Interesting games all over the place even if they don't involve teams in the hunt for the CFP. Thurs. UCLA at Stanford. 2 struggling teams, UCLA more so, but Stanford beat Washington last weekend. Maybe David Shaw has got them going in the right direction. UCLA at 1-5 don't seem to be likely to even finish at .500 in the 2nd year of Chip Kelly. Friday Ohio State at Northwestern. A rare Friday night appearance for the Buckeyes. Northwestern in the middle of a miserable season, but had a week off to get healthy and prepare for the Buckeyes, won't make any difference. Saturday 1. Tenn at Alabama Vols played Georgia tough and beat Miss State. But even though the Tide had a big road game last week, they'll be ready for the Vols. This was once a prime rivalry for both teams. Been one sided for awhile. 2. LSU at Miss State State lost to Tenn last weekend. Doubt if they have the horses to challenge a team like LSU even at home. I could see LSU maybe getting off to a slow start after a big emotional game with Fla. But in the end.... 3. Clemson at Louisville Louisville has been good on offense, scored 62 points last week against Wake Forrest, but gave up 59. Clemson should win handily, but they might end up giving up more points to the Cards than you might expect. 4. Ohio State at Northwestern. 5. Oklahoma vs West Virginia Sooners should have their way and Jalen Hurts likely puts up monster numbers. 6. Wisconsin at Illinois Badgers should roll, Johnathon Taylor didn't get 100 yds last weekend vs Mich State, but I'll bet he gets 200 yds vs the Illini. 7. Penn State vs Michigan The game of the week. Penn State has a defense that nobody is talking about. I heard on XM Sports that they already had 25 sacks before last weekend at Iowa. It'll be a white out game in Happy Valley, the crowd will be loud and rocking. Both Penn State and Mich didn't score much vs common opponent Iowa, so I'm not looking for a big scoring fest here. Another tough defensive struggle. Michigan loss here likely ends any thoughts of a Big 10 East championship. 8. Notre Dame ..bye 9. Florida at So.Carolina After the tough loss in Baton Rouge the Gators get to go to Columbia where the Gamecocks are riding high after their upset of Georgia. Don't know what to expect here. Gators are the better team, but is So. Carolina the hot team? 10. Georgia vs Kentucky. A get well game for the Dawgs. They should win big. Other Games. Auburn at Arkansas ...Auburn notches another win while waiting for the rest of their killer schedule. Purdue at Iowa. Iowa reeling after playing and losing to 2 very good defenses, Purdue got the good win last weekend with Stu in attendance. I don't think he's going to Iowa so the Hawkeyes get back on track with the Purdue defense. Oregon at Washington. Washington with 2 losses in the Pac12 and Oregon with Zero. Ducks need to keep winning to have any shot at the CFP, even a long shot. But it's a fierce rivalry and I'd expect this to be a very good game. I was surprised that UW lost last weekend to Stanford. Minn at Rutgers ...PJ Fleck talks about rowing the boat as a team. Well they'll likely boat race RU and move to 7-0 Arizona State at Utah ..huge game in the Pac12 S, where there are 4 teams tied at 2-1 in the league. After this game there will be 1 less. Sun Devils with Herm Edwards are doing pretty well this year with one of those Freshman QB's. USC vs Arizona The other huge game in the Pac12 S . SC played well at ND, now back at home vs Arizona I won't be surprised to see them break out. After this game there will be 1 fewer 1 loss team. Pac 12 S will have 2 1 loss teams after this weekend. Who will they be. Baylor at Oklahoma State ...a couple of high powered offenses. Baylor got lucky last weekend when a B12 ref blew a call in OT and ruled that the Baylor center had done an illegal snap, when in fact he'd snapped the ball into his own butt and TT kid recovered the ball. OSU had the week off after losing to the same TT team that Baylor beat in OT. Should be a really good game. Texas A&M at Ole Miss. Aggies won't face quite the team that they faced in Alabama. But they will face a dynamic running QB, they did score 31 points on Alabama a few weeks ago, so while the Ags should be good to win it might not be a walk in the park. Texas at Kansas. Texas lost a couple of more starters in the OU game, both on defense where they were already thin. Shouldn't be a problem as the Texas offense will probably score 50 on KU. Temple at SMU This is the AAC game of the Week. SMU is undefeated and ranked, Temple had a big win last weekend over Memphis and SMU had to go 3OT's to beat Tulsa. Tulsa at Cincinnati The other big AAC game. Cincy is ranked and it's only loss was to Ohio State. They might be the best team in the AAC. Boise State at BYU. Boise is undefeated and ranked. They might be the leader of the Group of 5 teams angling for a New Years 6 bowl game. BYU did upset USC but then promptly lose to Toledo.
Another good analysis, by TOK. I look for Purdue Iowa to be a close game. Minnesota is rowing just fine and should romp over hapless Rutgers. Then they get Md before the final games get tougher. Their toughest contest yet was the game they beat the Boilers 38-31. They did manhandle Nebraska but other than that haven't played anyone. Time will tell.
As I was reading Terry's analysis for the coming week, a thought occurred to me. Once you retire from your dental practice, you might want to go on live TV with Urban Meyer??
Don I agree, I always look forward to Terry's look ahead. They're a great way to play your weekend viewing.
Gipper, I was shocked when I saw that final score. I would have bet the house on that one and lost. That's why I never bet with anything of real value.
Well, if you watched the Lions-Packers game last nite you can see why betting on NFL games isn't very smart either. It's become a morality play with good (the home team) winning over evil (visitor or Detroit.) The only difference between the NFL and pro wrestling is that some people think that the NFL is an honest sports contest.
ESPN's Heisman Watch for the week has Joe Burrow moving up to #1 1. Joe Burrow 2. Tua 3. Jalen...was #1 for most of the season. 4. Jonathon Taylor 5. Justin Fields 6. CeeDee Lamb ...might have taken votes from Jalen in the ESPN poll.
The Athletic has a freshman AA team, midseason. I mentioned in my blurb about Arizona State/Utah with the Sun Devils doing well with a freshman QB. He was The Athletics pick for the QB position.
On Burrow.... Seems like both LSU and Florida gained national respect from their game the other night. It must have passed that so called "eye test" with flying colors. And that is the key to making the college football playoff as a one loss team If... HUGE If.... Florida were to win the SEC East as a one loss team then win another duel with LSU for the SEC Title I'm pretty sure the Gators would be first one loss team in....
If the Gators win the SEC Championship game, they will be in. Clemson will have to screw up to not be in. SEC Champ will be in. OU if they go undefeated will be in..a very possible situation. Big10 Champ is likely to be in as well this year. Some crazy stuff will have to happen for either a Pac12 team or ND to make it.
Since the baseball game between the Yankees and Houston has been rescheduled to Friday evening, that is going to create a problems for Ohio State fans, in that Fox will not be able to use that time slot for football. That game was to be on FS1, now that will have to be changed to another network. Hopefully the BTN will pick up the game. Otherwise, I will not have access to the game live.
Don, you should be happy that you have a Michigan fan on this board who can provide answers to your questions Ohio State-Northwestern moved to Big Ten Network from FS1 after ALCS Game 4 postponed
Big game for the Buckeyes this evening at Ryan Field vs Northwestern. I personally doubt we will cover the spread at 28 points. (BTN)