Friday, October 06, 2017

This Weekend in College Football: Week 6

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:
  • Pennsylvania State @ Northwestern (ABC): These two teams try to play similar styles, except only one of them as Saquon Barkley, so I like Penn State here.
  • Iowa State @ Oklahoma (FOX): Sooners.
  • Georgia @ Vanderbilt (ESPN): Everyone talking about UGA as the second best team in the SEC means it's about time for them to, say, lose to Vanderbilt, right? Right? (Probably not, but there's always hope.)
  • Wake Forest @ Clemson (ESPN2): Wake Forest gave a depleted Florida State everything they could handle last week and... still lost. Clemson may toy with them a bit, but this shouldn't be close.
  • Texas Tech @ Kansas (FS1): Well Red Raiders, the Jayhawks should be a good salve for that tough loss to Oklahoma State last week, at least.
  • Temple @ East Carolina (ESPNU): Rebuilding Temple, as it turns out, is probably better than "rapidly hitting the low point" ECU.
  • Mississippi @ Auburn (SEC): If it's not already a lost season for Ole Miss, then it will be after this.
  • Illinois @ Iowa (BTN): I wouldn't recommend this one. Hawkeyes roll.
  • Eastern Michigan @ Toledo (CBSS): Going with Toledo here.
12:20: Duke @ Virginia (ACC): I still don't believe in UVA, so I'm going with Duke here.

12:30: Pittsburgh @ Syracuse (ACC/RSN): Pitt just has nothing on offense this year, which, well, that's definitely not Syracuse's problem.

3:30:
  • Notre Dame @ North Carolina (ABC): Speaking of teams GT has played that look terrible this year, boy howdy is Carolina rebuilding or what? Domers should roll.
  • Louisiana State @ Florida (CBS): If you like 12-7 football, then you'll like this SEC Game of the Week on CBS­™! Seriously, you may want to avoid this particular vortex of offensive dysfunction, unless you like watching things in a train wreck sense. Gators, I guess.
  • Miami @ Florida State (ESPN): It will take something truly bizarre for Miami to lose to Florida State this year, so I'm going to have to go with the Canes this time.
  • Minnesota @ Purdue (ESPN2): While many in the college football sphere have marveled at Purdue's turnaround this year, Minnesota has sort of quietly chugged along, logging a close loss to Maryland in their first Big Ten contest. I'm leaning Purdue due to their offensive potential, but I think if the game is tight it could break toward the Gophers.
  • West Virginia @ Texas Christian (FS1): WVU faces a sharp increase of difficultly here after beating Kansas last week. TCU pulled out a fantastic game at Oklahoma State last weekend, continuing to ride their philosophy of a defensive coach that knows he has to put up 40+ to win in the Big 12.
  • Air Force @ Navy (CBSS): Air Force is 1-3 and 0-2 in the Mountain West already. I like Navy here.
4:00:
  • Maryland @ Ohio State (FOX): Buckeyes, obviously, but Maryland might give them a bit of a contest for a little while.
  • Tulsa @ Tulane (ESPNU): Uh, Tulane? Sure, let's go with that.
  • Arkansas @ South Carolina (SEC): Boy howdy, this 4:00 slate isn't very exciting so far... uh, SoCar?
  • Oregon State @ Southern California (Pac12): USC.
6:30: Army @ Rice (beIN): Army, you've got to win this game. I'm telling you.

7:00:
  • Kansas State @ Texas (FS1): Jokes about Bill Synder being a wizard aside, this doesn't look like exactly the best version of Bill Synder K-State this year. Which will probably make it that much more hilarious when they somehow beat the Longhorns again, but I'm not going to predict it.
  • Southern Methodist @ Houston (CBSS): Don't look, but SMU might be good this year. I mean, Houston is probably still better, but still.
7:15:
  • Alabama @ Texas A&M (ESPN): I suspect this game may cause angst both ways, in the sense that Bama may not win by as much as they have at other times this season and the sense that TAMU is likely still going to lose very badly.
  • Virginia Tech @ Boston College (ESPN2): Well, VPI, I can pretty safely say that you be much better equipped to handle BC's offense than Clemson's.
7:30:
  • Michigan State @ Michigan (ABC): Sparty's already got 3 wins this year, and I doubt they're going to lose 8 in a row, so they've definitely improved this season. And while this Michigan team has weaknesses, it's not clear that Mich State has the ability to exploit them.
  • Missouri @ Kentucky (SEC): Missouri is a trash fire this year, going with Kentucky.
8:00:
  • Washington State @ Oregon (FOX): Hello secret best game of the day! It's Wazzu's first road trip of the year, and Autzen should be ready to go on a crisp fall evening. I think Wazzu will win, but it's hard to count out what look some rejuvenated Ducks at home.
  • Central Florida @ Cincinnati (ESPNU): UCF is good, y'all.
  • Wisconsin @ Nebraska (BTN): "Oh hey, I thought Nebraska was struggling, but they're 2-0 in the Big Ten already? Huh." [clicks on team page] "Ah, Rutgers and Illinois. That makes sense." Yeah, I like the Badgers here.
  • Arizona @ Colorado (Pac12): The Arizona teams aren't as bad as we all thought they'd be coming into the year, but they're still not good. Meanwhile, Colorado is struggling, but I'd say this is the first Pac-12 game they'd be expected to win. Going with them here.
10:15: Stanford @ Utah (FS1): See what I said about Penn State-Northwestern, except replace "Saquon Barkley" with "Bryce Love".

10:30: Hawaii @ Nevada (CBSS): You could watch this, or you could watch one of the games above or below. Hawaii, why not?

10:45:
  • California @ Washington (ESPN): Look, Washington should win, but hey if Cal is in this thing at all it should be interesting. Just hard to compete at Husky Stadium, though.
  • San Diego State @ Nevada-Las Vegas (ESPN2): UNLV is so bad. So bad.

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