Rankings
*I am only including teams that have played this season in my top 10
Recap of Last Week:
The return of the SEC brought one huge upset and games that opened our eyes to how the teams really are looking. LSU got a rude awakening that Myles Brennan is not Joe Burrow and this is not the same team that won the National Championship in 2019. Mike Leach brought his air raid offense to Mississippi State and Stanford transfer quarterback KJ Costello excelled in it. The LSU offense could not stop the air raid and let Costello throw for 623 passing yards, an SEC record. Going into the game, we knew that LSU would not be the same, but I don’t think anyone expected them to lose their opener. However, maybe we should have seen it coming as they lost all but three starters and pre pre-season was completely different due to covid.
The Auburn Kentucky game was one of the closer SEC games of the week, and Bo Nix used it to show that he has improved from his freshman year. Auburn was able to get the offense going and their defense came up with some big stops when they needed them. Kentucky showed that they are still going to be a team that is hard to beat, but won’t be up fighting for the top of the division. The other close game was the Tennessee-South Carolina night showdown. The game came down to the final minutes of the fourth quarter, in which USC ended up messing up the kick return and turned over the ball. This turnover cost them a possession in the final two minutes to go and try to score a game winning touchdown. Tennessee went into this as a ranked team, and while they didn’t play terribly, I don’t think they played like a top 25 team. The last close game in the SEC was the most surprising. Going into the season, there was lots of talk that this was Jimbo Fisher's year to make a run for the SEC title. After their close call win against Vanderbuilt, they were a far cry from that. Veteran Texas AM quarterback Kellen Mond threw for only 189 yards and one touchdown pass and was sacked in the end zone for a safety. Texas AM will need to find a way to put up much more points and stop offenses much more explosive than Vanderbuilt if they want a shot at the SEC title.
In the SEC East, Florida came out of the weekend as the team to beat. After a semi-close first half, Florida stepped it up for a huge win over Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss. QB Kyle Trask looked on fire again with his five touchdown passes. Florida looked good on both the offensive and defensive side. Georgia, on the hand, only put up five points in the first half and didn’t break away until the middle of the third quarter against Arkansas who hasn’t even won a SEC conference game in over two years. Georgia hasn’t named a starting quarterback yet either. Last week they played two different quarterbacks and now that JT Daniels is cleared to play, it will be a battle for the starting position. The Georgia defense played pretty well last week, but Florida looked like the better team in the East.
The SEC showed us some doubt about their top teams last week, but we must remember that this was their first week of games in a very unusual year. The Big 12 on the hand was in their third week of play but showed even more reasons for us to be concerned about the state of play in the conference. The Big 12 teams have all struggled tremendously over the first three weeks, and the only two teams who hadn’t struggled, Texas and Oklahoma, in the first two weeks, looked really bad in week 3. Oklahoma blew a 17 point lead and was shut out in the fourth quarter to lose to Kansas State again this year. Spencer Rattler, who is a freshman, fell apart and threw three interceptions. The Oklahoma defense was awful, no surprise, and showed great reason for concern for the rest of their season. Texas barely survived Texas Tech, needing to score fifteen unanswered points at the end of the fourth quarter just to go to overtime where a Texas Tech turnover sealed the game. Sam Elinger was able to guide the offense to putting up 63 points, but the defense also allowed 56 to a Texas Tech team that struggled to beat Houston Baptist the previous week. There should be some major concern about the defense in Austin right now. Right now, the Big 12 title is up for grabs.
In the ACC last weekend, Miami continued to be on the rise. Miami crushed Florida State and De’Andre King continued to show he’s fitting into the offense very well. As Miami continues to rise, the Clemson-Miami game is looking more and more like it’s going to be quite a showdown. Clemson had an off week last week, but this week will face their biggest challenge so far this season, Virginia, which is not saying much. The other top team in the ACC this season is Notre Dame. They didn’t play last week due to players having covid, but they looked dominant in their first two games. The matchups between Miami, Clemson, adn Notre Dame later in the season will be really fun to watch. The only other team that is looking like a possible threat is Virginia Tech. They beat NC State very easily last weekend despite missing tons of people to covid test and barely have pre season camp. They have only played one game so far so it is hard to assess them but they will be another team in the ACC to keep an eye on.
My Playoff Predictions:
Clemson
Ohio State
Florida
Texas
First Four Out: Notre Dame, Alabama, Penn State, Oregon
My Predictions for this Week:
South Carolina at (3)Florida: Last week South Carolina put up a fight against Tennessee, but Florida is a much better team than Tennessee. I expect Florida to come out and light up the scoreboard again in a big win.
TCU at (9)Texas:Texas had a close call last week, but I think they will win easily this week to start 3-0 for the first time since 2012.
Missouri at (21)Tennessee: Last week Missouri didn’t play that bad against Alabama. I expect them to keep it close against Tennessee but I think the Volts will win.
NC State at (24)Pittsburgh: While everyone has been busy talking about Clemson and Miami as the top teams in the ACC, no one has been paying much attention to Pitt who is quietly looking better and better each week. They are leading the country in sacks so far this season and their offense is playing well too. Pitt will beat NC State pretty easily
(25)Memphis at SMU: I think SMU is going to pull off the upset over Memphis. Memphis hasn’t played since September 5, almost a month ago, while SMU has already had three games to get in their grove.
(12)UNC at Boston College: UNC is the better team of the two, but UNC hasn’t played a game in over three weeks while BC has played the last two weekends. I still expect UNC to win, but I think they will be rusty in the first half and the game will be pretty close.
South Florida at (15)Cincinnati: UC is going to win big.
(13)Texas AM at (2)Alabama: After the way Texas AM struggled against Vanderbilt last week, I don’t expect this to be a close game. Texas AM was overhyped going into this season and will get beat easily.
(17)Oklahoma State at Kansas: This is a perfect game for Oklahoma State to really get their offense going and show they are capable of being at the top of the Big 12 this season. Kansas is once again terrible and I don’t think this will be a close game at all.
(7)Auburn at (4)Georgia: This is the game of the week. Auburn looked solid in their win over Kentucky last week, while it took Georgia a while to get away from Arkansas. I think Auburn is going to win this game because Georgia has too much uncertainty at the quarterback position.
Arkansas at (16)Mississippi State: I think KJ Costello will excel in the air raid offense once again and cruise past Arkansas.
Tulsa at (11)UCF: UCF has looked really good and they will win easily.
(18)Oklahoma at Iowa State: After Oklahoma’s collapse last week, they are going to be out for revenge. However, Iowa State has always been a thorn in Oklahoma’s side and I think they will keep the game competitive but won’t be enough to get the upset.
(20)LSU at Vanderbilt: I don’t think LSU will play that much better than they did last week, but Vanderbilt is not very good so LSU won’t get beat again this week.
Virginia at (1)Clemson: Clemson will win in a blowout. I bet Lawrence will throw for at least three touchdown passes.
Virginia Tech at Duke: Last week Virginia Tech somehow played really good despite missing a huge chunk of their team to covid tests. I think they will win again this week.
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