Buckle up, folks. This is a huge week of college football!
Thursday’s probably not going to make you want to drop everything to watch Army at ECU, but it should be a good game. The Black Knights aren’t what they have been in recent years, but all three of their games have been one-score affairs. Oddly enough, their lone win is at Kansas State while dropping home tilts to Tarleton State and North Texas. Go figure. The Pirates, meanwhile cruised to two wins following their loss in Raleigh by a combined score of 94-3, but things came skidding to a halt last week with a 34-13 home loss to BYU. That game was tight until late in the first half when BYU’s Evan Johnson picked off a pass in the end zone to stop an ECU scoring opportunity and then notched a pick-6 on the next ECU possession. It was over from there.
Friday has a pair of really good matchups with FSU at Virginia and TCU at Arizona State. The Seminoles have looked every bit the part of a top team this year, but they haven’t played anyone of note since their season opening win against Alabama. Virginia has been way better than expected and is a interception-in-the-endzone away from being undefeated.
TCU currently leads the ACC with a 2-0 against league members, having drubbed UNC in the season opener and then topped SMU last week in a back-and-forth contest. The Sun Devils aren’t the same team they were a year ago, but they’re still 3-1 and finding ways to win. That should be a good game.
Heading to the Saturday lineup, the noon slot is the chips and dip, so don’t fill up; leave room for the sizzling fajitas later on in the day.
USC-Illinois had a lot more to it before the Illini got curb-stomped by Indiana last week. It should still be the toughest test so far this year for Lincoln Riley’s Trojan squad that’s averaging 52.5 points per game on offense.
Arkansas just keeps finding ways to lose games, so tune in this week to see how they can fumble away another winnable game, this time on their home turf! If Notre Dame does indeed win over the Razorbacks, get ready for a repeat of last year’s hype machine for a 10-2 Irish squad to make the playoffs. NC State could have something to say about that in a few weeks in South Bend.
Raise your hand if you realized Pitt was 2-1 with that decent of marks in the advanced metrics… Now stop lying.
I’ll remind you again that Lance Leipold is one of the best coaches in the game and should get way more credit for what he’s doing at Kansas. Scott Satterfield’s Cincinnati squad had a bye last week, so they should be prepared for this road contest. Might get interesting. Also that game is on TNT, which I did not realize broadcasted college football.
The mid-day slate is great with some amazing matchups. Ohio State should roll at Washington, but don’t sleep on a Huskies team that has been better than you probably realize. Washington has rolled through the first three weeks of the season, albeit against very low competition. They may be able to put a challenge up for the Buckeyes.
LSU-Ole Miss is where it’s at in the 3:30pm slot. LSU underwhelmed in the first three weeks of the season before blowing out an FCS opponent last week, but they’re still undefeated. Ole Miss is also undefeated, and after a pair of close SEC wins they avoided the Tulane mine last week by blowing out the Green Wave in a game that was supposed to be close. Oh yeah, and Lane Kiffin’s daughter is an LSU student who announced this week that she’s dating LSU’s star linebacker.
Had Auburn managed to win at Oklahoma last weekend this week’s game with undefeated Texas A&M would be huge. It’s still big, but I’d expect the Aggies to pull this one off. It’s still must-watch TV.
Somehow Indiana-Iowa is flying under the radar this week, but it shouldn’t. The Hoosiers are apparently the real deal under former NC State assistant Curt Cignetti, blasting the mess out of Illinois last week and with Cal transfer QB Fernando Mendoza having thrown 9 TD versus 3 incompletions (note: that says “incompletions” not “interceptions”) over the last two weeks. Iowa’s only loss is at rival Iowa State in a fitting 16-13 game back in week 2. This game should be good.
This place is all about NC State, so clearly our focus will be on the game in Raleigh against Virginia Tech come Saturday night. The Hokies have an interim coach in former Tulsa head man and Art Briles disciple Philip Montgomery, so who knows what to really expect from VT. Kyron Drones can be a menace at times and the team thumped Wofford last week in the first game under Montgomery. The real question isn’t whether the Hokies offense gets better, it’s whether their defense that surrendered 44 and 45 points to Vanderbilt and Old Dominion, respectively, in their last two games against FBS opponents can get any better. This might be a track meet of a game and the over on the 56.5 total seems like a given with NC State’s defensive woes.
If you’ll be catching the State game from home, then make sure you have two other devices available to catch the other two big games of the weekend. Oregon at Penn State features two of the advanced metrics darlings of the early going. Both squads have laid waste to every opponent to square off with them so far, so we’ll see which one is for real this weekend. I’m rolling with Ducks, if for nothing else than it’s a big game and that’s always when the Nittany Lions fold under James Franklin. It should be a close affair regardless.
Alabama may not be up to the Nick Saban standard, but since their 14-point loss at Florida State in the opening week, the Tide have looked the part, including putting Luke Fickell’s job in jeopardy with a blowout win over Wisconsin last weekend. Bama will face ranked opponents six of the next seven games, so I hope you’re ready for them to be a mainstay of this feature. Georgia is – as you’d expect – undefeated, but that’s mostly thanks to Tennessee’s collapse last weekend. Like Alabama, this Georgia team isn’t up to the standards of the recent past, although at least they haven’t dropped off a cliff like Clemson. Georgia has an easier SEC schedule than Alabama, so even if the Bulldogs lose this one they’ll still have better odds than the Tide to make the SEC title game.
Rankings for SP+ Ratings and Sagarin Ratings listed, respectively, ahead of each team’s name.
72/81 Army @ 70/72 East Carolina – 7:30pm – ESPN
31/23 Florida State @ 43/38 Virginia – 7:00pm – ESPN
24/36 TCU @ 37/30 Arizona State – 9:00pm – FOX
50/46 Houston @ 123/101 Oregon State – 10:30pm – ESPN
32/29 Georgia Tech @ 81/93 Wake Forest – 12:00pm – ESPN
11/18 USC @ 36/33 Illinois – 12:00pm – FOX
21/8 Notre Dame @ 22/26 Arkansas – 12:00pm – ABC
63/58 Duke @ 57/34 Syracuse – 12:00pm – ACC Network
26/25 Louisville @ 40/41 Pittsburgh – 12:00pm – ESPN2
49/48 Cincinnati @ 27/39 Kansas – 12:00pm – TNT
48/61 UCF @ 53/53 Kansas State – 12:00pm – FS1
3/1 Ohio State @ 28/20 Washington – 3:30pm – CBS
15/9 LSU @ 7/12 Ole Miss – 3:30pm – ABC
23/19 Auburn @ 18/10 Texas A&M – 3:30pm – ESPN
6/11 Indiana @ 35/32 Iowa – 3:30pm – Peacock
74/76 California @ 75/57 Boston College – 3:30pm – ACC Network
19/31 Utah @ 77/74 West Virginia – 3:30pm – FOX
5/13 Tennessee @ 29/49 Mississippi State – 4:15pm – SEC Network
87/69 Virginia Tech @ 65/51 NC State – 7:00pm – CW
46/67 Arizona @ 30/37 Iowa State – 7:00pm – ESPN
1/2 Oregon @ 2/3 Penn State – 7:30pm – NBC
4/4 Alabama @ 9/6 Georgia – 7:30pm – ABC
109/99 San Jose State @ 107/84 Stanford – 7:30pm – ACC Network
113/130 Appalachian State @ 58/50 Boise State – 7:30pm – FS1
39/47 Kentucky @ 51/27 South Carolina – 7:45pm – SEC Network
25/35 BYU @ 62/62 Colorado – 10:15pm – ESPN