College Football, Week 6

Week 6 Polls and matchups.

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

Almost everyone is playing this week. Only #1 Alabama and #19 Louisville are idle. 

Five games this week will pit Top 25 teams against one another:

2/2 (2/2) Oregon (5-0) vs.  #23 Washington Huskies (3-1)

4/3 (3/3) LSU (5-0) @ #10 Florida Gators (4-0)

5/5 (5/5) Georgia (5-0) @ #6 South Carolina Gamecocks (5-0)

8/7 (9/7) West Virginia (4-0) @ #11 Texas Longhorns (4-0)

12/NR (14/NR) Ohio State (5-0) vs. #21 Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-1)

Another will see 17/14 (16/15) Oklahoma (2-1) @ Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-0), a team knocking at the door.

All of them will not only impact the rankings but conference standings as well.

1/1 (1/1) Alabama (5-0) The Crimson Tide will have the weekend off.

2/2 (2/2) Oregon (5-0) The Ducks will host the #23 Washington Huskies (3-1) Saturday night. The outcome will depend on the Huskies defense. If they can hold, they can win. I don’t think they can. Pick the Ducks.

3/4 (4/4) Florida State (5-0) The Seminoles will play on the road against the Wolfpack of North Carolina State (3-2). The Seminoles should win this one, but they better bring their A game.

4/3 (3/3) LSU (5-0) The Tigers play at the home of the #10 Florida Gators (4-0) Saturday afternoon. The Gators will pull the “upset” in this one. The Tigers just don’t have the same defense as they did last year. And their offense has stuttered too often so far this year.

5/5 (5/5) Georgia (5-0) The Bulldogs play up the coast at #6 South Carolina Gamecocks (5-0) Saturday night. Normally, I would say, “Flip a coin,” but not this time. The Gamecocks will win this track meet.

6/6 (6/6) South Carolina (5-0) The Gamecocks host the #5 Georgia Bulldogs (5-0) Saturday night. Gamecocks win by two TDs…at least.

7/8 (7/8) Kansas State (4-0) The Wildcats will host the Kansas Jayhawks (1-3) Saturday at noon. Intrastate rivalries are usually tough to predict, especially when one team will be using this as a measure of the success of their season. Usually. Not this time. The Wildcats will take care of business.

8/7 (9/7) West Virginia (4-0) The Mountaineers will face the #11 Texas Longhorns (4-0) on the road Saturday. Smith or Ash? If they can keep from being intimidated by the crowd (and there’s no reason to believe they will be. Remember last bowl season when they beat Clemson by scoring 70 points?), Smith and the Mountaineers will win this one. The question will be what’s the over-under?

9/10 (10-11) Notre Dame (4-0) The Fighting Irish will play host to the Miami (FLA) Hurricanes (4-1) Saturday night. Neither of these teams are the same as those that faced off in the last two or three years. It will be a close, hard fought game but the Irish will come out on top.

10/11 (11/12) Florida (4-0) The Gators will host the #4 LSU Tigers (5-0) Saturday afternoon. Gators.

11/9 (12/10) Texas (4-0) The Longhorns will host the #8 West Virginia Mountaineers (4-0) Saturday afternoon. Mountaineers.

12/NR (14/NR) Ohio State (5-0) The Buckeyes will host the #21 Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-1) Saturday night. This could be another upset. It will be back and forth and yet low scoring. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win and that will be Nebraska.

13/12 (12/12) Southern California (3-1) The Trojans will face the Utah Utes (2-2) on the road on Thursday night. The Trojans shouldn’t have much of a problem in this one.

14/17 (18/21) Oregon State (3-0) The Beavers will host the Washington State Cougars (2-3) Saturday evening.  The Beavers will win this one.

15/15 (17/16) Clemson (4-1) The Tigers will host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (2-3) Saturday afternoon. Clemson by a bundle.

15T/13 (15/14) TCU (4-0) The Horned Frogs will play host to the Iowa State Cyclones (3-1) Saturday afternoon.  With luck, it will be drier this weekend than last for the Frogs. The Frogs will hop all over the Cyclones.

17/14 (16/15) Oklahoma (2-1) The Sooners will visit the Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-0) this Saturday afternoon.  This will be Texas Tech’s first big test. The Sooners will knock them down but it will be closer than you might think.

18/18 (8/9) Stanford (3-1) The Cardinal will host the Arizona Wildcats (3-2) Saturday afternoon. This should be an easy game for the Cardinal, but after last week’s lack of performance on offense….

19/16 (19/17) Louisville (5-0) The Cardinals have the weekend off. It’ll give them a chance to dry out after last week.

20/19 (21/19) Mississippi State (4-0) The Bulldogs will go on the road to play the Kentucky Wildcats (1-4) Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs will remain undefeated as they cage the Wildcats.

21/20 (22/20) Nebraska (4-1) The Cornhuskers head to the home of the #12 Ohio State Buckeyes (5-0) Saturday night. Huskers will take this one in a close game.

22/21 (23/25T) Rutgers (4-0) The Scarlet Knights will host the UConn Huskies (3-2) Saturday at noon. Rutgers remembers last year when they were cruising and got blown out by UConn. They’ll return the favor this year--at least on the blow out part. UConn is still looking for an identity. The Huskies will leave Piscataway asking, “Who am I? Where am I?”

23/NR (NR/NR) Washington (3-1) The Huskies will head south to play the #2 Oregon Ducks (5-0) late on Saturday. Ducks.

24/22 (NR/NR) Northwestern (5-0) The Wildcats head to Happy Valley to play the Nittany Lions of Penn State (3-2). This will be a good game but the Wildcats will edge the Nittany Lions.

25/NR (NR/NR) UCLA (4-1) The Bruins will be on the road to play the California Golden Bears (1-4) Saturday night. The Bruins will win this one big.

NR/23 (NR/NR) Cincinnati (3-0) The Bearcats will host the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks (3-2) Saturday evening. The Bearcats will continue as an unbeaten team for at least one more week. Hopefully, Munchie won’t have to do it in the last minute.

NR/24 (NR/NR) Texas Tech (4-0) The Red Raiders host the #17 Oklahoma Sooners (2-1) Saturday afternoon. The Sooners will win but it won’t be easy.

NR/25 (24/NR) Boise State (3-1) The Broncos will head south to play at the home of the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles (0-4) Saturday at noon. Hopefully, the field will have drained by then. Broncos have been stumbling but they should hit their stride this week. It’s not a good year to be an Eagle.