,000 yard rusher from last season.

For the record, I think the season-long suspension is a little too harsh. Sit the kid six games and give him a chance to redeem himself. I mean, Michael Vick is getting a second chance.

2.  Mormon Mission

I’m not really sure Oklahoma would have pulled out the victory even if Sam Bradford didn’t leave the game in the second quarter with a shoulder injury. It wasn’t that BYU’s defense was that good in their 14-13 win Saturday night; it was more that OU’s offensive line was just plain terrible. Yes, BYU played just as miserably during certain parts of the game, but I’m not sure there was any indication while Bradford was in that this team was going to succeed. It shows how much Oklahoma really lost from last year’s team, including Juaquin Iglesias, four offensive line starters and an injured All-America tight end Jermaine Gresham, who was held out because of injury. I know this for certain: Oklahoma was not the third best team in the country with or without Bradford.

3.  Hokies aren’t Good

Whoever voted Virgina Tech No. 7 in the nation in the preseason poll should have their votes taken away from them. While they led Alabama 17-16 going into the fourth quarter, their lack of offensive ability was their doom in the final quarter. Tech amassed a whopping 155 total yards over the course of the game. Tyrod Taylor looks like Uncle Rico when he tries to pass. There’s no denying his play-making ability when he’s running the ball (even though the Tide held him to  negative 26 rushing yards), but let’s just look at the stats. In 2008, Taylor, while splitting time with Sean Glennon, completed 57 percent of his passes while throwing two touchdowns and seven interceptions. Impressive. The lone bright spot was for the Hokies was Ryan Williams, whose 113 total yards of offense and two touchdowns were the only real reason they were in this game in the second half. Beamer Ball can only make you so good, then you actually have to score with offense. Well, maybe you don’t have to if playing in the ACC.

4.  Preseason Polls are USELESS

Oklahoma ranked third, Ohio St. sixth, Virginia Tech seventh? Those are wrong. Then there are some others that I’m not quite sure about either. LSU 11th, Iowa 22nd, Oregon 16th?

Here’s the point: there is no point in preseason polls. Sure they’re fun to talk about and give me something to write about, but there’s no real need. What if USC is the best team all year, but because they started fourth in the polls, they can’t beat out Texas and Florida? Or, what if Georgia Tech runs the table and ends up undefeated, but because they started off 15th, it’s nearly impossible for them to climb up the rankings into the top two spots even if some of the higher ranked teams lose a game? If people just waited until after the third week of the season to vote, the college football landscape would be much prettier.

5.  Now for the Vols

What an impressive win Saturday afternoon by Lane Kiffin and the Tennessee Vols. With a final score of 63-7, Tennessee ushered in a new era of football. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s remember out of 120 FBS teams in the nation, Western Kentucky is probably in the bottom five. The good thing is this team last year would have had trouble breaking 40 on the Hilltoppers. The first real test comes this Saturday when UCLA comes to Knoxville. UCLA bodes three All-Pac 10 first team defense members, and we all remember what happened when Tennessee went to L.A. to start last season. But this looks to be a totally different Tennessee.

6. The FCS

If you knew me, you would know I have a fascination with FCS football (formerly Division I-AA). This year is no different. In scrolling down the scores of the top 25 of the FCS this past weekend, I’m convinced the top 20 of the FCS is better than the bottom 20 of the FBS. There were 10 games that featured a top 20 FCS team against a FBS team. The FCS went 3-7. No. 1 Richmond defeated Duke 24-16, No. 3Villanova beat Temple 27-24 and No. 7 William and Mary Tribe embarrassed Virginia 26-14. In the seven losses, the margin of defeat was eight points. Take out No. 14 Wofford’s blowout loss to South Florida, 40-7, and it’s only a four-point margin of victory. And these weren’t just the bottom 20 teams of the FBS they were playing either. Teams like Kansas St. and defending Conference USA champions East Carolina were two of the opponents. 

7.  Extra Point

The ACC is the worst conference out of the six BCS conferences. Virginia and Duke lost to FCS teams, and Virginia Tech is not a top 15 team this year without Darren Evans. North Carolina and Boston College both blew out FCS opponents, but Maryland was crushed by 12th-ranked Cal 52-13. They’re just plain bad as a conference.

Look-a-Likes

This week’s edition of look-a-likes features Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. Swinney and NBC’s "30 Rock" star Jack McBrayer look a lot a like. McBrayer is a comedian who makes people laugh. Swinney’s Clemson team is known for making people laugh by their terrible play after the month of September.  Remember to send me your look-a-likes at paul.tnjn@gmail.com, and yours could end up in my column.