NCAA Football: Week 3 Preview
Week two was certainly a wild one. Upsets galore, and teams with playoff aspirations were dealt some serious blows. All 5 of my upset watch teams pulled off the upset, and the 5 must watch games were very entertaining. With conference play approaching, each week is getting more and more exciting and week 3 is certainly not going to disappoint.
This season I will keep track of my win/loss records, and post it atop the article for all my phenomenal readers to see. In week one, I went 81–10. In week two, I went 4–0 on the midweek games, and 56–11 on the Saturday slate for a total of 60–11. My overall record is: 141–21
20 Highlights From Last Week
1. Purdue isn’t a laughing stock anymore. Head coach Jeff Brohm has led this miserable program to a 1–1 record thus far, and they’ve somehow looked like a good team.
2. Rudolph-led Oklahoma State may be the biggest challenge in the BIG12. QB Mason Rudolph and WR James Washington are an electric tandem that may only be stopped when Oklahoma comes to town.
3. Hurricanes cancelled a lot of quality games. Memphis vs UCF, ULM vs Florida State, Miami vs Arkansas State, USF vs UConn, and NoCo vs Florida were all cancelled.
4. Michigan still looks weak. They should have destroyed a weak Cincinnati program, but instead the game was very close until late in the 3rd quarter.
5. Louisville’s Lamar Jackson has a chance at a Heisman repeat. He tallied 525 total yards in passing and rushing, but still his team struggled to put away an awful UNC squad.
6. Wisconsin steamrolls another opponent. The Badgers put up 357 rushing yards in the victory against lowly FAU, but the defense also held them to under 250 total yards.
7. Penn State rides Barkley to victory again. Although dominated in time of possession, Penn State scored 33 points in quick fashion, and Barkley accounted for two scores.
8. Virginia Tech is a real threat in the ACC. A dominating defense and a capable offense, they may be one of the tougher teams to beat this season in the ACC.
9. TCU uses stiff defense to topple Arkansas. TCU looks to have a strong defensive squad, limiting Arkansas to seven points and 267 yards of total offence, and an efficient balance of run and pass offence that will help them make some noise in the BIG 12 this year.
10. Clemson defense stifles Auburn. Auburn amassed only 117 total yards versus the defending national champions.
11. Oklahoma avenges last season’s loss against Ohio State. On the heels of 490 total offensive yards and a big fourth quarter, Baker Mayfield led the Sooners to victory over the Buckeyes.
12. The Buckeyes loss spells trouble for their playoff hopes. With games vs Penn State and @Michigan remaining, any slip up from Ohio State could mean they miss the BIG TEN title game vs likely opponent Wisconsin.
13. LSU uses balanced offense to decimate another team. This LSU team is gaining more and more momentum each week, and they’re just waiting for Alabama on Nov. 4th.
14. Notre Dame loses another close game. Georgia edged out Notre Dame late in the 4th quarter to give this once prestigious program a disheartening defeat.
15. Baylor is in trouble. Starting 0–2, and off the heels of being dominated both offensively and defensively by an inferior UTSA team.
16. New Mexico State pulls off a nice upset. NMSU led by Rogers, Rose III, Lottie, and Scott topple interstate rival New Mexico to kick off conference play.
17. Sam Darnold and the USC offense cannot be stopped. 300+ yards rushing and passing, this offense plowed over a usually strong Stanford defense and showed everyone who the cream of the Pac-12 crop is.
18. Stanford’s playoff hopes all but gone. Unless Stanford can go unbeaten and win the conference championship, it’s extremely unlikely Stanford will make the playoffs.
19. Washington State’s prolific offense upends Boise State in overtime. In what was an exciting triple overtime game, QB Luke Falk led Wazzu to victory in this high scoring affair.
20. Utah claims the Holy War rivalry again. Utah led from start to finish, and their superb defense helped the Utes claim victory over BYU.
5 MUST WATCH GAMES
1. #12 LSU @ Mississippi State: LSU has a tough road challenge ahead of them. Although they’ve won 2 straight in this rivalry, the last 3 games have been decided by 5 points or less inside the last two minutes of the game. Handling dual threat QB Nick Fitzgerald will be the key to an LSU victory.
2. Arizona State @ Texas Tech: If you like offense, then this game is for you. Neither of these teams are known for playing any defense, so this could be a game where the first to 50 points wins.
