This Weekend in College Football: Week 3

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Air Force @ Michigan State (ABC): Air Force has gotten off to a decent start this season, but let's face it, the main thing to watch here is to see if the Spartans avoid a major letdown after their huge win last weekend.
• Connecticut @ Missouri (ESPN): Mizzou is not exactly 2-0 in convincing fashion, but the Huskies are a much, much less convincing 2-0.
• Illinois @ North Carolina (ESPN2): This one's hard to call. For all the pre-season turmoil with the Illni, they're still 2-0, albeit against inferior teams. This is finally not Carolina's year, but all we know so far is that they have a close loss to an inferior South Carolina team. This one's a toss-up in my mind, but I'm going to go with UNC.
• Tulsa @ Oklahoma (FS1): You can't win. Even when the SEC is down, people won't shut up about them. Like, neither of these teams is even in the confernce, but here I am bringing it up thanks to the Sooners' win last weekend. This win will be much less talked-about.
• South Florida @ Maryland (ESPNU): Maryland is, like, so bad you guys. But Bowling Green is actually kinda good? So it's not completely inexcusable, which is how I've talked myself into taking Maryland here.
• Nevada @ Texas A&M (SEC): The Fightin' Chris Aults didn't have much luck last weekend against Arizona, and they don't figure to here either.
• Wake Forest @ Army (CBSS):
• Nevada-Las Vegas @ Michigan (BTN): New and Improved Michigan (NOW with Harbuagh!)(TM) doesn't figure to lose this one.

12:30:

• Northwestern @ Duke (ACC): Cutcliffe is gonna Cutcliffe, whereas the Wildcats offense is kinda... well, not good.
• Central Michigan @ Syracuse (ACC/RSN): I think the Orange got this one.

2:00: Georgia State @ Oregon (Pac12): I always say I only do the punctual "Oregon" type previews when I'm doing FCS vs. FBS games in Week 1, but man if "Sun Belt patsy at pissed off national power" doesn't merit it...

3:30:

• Georgia Tech @ Notre Dame (NBC): Hoo boy. First, let's start with the part where we're favorites. No one knows anything about us! Sure, we demolished two awful teams in our first two games, but that's not always indicative of anything, after all, we got off to a lousy start last year before finishing off one of the best seasons in school history. Of course, Notre Dame needed a last-minute touchdown to beat UVA, but still, Virginia's better than any of teams we've played. Who's to talk?
  It's hard to fully state how nervous I am for this game, here in September. It's not a conference game, which takes a bit of the edge off, but still. I don't think I should elaborate further on that. As for the game, I think it'll be slow going at first, because we simply haven't played anyone that can physically go to toe-to-toe with us. This is our first real test, and it's a hell of a test.
• Nebraska @ Miami (ABC/ESPN2): I really wish I could claim credit for "hey, the 80's called, they want their Game of the Week back" but alas. At any rate, Miami's looked pretty dangerous so far, so I'll go with them to keep it going.
• Northern Illinois @ Ohio State (ABC/ESPN2): I'm not sure there's actually any opponent for whom Ohio State's starting quarterback matters, much less this one.
• Texas-San Antonio @ Oklahoma State (FS1): I think the Cowboys have this.
• Virginia Tech @ Purdue (ESPNU): VPI isn't great this year or anything, but Purdue is... bad.
• East Carolina @ Navy (CBSS): Fun fact #1: this is a conference game! Fun fact #2: this is Navy's first ever conference game! Fun fact #3: they're probably going to win!
• Troy @ Wisconsin (BTN): Wisconsin looks likely to even up their record against teams from the state of Alabama.

4:00: Western Kentucky @ Indiana (ESPNEWS): I... think I like the Hoisers in this one?

5:00: Utah State @ Washington (Pac12): Much more certain about the Huskies, though.

6:00: South Carolina @ Georgia (ESPN): I want to believe. I want to believe that Steve Spurrier has some sort of juju that allows him to always (or mostly) prevail over the university of Georgia. I want to believe that even though his team has looked really bad and doesn't seem to have a quarterback that he will some how, some way find a way to shock the dogs in Athens again. I want to believe... but I just can't.

7:00:

• Texas Tech @ Arkansas (ESPN2): Let us take one last moment to savor, once again, the sweet, sweet schadenfraude of Arkanasa's head coach complaining about Ohio State's schedule and then losing to Toledo. Especially since they're probably going to run all over Texas Tech.
• Colorado vs. Colorado State (@Denver, CO; CBSS): Early season rivalry games are lame (it is known), but hey, at least this one's at a neutral site. And what the heck, let's go with the Rams, that'll be more fun at least.

7:30

• California @ Texas (FOX): The Bears can score points, the Longhorns cannot. Seems easy enough.
• Florida @ Kentucky (SEC): A lot of people are saying this is the year that Kentucky breaks their decades-long streak against the Gators. But man, it'd be a lot easier for me to call it that way without the weight of history, you know?

8:00:

• Stanford @ Southern California (ABC): Stanford has still shown the lack of having any sort of red zone offense whatsoever (which is really an indictment of the offense), which makes it impossible for me to pick them.
• Iowa State @ Toledo (ESPNEWS): The Cyclones just lost by two touchdowns to Iowa (did Hawkeye fans even know the numbers on the scoreboard went that high?), so what the heck, let's pick Toledo. Rockets for darkhorse Group of Five pick, how about it?
• Southern Methodist @ Texas Christian (FSN): SMU already has a big loss to Baylor, so naturally TCU is going to look to win by at least 36 points.
• Pittsburgh @ Iowa (BTN): Two bland, milquetoast football teams that taste, well, bland and milquetoast together. Uh, Iowa I guess.
• San Jose State @ Oregon State (Pac12): Well, you lost by 28 to Michigan, but hey, here's to chance to wash that out.

9:15: Mississippi @ Alabama (ESPN): I feel pretty good about saying that Nick Saban is going to hold the Rebels to under 70 for the first time. Outside of that, um, it's a tossup for me. Going with the Tide.

10:30:

• Brigham Young @ California-Los Angeles (FS1): UCLA should add a third solid win to their resume here.
• Utah @ Fresno State (CBSS): I don't have a good feeling about this... for Fresno, at least.