As always, there are all sorts of great storylines in today’s college football action. Here are my favorites:
Oklahoma (-3) vs. Texas – Both teams desperately need this win, but for very different reasons. Texas dropped out of the second spot in the polls last week, and their play hasn’t been particularly impressive. They need an impressive win over a good team in order to prove that they are a good team and that they belong in the BCS Championship game. Oklahoma has had a very rough year – two losses, the injury to Sam Bradford, and so on. This team is better than a 3-3 team, or at least they should be. They won’t be if they don’t win here, though. There is real desperation on both sides, and that leads to good drama. It also doesn’t hurt that these teams don’t exactly like each other.
Iowa (+2.5) at Wisconsin – Iowa is still undefeated and poised to keep climbing up the charts. They face a tough rival here, though, and they aren’t exactly coming off a tour de force performance in their narrow win over Michigan last week. They need to win, and win big, here to continue to gain respect and climb the polls since they are burdened by playing in a pretty underwhelming conference this year.
USC (-10) at Notre Dame – This is being painted as the game of the week. Like so many games of the week featuring USC, I expect this one to be a bust. Notre Dame has a largely one-dimensional offense, and they haven’t run up against a defense as good as USC has. Notre Dame has played very close games against teams that it should be totally outclassing. For all their faults this year, the Trojans are significantly better than any team they have faced. I don’t see how the Irish can measure up. This could be the end of yet another Heisman campaign – Jimmy Clausen’s.
Texas Tech (+10.5) at Nebraska – Nebraska had an impressive win last week over Missouri, and they gained some national respect for it. Now they need to back it up. It seems unlikely that they will be able to contain the Texas Tech offense as well as they did the somewhat less explosive Missouri one last week, so Nebraska will have to find a way to get their offense working better than it did last week.
Arkansas (+24.5) at Florida – This could be a real trap game if the Gators don’t have their heads on straight. The Florida offense isn’t playing particularly well right now. Arkansas has a potent offense that will be riding high after two dominating wins. The Florida defense is great, but they’ll have to be here. Bobby Petrino is a good coach, and he can motivate a team as well as anyone. They will be flying for this one, so Tim Tebow and company had better be as well.
Virginia Tech (-3) at Georgia Tech – Virginia Tech is hanging around the national championship picture – they lost, but they did the right thing by losing early. That loss means that their margin for error is zero. They need to win here in a big way. Georgia Tech is the lesser team, but they do a lot of things differently than most teams on both sides of the ball. The Hokies have their hands full. This won’t be a high scoring thriller, but it will be fun to watch nonetheless.
Miami (-14) at Central Florida – Miami has survived the incredibly tough start to their season. Now they need to keep winning, and winning impressively, against the lesser teams – the ones that they should be able to beat easily. There isn’t a game remaining on their schedule that Miami isn’t good enough to win. That means that they could wind up at 11-1, and quite possibly BCS bound. That would be a remarkable story and a huge accomplishment for Randy Shannon – but only if they keep winning.
South Carolina (+17.5) at Alabama – Most people would probably agree that Alabama is the best team in the country right now. South Carolina is a flawed team, but a pretty good one. This could be a test if Alabama isn’t ready for them, but we have had no reason to believe that they won’t be.
