Week 9 Preview

Week 8 was interesting. Penn State knocked off Ohio State, Bama looked very good against Texas A&M, SMU handed Houston their second loss of the season, Auburn demolished Arkansas and Texas Tech and Oklahoma put up nearly a mile’s worth of offense. We are about two thirds of the way through this college football season and the CFP rankings will begin next week. Every undefeated plays their next game on the road, and three of those play ranked teams this week.

Notable Games
3Clemson at 12Florida State Florida State and Clemson are both coming off bye weeks. Clemson survived a scare against NC State in their last game. I think they will be prepared for FSU after the bye. I also think the Tigers are the better team. This has been an extremely important game in recent seasons, and it is again this year, especially if you are a Louisville fan. I am picking Clemson.

4Washington at 17Utah Gameday will be in SLC for this game. Washington has looked very strong this season, but their wins are becoming less impressive as the Pac 12 season rolls on. I’m still not sold on Utah. Their defense hasn’t been great and they have a bad loss to Cal. The Utes gave up 45 points to UCLA last week and Josh Rosen didn’t play. I just think Washington is going to be too much for Utah. The 17th ranked team has lost each of the last 5 weeks. I think that will continue. I am picking Washington.

7Nebraska at 11Wisconsin Wisconsin has two losses, but those losses are to Michigan and Ohio State. Nebraska’s key win is over Oregon and that win continues to get less impressive. I’m not really sure how this game is going to play out but I don’t think it will be a shootout. This is a huge game in the Big 10. Wisconsin doesn’t allow many points, but they aren’t known for scoring a lot of points either. I think it’ll be a close one. I am picking Wisconsin.

10West Virginia at Oklahoma State West Virginia continues to climb up the polls. They are undefeated and seem to be in the driver’s seat in the Big 12. Oklahoma State is just outside of the polls. WVU has shown that they have something pretty much no one else in the Big 12 has: a defense. I think that will be the reason they will win this game. Any team that can hold Texas Tech to just 17 points knows how to play defense. I am picking West Virginia.

Georgia vs 14Florida (Jacksonville) Both of these teams are coming off a bye week. Georgia lost to Vanderbilt in their last game. I don’t know if that was more an oversight of Vanderbilt or an issue on the part of Georgia. The Gators also have a good defense and I think that’ll be the difference in this one. Rivalry games are always hard to pick because you never know which team is going to show up. The loss to Vandy might have lit a fire in the Bulldogs that Florida isn’t expecting. And as a side note, this rivalry is always going to be the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” don’t try and change that. I am picking Florida.

Texas Tech at TCU The Red Raiders put up a lot of offense last week against Oklahoma. TCU has been struggling and only scored 10 points last week against West Virginia. I don’t think this will be as high scoring. I just don’t think TCU has the offense to outscore Texas Tech. They might get a break because I bet Patrick Mahomes’ arm is probably sore after his 88 pass attempts last week. I am picking Texas Tech.

Top 25
1Alabama BYE
2Michigan at Michigan State
5Louisville at Virginia
Northwestern at 6Ohio State
8Baylor at Texas
New Mexico State at 9Texas A&M
13Boise State at Wyoming
15Auburn at Ole Miss
Kansas at 16Oklahoma
18Tennessee at South Carolina
19LSU BYE
20Western Michigan BYE (plays on 11/1)
21North Carolina BYE
22Navy at South Florida (Friday)
23Colorado BYE
24Penn State at Purdue
25Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh (Thursday)

Other Games
California at USC (Thursday)
UCF at Houston
Kentucky at Missouri
Miami at Notre Dame
Arizona State at Oregon
Stanford at Arizona