College Football, Week 4

Week 4 is upon us and more and more teams are getting into their conference schedules. This is also the time of year when the polls start to mean something. Except for the CBSSPorts poll, that is. That one purports to be an indication of how teams will finish the year and not how they are right now. 

From the CBSSPorts web site:

The CBSSports.com 124 rankings are produced by Jerry Palm's personal computer formula. Each week Palm will update his rankings 1-124 based on a projection on how the season would end. The rankings are not based on today, but how the poll would look at the end of the season.

Must be nice to have a time machine that can predict the future so well, hey Jerry? Still, he and his computer are the only ones who rank all 124 teams. And I'll still use the AP poll numbers when referring to a team's ranking.

There are several games that pair ranked teams this week #3 Oregon vs #22 Arizona, #4 Florida State vs #10 Clemson, #6 Oklahoma vs #15 Kansas State, and #11 Notre Dame vs #18 Michigan. Since one of each of those pairs must lose, expect some reshuffling of the rankings come next week.

(Numbers given are the rankings of: AP/Coaches’/CBSSports. NR = Not Rated Those in parentheses are last week’s rankings.)

1/1/5 (1/1/6) Alabama (3-0) The Tide host their next victim, the Florida Atlantic Owls (1-2).

2/2/1 (3/2/1) LSU (3-0) The Tigers play at Auburn Tigers (1-2). And by “play” I mean maul.

3/3/7 (4/4/8) Oregon (3-0) The Ducks host the #22 Arizona Wildcats (3-0). These Ducks are not sitting ones.

4/4/4 (5T/6/7) Florida State (3-0) The Seminoles host the #10 Clemson Tigers (3-0) in what looks to be one of the more evenly matched and entertaining games of the week.

5/6/11 (7/7/12) Georgia (3-0) The Bulldogs host Vanderbilt Commodores (1-2). Like captains, the Commodores will go down with their ship.

6/5/3 (5T/5/3) Oklahoma (2-0) The Sooners are back in action at home against the #15 Kansas State Wildcats (3-0). The well rested Sooners will tame the Wildcats.

7/8/16 (8/9/15) South Carolina (3-0) The Gamecocks host the Missouri Tigers (2-1) and will come out winners in this one.

8/7/12 (9/8/18) West Virginia (2-0) The Mountaineers will host the Maryland Terps (2-1). WVU will win in a rout.

9/11/25 (21/16/NR) Stanford (3-0) The Cardinal go on the road to play the Washington Huskies (2-1). Based upon what I saw last Saturday, Stanford should win big if they can complete their drives. (25^th Jerry? Really? I think your computer may have a virus.)

10/9/8 (11/11/10) Clemson (3-0) The Tigers play on the road against the #4 Florida State Seminoles (3-0). As I said above, this one could go either way.

11/15/10 (20/19/17) Notre Dame (3-0) The Fighting Irish host the #18 Michigan Wolverines (2-1). Having beaten Michigan State, the Irish are looking for a sweep here…and they should get it.

12/10/19 (14/12/19) Texas (3-0) The Longhorns are off this week.

13/12/2 (2/3/2) Southern California (2-1) The Trojans host the California Golden Bears (1-2). USC will get back on track but may struggle to do so.

14/14/17 (18/17/16) Florida (3-0) The Gators host the Kentucky Wildcats (1-2). Florida will chomp, chomp their way through Kentucky.

15/13/23 (15/14/20) Kansas State (3-0) The Wildcats are at the #6 Oklahoma Sooners. Too bad for them that the Sooners were off last week.

16/NR/6 (12/NR/5) Ohio State (3-0) The Buckeyes host the UAB Blazers (0-2). Hope the Blazers got a good paycheck for this game, ‘cause that’s all they will be going home with.

17/16/NR (16/15/NR) TCU (2-0) The Horned Frogs host the Virginia Cavaliers (2-1). Proof that the Frog is mightier than the sword.

18/17/14 (17/18/22) Michigan (2-1) The Wolverines play the #11 Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (3-0) on the road. The shillelagh will thump them good.

19/19/NR (22/23/NR) UCLA (3-0) The Bruins host Oregon State Beavers (1-0). Bruins beat Beavers by a bit.

20/18/9 (19/20/9) Louisville (3-0) The Cardinals play at the home of the Florida International Golden Panthers (1-2). Teddy Bridgewater’s crew will take care of business.

21/20/18 (10/10/4) Michigan State (2-1) The Spartans host the Eastern Michigan Eagles (0-3). This is one way for the Spartans to salve their wounds from last week.

22/21/NR (25/NR/NR) Arizona (3-0) The Wildcats head north to face the #3 Ducks of Oregon (3-0). The cooler climate of Eugene will not be advantageous to the Wildcats.

23/23/NR (NR/NR/NR) Mississippi State (3-0) The Bulldogs will host—and beat—the South Alabama Jaguars (1-2).

24/NR/NR (NR/NR/13) Boise State (1-1) The Broncos host the Brigham Young Cougars (2-1) on Thursday night. Okay, this might be a bit closer than in years past, but it is on the blue carpet so look for the Broncos to prevail.

25/22/NR (NR/24/14) Nebraska (2-1) The Cornhuskers play host to Idaho State Bengals (1-1) (and FCS school). Another game with 60+ points for the victor? Looks like it—and it won’t be the Bengals scoring that much.

NR/24/NR (NR/22/23) Wisconsin (2-1) The Badgers host the UTEP Miners (1-2). The Badgers will win this one by running, running, running over the Miners.

NR/25/NR (NR/NR/NR) Oklahoma State (2-1) The Cowboys have the week off.

NR/NR/20 (NR/NR/NR) Ohio (3-0) The Bobcats host the Norfolk State Spartans (2-1) (an FCS school) and should boost their record to 4-0.

NR/NR/21 (NR/NR/NR) Georgia Tech (2-1) The Yellow Jackets host the Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes (2-1). The Hurricanes have been more tropical storm lately. Look for the Yellow Jackets to weather this storm and find a welcome win in the end.

NR/NR/22 (NR/NR/NR) Louisiana-Monroe (1-1) The Warhawks host the Baylor Bears (2-0) on Friday night. After the last two weeks in which they played into overtime (a 34-31 win over Arkansas and a 28-31 loss to Auburn) the Warhawks move on to the Bs. They are still underdogs, however, and this one could come down to whether or not they can stop the Baylor potent offense.  Could be another close one that can go either way. Tune in to ESPN on Friday night to find out who wins…and if the Warhawks play a third overtime game in as many games.

NR/NR/24 (NR/21/24) Arkansas (1-2) The Razorbacks host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (3-0). You know who I’m rooting for in this one. The Razorbacks got the snot kicked out of them last week by #1 Alabama without their starting QB, Tyler Wilson (concussion) who was not happy with his teammates’ play. He’s likely to be back to play against the Knights but for how long? Rutgers has one heck of a defense (33^rd against the pass, and 8^th against the run). The can put a lot of pressure on a QB through both their blitzing and pass coverage.  This is a big game for both teams but, perhaps, a win will mean a great deal more for the boys from Rutgers and I think they just might be able to pull this one off.