#1
Alabama at Arkansas
The Razorbacks haven’t
beaten an FBS team all year, and frankly, their only real chance to win tomorrow would
be if a meteorite hit the Alabama bus on the way to the stadium. Otherwise, the
Tide are going to win by AT LEAST five touchdowns and pull their entire starting 22 by
halftime.
Prediction: Alabama
Florida
State at #17 Miami
It’s the turnover chain
versus the exceedingly lame “turnover backpack”. The only thing worse than
Willie Taggart’s turnover backpack was Butch Jones’s turnover garbage can from
last season.
Taggart has looked like
the worst coach in all of the Power 5 the first four weeks of the season, and
even with a road win at Louisville last week, he still might be. The Cardinal
team they struggled to beat is really atrocious, and the fact that they needed
a long miracle TD to pull off the victory is just more evidence of how much of
a mess that program is right now. I don’t think this Miami team is great, or
even good, but FSU is so bad that they’ll make the Hurricanes look like their
legendary ’01 team tomorrow. The ‘Canes thrive off turnovers, and the ‘Noles
will, based on everything we've seen this season, be more than happy to oblige them; quarterback Deondre Francois has
thrown five interceptions already, and the team has lost seven fumbles. This
feels like 31-10.
Prediction: Miami
#4
Clemson at Wake Forest
The Tigers are, based on what they've done on the field, the most over-ranked team in the country. Teams have been
able to move the ball on their defense, the offense has been inconsistent and
choppy, and Dabo Swinney “Butch”ered the quarterback situation. I don’t suspect
they’ll have all that much trouble with Wake this weekend, but the Tigers
should be concerned about the kind of product they’re putting on the field week
to week, because no one with eyes that work or a functioning brain would have the Tigers in the playoff at this point. Sure, Florida State had many of the same problems in 2014 and still made the playoff, but they
were the defending champs with a returning Heisman-winning quarterback AND they
finished the year undefeated. Clemson isn’t the defending champion, Kelly
Bryant is no longer around the program, and I think the Tigers will finish with at least one loss. And if they do go 11-1, what’s
the argument for putting them in over any other one loss team? They won their conference? So what, the ACC is not a great league this year. Tomorrow would be the day, if there ever was one, to go
out and lay the smackdown on an inferior opponent and win by six touchdowns. I’m
not sure there’s the spark in the program to do so, at least at this point.
Prediction: Clemson
Vanderbilt
at #2 Georgia
The ‘Dawgs were sloppy against
Tennessee last week and blew multiple scoring opportunities. If they played up
to their potential in the first half, they’re up 30-0 at halftime and there’s
no question marks coming out of this game. Much like Clemson, tomorrow is the
ample opportunity to blow out an inferior opponent, put together 60 minutes of
good tape, and get whatever two quarterback or one quarterback offense you're going to run back on
track.
Predicition: Georgia
#13
Kentucky at Texas A&M
The Wildcats are 5-0 and
the surprise of the college football season. Running back Benny Snell is a dark
horse Heisman contender, and UK has some legitimate people in the trenches for
the first time in the Mark Stoops era.
I’m still taking Texas
A&M. They’re at home, and a good football team that’s only two losses this
year were to teams with more talent than them, Clemson and Alabama. And in
those games, the Aggies were throwing into the end zone late for the tying two
point conversion against the Tigers, and played the best game out of anyone
against the Tide this year, losing by only 22.
Prediction: Texas A&M
#8
Auburn at Mississippi State
The departure of Dan Mullen
from Mississippi State has completely torpedoed that program. The Bulldogs,
with supposedly one of the best returning quarterbacks in the conference in Nick
Fitzgerald, have scored just 13 combined points the last two weeks under first
year coach Joe Moorhead, who either looks like a guy way in over his head, or
someone who just now realized that he took over the second or third worst job
year to year in a football-mad conference.
If it’s not Clemson who
is the most over-ranked team in the country, then it’s Auburn. The Tigers have
done nothing to deserve being ranked 8th to this
point, and in their only two games against legitimate competition, they scored
only 21 points against Washington and should’ve lost, and blew a second half
lead and lost to LSU, a game where they also only scored 21 points.
I’d be tempted to pick
Mississippi State here, except for the simple fact that my high school dating life was
more active than the Bulldog offense has been the last two weeks. Auburn’s defense is
very good, particularly up front, and I expect them to win by a couple of
touchdowns, something like 21-7.
