Rankings:
Recap of Last Week:
Last week provided us with some good, classic Big 10 football games. The day opened with a top 10 showdown between Ohio State and Indiana. After Ohio State got out to an early lead, Indiana was able to force some turnovers off Justin Fields that helped keep them in it. The Indiana defense forced Justin Fields into one of his worst career games. Fields threw three interceptions, the same amount he threw the entire 2019 season. Meanwhile, IU’s quarterback Michael Penix had a career game. Penix threw for 491 yards, helping keep IU alive. Penix did throw a pick six in the second half that ended up being the difference in the game. After being down 35-7 at one point, IU rallied back to make it a one score game in the fourth, but neither team was able to score in the final ten minutes. This game exposed OSU’s weak secondary, but also showed the IU is a legit top 10 team.
Meanwhile, in the Big 10 West, Northwestern’s defense was dominant as they beat Wisconsin to take the lead in the West. Northwestern held Wisconsin’s previously explosive offense to just seven points. This was a very low scoring game, with a final score of 17-7. Michigan survived three overtimes to beat Rutgers. After this game, I don’t know how Jim Harbaugh will still be around next season. Minnesota beat Purdue in a very controversial ending. Purdue scored a go ahead touchdown in the final seconds, but it was called back for offensive pass interference. If you watch the highlight, it really doesn't seem like OPI, but that is what the referees saw, and Minnesota got another win out of it. Penn State got crushed by Iowa, leaving them with a 0-5 record, the first ever in program history. Sean Clifford (St. X grad), was supposed to have a breakout year, continues to get benched, but backup Will Levis is not doing any better.
The UC, UCF game was really exciting to watch. It was a hard fought battle between both teams that came down until the very end. Until the middle of the fourth quarter, the game was constantly switching leads. UC was up by 3 when they picked off UCF to get the ball back with about two minutes left. They got to the one yard line and instead of scoring tried to run the clock out. This almost cost them when Ridder bobbled the snap and UCF recovered it. There was still a few seconds on the clock so UCF got one last attempt, but UC was able to stop it and close the game. On Friday night in the AAC, Tulsa somehow stayed undefeated. After being down by 21 points going into the fourth quarter, their third string quarterback was able to bring the team back and force overtime, which they won. Tulsa and UC are scheduled to play on December 12, and will likely meet the next weekend for the conference title game.
In the SEC, Alabama and Florida stayed dominant. Alabama sucked the life out of Kentucky and Florida beat Vanderbilt easily. While both wins were big, neither one was that impressive considering how bad Kentucky and Vanderbilt are. LSU beat Arkansas, which was pretty suprising, but their true freshman quarterback, TJ Finley, has been looking pretty good. Tennessee has now lost five straight games after last week’s loss to Auburn.
Clemson was slated to play Florida State, but it got canceled the morning of, throwing Dabo Swinney into a fit. Swinney said that Clemson’s positive Covid case was just an excuse for Florida State to cancel the game, and they just did not want to play Clemson. Florida State, however, has said it was a safety concern, and will work with Clemson to find a new date to play. I understand why Swinney was upset about the last minute cancelation, especially after they had spent $300,000 transporting their stuff, but the way he continued to complain about it was pretty tone deaf. Although the people in the south like to think Covid is not real, there is a pandemic going on, and Florida State has the right to cancel the game if there was a positive test within Clemson who practiced with the team all week despite having symptoms.
My Playoff Predictions:
Alabama
Notre Dame
Clemson
Ohio State
First Four Out: UC, Oregon, Texas A&M, Northwestern
My Heisman Candidates:
Kyle Trask (Florida, quarterback)
Mac Jones (Alabama, quarterback)
Trevor Lawrence (Clemson, quarterback)
Justin Fields (Ohio State, quarterback)
Zach Wilson (BYU, quarterback)
Breece Hall (Iowa State, running back)
My Predictions for this Week:
(last week I was 11/14)
(15)Iowa State at (20)Texas: Iowa State absolutely demolished Kansas State last week, and Texas has been off the last two weeks. Iowa State played great defense last week, and I think they will be able to shut down Sam Elingher. Although Texas has won three straight, I think Iowa State is going to win this game. Their running back Breece Hall has been so impressive this season and I expect him to be able to run pretty easily against Texas.
