Rankings:
My Playoff Predictions:
Alabama
Ohio State
Clemson
Notre Dame
First Four Out: UC, Florida, Oregon, BYU
My Heisman Candidates:
Kyle Trask
Trevor Lawrence
Justin Fields
Mac Jones
Zach Wilson
My Predictions for this Week:
(last week I was 7/8)
(6)Florida at Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt has yet to win a game, while Florida has been rolling since their loss at Texas A&M. Kyle Trask has been destroying defenses and I do not think Vanderbilt will be able to stop him at all. I think Florida will win big.
(4)Clemson at Florida State: This will be Trevor Lawrence’s first game in over a month, and I think he will come out ready to play hard. Lawrence has been left out of the Heisman race since he has been out, and I think he’s going to put up big numbers to make people remember he’s still here. Clemson will win in a blowout.
(9)Indiana at (3)Ohio State: Who would have thought that this game would be a battle for the top of the east. Tom Allen has turned IU around and into the top 10 for the first time in over 40 years. I do not think IU will be able to beat Ohio State because IU has relied heavily on turnovers, they score from at least two a game, and OSU rarely turns the ball over. I think that Indiana will be able to hang around into the second half, but a few turnovers on their end will put the game away.
App State at (15)Coastal Carolina: Coastal Carolina has been a Cinderella team this season. They have only been fielding a FBS level team since 2017, so the fact they are a top 15 right now is crazy. Appalachian State has only one loss this season, so it should be a good game, but with the high scores Coastal Carolina has been putting up, I think they will win.
(10)Wisconsin at (19)Northwestern: This is another game that coming into the season I never would have guessed would be for the top of the west (I embarrassingly picked Northwestern to finish second to last in the west preseason). Northwestern has had a really good defense, and their offense has been scoring enough to win games. Wisconsin, despite only playing two games, has had an explosive offense and steady defense. I think this will be a low scoring defensive game and Wisconsin will win by less than a touchdown.
(7)UC at UCF: This game is going to be the biggest test for UC’s defense this year. UCF has the highest ranking offense in the country I believe, while UC has one of the top defenses. I do not think UCF has enough to top UC, and UC will win by at least two touchdowns.
UCLA at (11)Oregon: UCLA got a much needed win against Cal, but that game was played on a Sunday morning and each team only had a two day warning of the game, so I don’t think you can take too much away from it. Oregon’s been looking better and they should win easily.
Kansas State at (17)Iowa State: Both teams have been pretty inconsistent this season. They both have beaten Oklahoma and had a close loss to Oklahoma State. I think that Iowa State will have the edge with their quarterback Brock Purdy, but it should be a pretty close game.
Tennessee at (23)Auburn: Auburn is coming off a three week break and Tennessee is coming off a four game losing streak. Neither team is any good this season. I think Auburn will win because they keep winning close games, but I expect both teams to play bad.
(21)Liberty at NC State: Can Hugh Freeze go 3-0 against the ACC this season? NC State has a 5-3 record and has lost two of those in really close games even without their starting quarterback. I think NC State will upset Liberty because Hugh Freeze has been surrounded by talk of the South Carolina job this week, which I think will distract him and the team.
(14)Oklahoma State at (18)Oklahoma: This is going to be a very interesting matchup. After their back to back losses, Oklahoma has looked more like past seasons, with a very explosive offense. Oklahoma State, had last weekend off after three weeks of very close wins. Oklahoma has been trending in the right direction, while Oklahoma State has been falling apart a bit. Oklahoma State has a better defense, but I don’t think their offense has enough to compete with Oklahoma. I think Oklahoma is going to win.
(20)USC at Utah: While I don’t think USC is really that good of a team, let alone the twentieth best in the country, I think they will win this game because it is going to be Utah’s first game of the season.
Illinois at Nebraska: Nebraska and Illinois both got their first wins of the season last week. Nebraska made a quarterback change, but I do not know if it is permanent. I think Nebraska will probably flip between both. I think Nebraska has more talent than Illinois and will win.
Iowa at Penn State: I think Penn State will end up being 0-5 after this game. Penn State seems to have lost all motivation to play, and Iowa has played well their last two games. I am picking Iowa to win pretty easily.
LSU at Arkansas: I think LSU will come out to a slow start due to them being off a few weeks and the USA Today article was released about the sexual assaults at the school, especially the football program. Despite their bad loss last week, Arkansas has played some really solid football. I think they are a better team than LSU and will win this weekend.
Recap of Last Week:
Last week was a sad college football weekend, with no top 25 matchups and many of the ranked teams did not play, mostly because of Covid cancelations. There were not any upsets and really nothing changed in the rankings.
Wisconsin returned to play, handing Michigan another loss. Wisconsin’s quarterback Graham Mertz did not look as great as he did against Illinois in their opener, but he was off for three weeks after testing positive for COVID, so that likely played a factor in his performance. Indiana shut out Michigan State, moving to 4-0 ahead of this week's huge game with Ohio State. Indiana continues to force teams into making turnovers, which helps give their offense more chances. Northwestern is currently in first place in the Big 10 West after beating Purdue. Their defense was able to hold Purdue to 20 points, and although they don’t have a super high scoring offense, they keep putting up just enough to win.
In the SEC, only three games were played due to cancelations. Kyle Trask threw SIX touchdowns in Florida’s win against Arkansas, moving him up in the Heisman race. Since their loss at Texas A&M, Florida rolled over everyone and looks ready to face Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Ole Miss beat South Carolina in a shootout, which led to Will Muschamp being fired the next day. Vanderbilt lost again, this time to Kentucky by a field goal, to stay winless.
Notre Dame did not have a repeat of 1993 against Boston College this time, as the media predicted. They came off their high of beating Clemson and got back to business. Clemson was off last week, but Trevor Lawrence was allowed to return to practice. Miami got another close win against Virginia Tech. This is their third week in a row of winning by less than a touchdown. They only have one loss but the chance of them reaching the ACC title game is very slim because their loss is to Clemson. They would need Clemson or Notre Dame to lose twice, which is a very unlikely scenario.
Comentarios