Prediction: Auburn
#10
Washington at UCLA
Nebraska
at #16 Wisconsin
I put these two games
together because it’s still wild to me that neither Chip Kelly at UCLA or Scott
Frost at Nebraska have won a game yet. I wouldn’t give either of them much of a
chance to get their first victory of the season this week against ranked teams,
but which coach wins a game first? Nebraska’s next four games go like this: at Northwestern,
home for Minnesota, home for Bethune-Cookman, and at Ohio State. I don’t think
they’ll win any of their conference games, but that one against Bethune-Cookman
on October 27th has to be a win, right? Here’s UCLA’s next four: at
Cal, home for Arizona, home for Utah, at Oregon. Geez, that could be four more
losses. Their final three go like this: at Arizona State, home for USC, home
for Stanford. Good god, Chip could very easily go 0-12 because outside of USC,
I don’t see an even remotely winnable game on their schedule. A winless first
season certainly isn’t what anyone expected from Chip when he agreed to become
their coach back in December.
Are we sure football hasn’t just figured
Kelly out? I’ve made this point before, but since his 10-6 and NFC East title
in 2013 with the Philadelphia Eagles, Chip is paltry 18-33 in his last 51 games
as a coach. 18-33! I’d challenge you to name one coach who is thought of as
elite, either in the NFL or college, who would ever be that far under .500 over
51 games.
Prediction: Wisconsin,
Washington
#6
Notre Dame at #24 Virginia Tech
This feels like a three
touchdown victory for the Irish. The Hokies gave up over 600 yards of offense
to Old Dominion; why does anyone
think they’ll be able to stop Notre Dame? Ian Book brings excitement and
versatility to the Irish attack, and you could make the argument that this is
the best Notre Dame team Brian Kelly has had since he’s been there, better than
the 2012 team that got routed by Alabama in the BCS Title Game. It’s incredible
for me to be saying this, but somehow, the Irish are the most underrated team
in the country. I know, I know, it’s Notre Dame, one of the most powerful brands
in all of sports, how could they be underrated? Case and point, they’ve been far better this
season than someone like Clemson, and yet, the Tigers are ranked two slots
higher. Explain that to me. It’s time to start giving the Irish some love.
Prediction: Notre Dame
#5
LSU at #22 Florida
It wasn’t that long ago
that Florida got ran off their own field by Benny Snell and Kentucky, but since
then they’ve won back to back conference road games and scored themselves a
game on CBS for the first time in the Dan Mullen era. Mullen is a very good
football coach, and the fact that he’s been able to steer this lot in the right
direction and make them look half-decent in such a short time demonstrates just
how great he actually is. How talented Mullen is has been one of
the biggest revelations of this football season; he shows up at Florida and
almost instantly puts out a football team that compete week to week; meanwhile,
his old job, Mississippi State, has completely eroded back to its pre-Mullen
irrelevance.
With that said, I still
like LSU tomorrow, even on the road. Again, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Ed "Swamp Monster" Orgeron has
done a fantastic job there. He’s maintained the physicality on the defensive
end, a Les Miles staple, while tweaking the offense enough that it no longer
looks like a team out of the pre-forward pass days. His teams don’t come out
flat, they play with the same energy every week, and transfer Joe Burrow has
been very solid at the quarterback position for them. Here’s the other thing;
since last year’s home loss to Troy, LSU is 11-2, with their only losses coming
last year to Alabama and Notre Dame.
Predicition: LSU
#19
Texas vs #7 Oklahoma (in Dallas)
The game of the weekend.
The Longhorns are the most improved team since the first week of the season,
while the Sooners haven’t appeared to have lost anything going from Baker
Mayfield to Kyler Murray. Texas might have the best defense in the Big 12,
evidenced by the fact that they haven’t given up more than 19 points in any of
their last three games. Then again, having the best defense in the Big 12 is
like saying you’re the prettiest girl in the holler because you have 80% of
your teeth.
I like the Longhorns in
an upset. Texas can move the ball, and should be able to do so against OU’s
shoddy defense, and their defense is good enough that they won’t get completely
torched by Murray and Oklahoma’s athletes. And if the Longhorns do win this
game, we may have to start considering them not only a viable threat to win the
Big 12, but also a potential playoff team. And on a more serious note, beware
strip clubs of Dallas, because you’re assuredly going to get a visit from Tom
Herman.
Prediciton: Texas
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