3. #3 Clemson @ #14 Louisville: The defending champions Clemson travel to Louisville in one of the most anticipated games of the ACC conference play this season. Clemson’s defense seems impenetrable, but Louisville QB Lamar Jackson seems unstoppable. Clemson squeaked out a win last year in a high scoring affair, but with a lot of talent gone to the NFL, Clemson will have a tough task beating Louisville especially on the road.
4. #19 Stanford @ San Diego State: By no means is SDSU a slouch of an opponent, but this game is more about how Stanford will respond after being destroyed by conference foe USC in the previous week. If Stanford plays as they usually do, hard-nosed defense and heavy reliance on the run game, they should be victorious. But if they come out slow SDSU could surprise them.
5. Oregon @ Wyoming: This will likely be the last test for Wyoming QB Josh Allen to showcase his talents against a higher calibre school. Although Oregon isn’t known for having a stout defense, this game could become a track meet, with tons of scoring, and it will be interesting to see if the NFL prospect can keep up with the high scoring ducks.
4 UPSET ALERTS
- #23 Tennessee @ #24 Florida: Two SEC rivals go head to head in the swamp. Tennessee was victorious in last seasons meeting, and with the Gators’ inability to move the ball offensively, it could be two wins in a row for the Volunteers.
2. Purdue @ Missouri: Two programs with a history of futility in their respective conferences go head to head. Purdue has played strong in the two games this season, whereas Mizzou has shown no ability to stop teams on the defensive end. I look for Purdue to possibly upend Missouri.
3. Louisiana Tech @ Western Kentucky: In what is usually a high scoring affair between two conference foes, expectations for this game should be the same. Western Kentucky is coming off two poor games, and in its last game lost to a woeful Illinois team. Louisiana Tech hasn’t fared much better, but given the high scoring nature of these teams, anything is possible.
4. #3 Clemson @ #14 Louisville: When you have a Heisman quarterback capable of winning games on his lonesome, it’s hard to count out Louisville. Despite Clemson’s phenomenal defense, they’re replacing a lot of pieces on offence that could spell trouble if Louisville gets on a roll and Jackson could become unstoppable. This game was close last year in Clemson, look for the same with Louisville having a chance at the upset at home.
The following are all the games from week 3. The team that is in bold are my prediction to win the game outright.
Thursday, Sept. 14
New Mexico at Boise State
Friday, Sept. 15
Illinois at USF
UMass at Temple
Arizona at UTEP
Saturday, Sept. 16
Air Force at Michigan
Alabama A&M at South Alabama
Appalachian State at Texas State
Arizona State at Texas Tech
Army at Ohio State
Baylor at Duke
Bethune-Cookman at Florida Atlantic
Bowling Green at Northwestern
Central Michigan at Syracuse
Cincinnati at Miami, OH
Clemson at Louisville
Coastal Carolina at UAB
Colgate at Buffalo
Colorado State at Alabama
Delaware State at West Virginia
Fresno State at Washington
Furman at NC State
Georgia State at Penn State
Idaho at Western Michigan
Idaho State at Nevada
Iowa State at Akron
Kansas at Ohio
Kansas State at Vanderbilt
Kent State at Marshall
Kentucky at South Carolina
Louisiana Tech at WKU
LSU at Mississippi State
Mercer at Auburn
Middle Tennessee at Minnesota
Morgan State at Rutgers
NIU at Nebraska
North Carolina A&T at Charlotte
North Carolina at Old Dominion
North Texas at Iowa
Northern Colorado at Colorado
Notre Dame at Boston College
Oklahoma State at Pittsburgh
Ole Miss at California
Oregon at Wyoming
Oregon State at Washington State
Purdue at Missouri
Rice at Houston
Samford at Georgia
San Jose State at Utah
SMU at TCU
Southern at UTSA
Southern Miss at ULM
Stanford at San Diego State
Tennessee at Florida
Tennessee Tech at Ball State
Texas at USC
Troy at New Mexico State
Tulane at Oklahoma
Tulsa at Toledo
UAPB at Arkansas State
UCLA at Memphis
UConn at Virginia
UL Lafayette at Texas A&M
Utah State at Wake Forest
Virginia Tech at East Carolina
Wisconsin at BYU
