Is Clement Someone to Watch?

Ah…college football season. I wish you were better during week one…

Regardless of the shitty games on TV this week (and my pissed-off rant about my stupid cable company not offering the Big Ten Network), I’m just happy that football season is here. Tonight I kicked back, popped open a tasty beverage, and watched the SMU/Rice game.

Well, some of it. It was SMU and Rice, give me a break.

I did like seeing June Jones coaching again. It’s no secret that I was def a jump-on-the-bandwagon Hawaii fan last year. For the record, my Colt B. love has not faded. Woo Redskins. But I digress.

The bright spot in this game was Rice’s quarterback, Chase Clement. During the first quarter, it kind of looked like SMU would have an easy win on their hands, but that changed quickly when Clement led the Owls to four touchdowns…in a row.

The end score? 56-27. That tells me that Rice’s defense definitely has some work to do (although Andrew Sendejo’s interception and 55-yard TD return was schweeeeet), but Clement pretty much blew things out of the water.

Now, you have to take this with a grain of salt. They were playing SMU, a fairly young team with a new coach. The rest of their schedule doesn’t look all that great: Memphis, Vanderbilt, and Texas all on the road coming up, before North Texas at home, Tulsa on the road, Southern Miss at home, Tulane and UTEP on the road, and then ending the season with three home games – Army, Marshall, and Houston.

I mean, they play Texas, and a few of the other teams on that list are not-so-bad, but we’ll probably never really know if Clement is that good. Playing in the C-USA conference doesn’t let you shine. But hey, I guess it doesn’t let you fall on your face either.

So, should we “watch” Clement? I’m going to hold off on my opinion on that one. Let’s see how they do against Memphis next week.

Picture via Newscom.