(2)Notre Dame at (25)UNC: UNC was supposed to be competing for a spot in the ACC title game this season, but have struggled with getting down big early on and not being able to come back. UNC will be a test for Notre Dame’s defense, as they average over 500 yards a game. I think UNC might get down early, but will make a second half run to give Notre Dame a scare, but not enough to pull off the upset.
(9)Oregon at Oregon State: Oregon’s offense has been running smoothly, but their defense has not been playing that well. I think that Oregon will win but it will be a really high scoring game and pretty close.
(3)Ohio State at Illinois: After a close call last week and being snubbed in the first playoff rankings, I expect Ohio State to come out strong and destroy Illonois.
Penn State at Michigan: If someone had told me coming into this season that after five weeks of Big 10 play, there would be two total wins between Michigan and Penn State, I would have thought that was the biggest joke ever. Penn State has completely given up and has no fight left so I think that Michigan is going to win this game.
Maryland at (12)Indiana: Maryland has not played in over two weeks due to a covid outbreak, but before they were halted they were playing really well behind quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa. IU is coming off a disappointing loss to Ohio State, but I believe they will rally back and play very strong. I expect Maryland to be rusty after being off for two weeks, and Indiana to force several turnovers off Tagovailoa. IU should win pretty easily.
(11)Northwestern at Michigan State: Northwestern has a legit defense and Michigan State is still in rebuilding mode with new coach Mel Tucker. I think this will be a low scoring game with Northwestern coming out on top.
Mississippi State at Ole Miss:Last year’s Egg Bowl ended in disaster, with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Ole Miss in the end zone for celebrating a touchdown. That penalty pushed back their extra point attempt to tie the game, which the kicker then missed. Both coaches were fired after that game. Now, Lane Kiffin has Ole Miss’s offense roaring, but they forget to play defense every game. Mike Leach tried to bring the air raid offense to Mississippi State, and it worked in their first game against LSU, but after that has not worked out at all. I think that Ole Miss’s offense will win this game for them because Mississippi State’s defense has struggled defending the pass game.
(22)Auburn at (2)Alabama: This years Iron Bowl will be without one of its stars. Alabama coach Nick Saban will be out after contracting Covid for real this time. Alabama looks like the best team in the country so far, but has not been challenged much. Auburn does not look like it is capable of challenging Alabama at all, but wild things always happen during the Iron Bowl. Auburn’s quarterback Bo Nix has struggled tremendously on the road, so it will be interesting to see how he plays in Tusculusa. I think Auburn will be able to hang around a little bit, but the Tide will probably win by at least two touchdowns.
Pitt at (4)Clemson: Clemson has not played since Notre Dame almost a month ago and Trevor Lawrence has not played in almost a month and a half. I have no idea what to expect from Clemson after they were off for so long. I think this game will actually be pretty close because Pitt has a history of playing well against top five teams, but Clemson will not lose.
LSU at (5)Texas A&M: Last year LSU demolished Texas A&M, but I have feeling that will not be happening again this year. Texas A&M has been off for a while, but before the break had been playing really well. Their quarterback Kellen Mond was making smarter decision and he should be able to pass for a lot of yards against LSU’s struggling defense. I think Texas A&M will win pretty easily.
(13)Georgia at South Carolina: Georgia played JT Daniels, the Southern California transfer, for the first time last week, and he looked remarkably better than any of the other quarterback Georgia has played this year. South Carolina has not hired a new coach yet, and are still struggling. I think Georgia will win this game, but with the way they have been playing, it will be pretty close.
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