College Football, Week 9

It’s Week 9 and things are really getting interesting. Slowly the number of undefeated teams is dwindling as they either run into a buzz saw underdog or end up facing one another. We also get a better feel for who may have been overrated earlier in the season as weaknesses are exposed.

This week we see several contests pitting Top 25 teams against one another:

1/1/1/1 Alabama (7-0) vs 13/12/12/10 Mississippi State (7-0)

3/3/3/2 Florida (7-0) @ 12/11/11/11 Georgia (6-1)

4/4/4/3 Kansas State (7-0) vs the #15/17/17/12 Red Raiders of Texas Tech (6-1). 

5/5/5/5 Notre Dame (7-0) @ # 8/7/7/8 Oklahoma Sooners (5-1)

It starts Thursday night with #14/13/13/18 Clemson (6-1)at Wake Forest (4-3). Then

#16/14/14/15  Louisville (7-0)  hosts Cincinnati (5-1)on Friday night.

(This week’s rankings from the AP, Coaches’, Harris Interactive, BCS (Projected). Rankings given last week appear in parentheses.  NR = Not Rated. Numbers in parentheses after the team’s name are the records.)

1/1/1/1 (1/1/1/1) Alabama (7-0) The Tide will host #13/12/12/10 Mississippi State Bulldogs (7-0). This could be an entertaining game. If the Bulldogs are not intimidated by the setting, they could make the Tide faithful sweat.

2/2/2/4 (2/2/2/2) Oregon (7-0) The Ducks host the Colorado Buffaloes (1-6).  The Ducks second and third stringers better be prepared to play some.

3/3/3/2 (3/4/3/3) Florida (7-0) The Gators head north to play the Georgia Bulldogs (6-1). This is another interesting game between pretty evenly matched teams.  The Dogs have been playing tough and could pull off the upset.

4/4/4/3 (4/3/4/5) Kansas State (7-0) The Wildcats host the Red Raiders of the #15/17/17/12 Texas Tech (6-1).  Will we have another game in which there will be 100 points put on the board?

5/5/5/5 (5/5/5/4) Notre Dame (7-0) The Irish will be on the road to play the # 8/7/7/8 Oklahoma Sooners (5-1).  The Irish have been lucky the last two weeks to escape some close games.  This time they are on the road. And they won’t be as lucky.

6/6/6/6 (6/6/6/6) LSU (7-1) The Tigers have the week off as they prep for a match-up with Alabama on November 3^rd.

7/9/8/7 (8/11/10/8) Oregon State (6-0) The Beavers will play at the home of the Washington Huskies (3-4). The Beavers should win this one handily.

8/7/7/8 (10/7/9/9) Oklahoma (5-1) The Sooners host the Irish of Notre Dame (7-0). They’ll call this an upset, but the Sooners have gotten stronger and stronger and should dominate this game.

9/NR/NR/NR (7/NR/NR/NR) Ohio State (8-0) The Buckeyes will play in Happy Valley against the Penn State Nittany Lions (5-2). Penn State has played well above expectations this year and will give the Buckeyes all they can handle. The game could go either way.

10/8/9/9 (11/9/11/10) Southern California (6-1) The Trojans play at the home of the Arizona Wildcats (4-3). Barkley has reemerged in the last two games. He should have another big day in this one.

11/10/10/14 (12/10/8/14) Florida State (7-1) The Seminoles host the Duke Blue Devils (6-2). FSU is too much for the Blue Devils to handle.

12/11/11/11 (13/12/12/11) Georgia (6-1) The Bulldogs host the #3/3/3/2 Florida Gators (7-0). This one could go either way.

13/12/12/10 (15/16/14/12) Mississippi State (7-0) The Bulldogs are on the road to face the #1/1/1/1 Alabama Crimson Tide (7-0). One of them will lose. It will probably be Mississippi State.

14/13/13/18 (14/13/13/18) Clemson (6-1) The Tigers are on the road to play the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (4-3) on Thursday night. The Tigers should roll over Wake.

15/17/17/12 (18/20/21/17) Texas Tech (6-1) The Red Raiders are on the road to play the #4/4/4/3 Kansas State Wildcats (7-0). Lots and lots of points in this one but KSU should win.

16/14/14/15 (16/14/16/15) Louisville (7-0) The Cardinal host the Cincinnati Bearcats (5-1) on Friday night. Louisville has been sluggish the last couple of weeks. The Bearcats got beat last week by Toledo and have something to prove. This has upset written all over it.

17/16/16/16 (9/8/7/7) South Carolina (6-2) The Gamecocks will host the Tennessee Volunteers (3-4). Tennessee will play it tough but the Gamecocks will win it in the second half.

18/15/15/13 (19/17/17/16) Rutgers (7-0) The Scarlet Knights host the Golden Flashes of Kent State (6-1). The Scarlet Knights had better have learned from Toledo’s beating of Cincinnati last week as well as their own poor first half against Temple and come out chopping.

19/19/18/17 (22/23/20/21) Stanford (5-2) The Cardinal will host the Washington State Cougars (2-5).  The Cardinal should have an easy time with the Cougars.

20/20/20/21 (23/25/NR/NR) Michigan (5-2) The Wolverines are on the road against the Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-2).  Michigan eked out a win over Michigan State. Not this week.

21/18/19/19 (24/22/23/22) Boise State (6-1) The Broncos are on the road against the Wyoming Cowboys (1-6). This is one rodeo ride in which the Cowboys will not succeed.  The only question is by how much will the Broncos win.

22/21/21/23 (20/19/19/19) Texas A&M (5-2) The Aggies hit the road to play the Auburn Tigers (1-6). A&M should have a good trip and bring home a win.

23/23/23/24 (25/NR/NR/NR) Ohio (7-0) The Bobcats hit the road to play the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks (3-4). Go with the visitors on this one.

24/NR/NR/25 (NR/NR/NR/NR) Louisiana Tech (6-1) Bulldogs head to New Mexico State (1-6) to play the Aggies. Tech had 839 yards of offense last week while defeating Idaho (1-7) 70-28. Could be more of the same this week.

25/22/22/20 (17/15/15/13) West Virginia (5-2) The Mountaineers have the week off to search for 1) some kind of defense and 2) their missing offense.

NR/24/24/22 (NR/NR/25/25) Texas (5-2) The Longhorns head north to face the Kansas Jayhawks (1-6). Texas should win.

NR/25/NR/NR (NR/NR/NR/NR) Wisconsin (6-2) Badgers host the Michigan State Spartans (4-4). Badgers win at home.

NR/NR/25/NR (NR/21/22/23 ) TCU (5-2) The Horned Frogs will play at Oklahoma State Cowboys (4-2).  The Frogs will rebound from their triple overtime loss to Texas Tech last week. This one will be another high scoring affair.