Tuesday, September 13, 2011

College Football 2011, Preweek 3

Every one of the Top 25 teams will see action this week. Only two contests will pit ranked teams against one another: #1 Oklahoma @ #5 Florida State and #3 LSU @ #25 Mississippi State. The former could get interesting if the Sooners stumble early. The latter should be another victory for LSU.

As for the rest of the schedule, don’t look for many surprises this week.
Here are this week’s match-ups for all the Top 25 college teams. The two rankings are the AP/Coaches'. (CBSSports is slow in posting—again. Their Top 120 page says to come back October 3rd for the rest of the teams. Maybe they’re playing that game with the Top 25 as well, although, they DID update for the first two weeks of the season. IF they get it posted tonight, I'll upgrade to all three polls on Wednesday sometime.)

1/1 Oklahoma (1-0) After a week of rest, the Sooners will be on the road to play the #5 Florida State Seminoles (2-0) at 8 PM (EDT) Saturday night.

2/2 Alabama (2-0) The Crimson Tide will host the Mean Green of North Texas (0-2) Saturday night. Will the Tide break 60?

3/3 LSU (2-0) The Tigers go on the road Thursday night to play the #25 Mississippi State Bulldogs (1-1) who are looking to bounce back after a 41-34 loss to Auburn last week.

4/4 Boise State (1-0) The Broncos are back in action this week. They play on the road against the Toledo Rockets (1-1) on Friday night. Toledo could surprise, but they will only keep it closer than expected.

5/5 Florida State (2-0) The Seminoles will play host to #1 Oklahoma Saturday night.

6/6 Stanford (2-0) The Cardinal will be on the road this week playing the Arizona Wildcats (1-1) Saturday afternoon. Another game with potential to be close, but the Cardinal still have Luck on their side.

7/8 Wisconsin (2-0) The Badgers go on the road Saturday afternoon to face the Huskies of Northern Illinois (1-1). Badgers can rip a careless dog to shreds.

8/7 Oklahoma State (2-0) The Cowboys play on the road at Tulsa as they face the Golden Hurricane (1-1) Saturday night. Should be another W for OSU even on the road. (“Road” ? yeah, right!)

9/9 Texas A&M (1-0) The Aggies are back in action up in Moscow, Idaho as they face the Vandals of IU (1-1) Saturday night. Another ranked team on the road. The Aggies should have little trouble with the Vandals.

10/11 South Carolina (2-0) The Gamecocks host the Midshipmen of Navy (2-0) Saturday evening. This will be an interesting game. If Navy plays error free (turnovers, penalties) and prevents the huge play, they could pull the upset.

11/10 Nebraska (2-0) The Cornhuskers will host the Washington Huskies (2-0) Saturday afternoon. Close game, but the Huskies get husked.

12/14 Oregon (1-1) The Ducks will play host to the Missouri State Bears (0-2) Saturday afternoon. Ducks by as many as they want/can get before time runs out.

13/12 Virginia Tech (2-0) The Hokies will host the Arkansas State Red Wolves (1-1) Saturday afternoon. Should be Hokies by a bunch. If they get careless, it will still be Hokies by a smaller bunch.

14/13 Arkansas (2-0) The Razorbacks will host the Troy Trojans (0-1) Saturday afternoon. Arkansas looking to make a statement. The Trojans get…well, beat.

15/15 Michigan State (2-0) The Spartans travel to South Bend, IN to face the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (0-2) Saturday afternoon. Who does the scheduling for the Irish? HE should get fired! Spartans by 14.

16/17 Florida (2-0) The Gators will host the Tennessee Volunteers (2-0) Saturday afternoon. Could be a close game if Tennessee remembers to bring their ear plugs.

17/16 Ohio State (2-0) The Buckeyes will travel south to Miami to face the Hurricanes (0-1) Saturday night. Miami looked very disorganized two weeks ago. Even a little unorganized will get the crowd booing and the Buckeyes drooling.

18/20 West Virginia (2-0) The Mountaineers will be on the road to play the Maryland Terrapins (1-0) Saturday afternoon. I hope WVA remembers their sunglasses. More than Maryland’s uniforms are offensive. This will be a test for WVA, but the mountaineers should prevail.

19/24 Baylor (1-0) The Bears host the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (1-1) Saturday night. Remember how Baylor scored a ton of points against TCU two weeks ago? They should do so again against the Lumberjacks. And their defense should show up this time too.

20/22 South Florida (2-0) The Bulls host the Florida A&M Rattlers (1-1) Saturday night. Bulls will stomp the Rattlers.

21/19 Auburn (2-0) The Auburn Tigers play on the road against the Clemson Tigers (2-0) Saturday afternoon. The Tigers should win this one. (Okay, the AUBURN Tigers.) But it will be close.

22/18 Arizona State (2-0) The Sun Devils are on the road to play the Fighting Illini of Illinois (2-0) Saturday evening. The Devils will win in a close contest.

23T/21 Texas (2-0) The Longhorns head west to play the UCLA Bruins (1-1) Saturday afternoon. Longhorns will gore the Bruins. Not even close.

23T/23 TCU (1-1) The Horned Frogs host the Warhawks of Louisiana-Monroe (1-1) Saturday afternoon. Frogs will win in a romp.

25/25 Mississippi State (1-1) The Bulldogs will host the #3 LSU Tigers (2-0) Thursday night. Could be the last time we see the MSU Bulldogs in the Top 25 this year. Geaux Tigers!

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