A look at games that might pique your interest
Folks…
We made it.
Georgia Tech welcomed us all into the season by beating Florida State in Ireland last week, but this is the first full week of college football, so I hope you got all your house projects done by now. If not, that’s your fault… and your significant other should understand. What’s left can wait until December… or January.
Thankfully for us Wolfpack fans, NC State leads things off on Thursday night with a game against Western Carolina. It’s our first look at a rebuilt State offense and a defense that is replacing some key pieces.
Also Thursday night, Wake hosts NC A&T while that team over in Orange County is going to head up to Minnesota to take on the Gophers. Go Goldy!
Colorado is a 10-point favorite over North Dakota State, but as you can see from the Sagarin ratings, this should be a pretty even matchup. Colorado will clearly have an edge at some very key positions, but if that offensive line hasn’t been fixed, it might be tough sledding for the Buffaloes.
There really isn’t a lot of great games on Friday night, but there are a couple of ACC teams in action – and it sounds weird saying that considering I’m referencing Stanford as one of those.
There are some really good games on Saturday and a lot of really crummy matchups. Clemson-Georgia kicking things off is fantastic. Can Dabo get the Tigers back into the national title hunt? Is Kirby Smart’s juggernaut Georgia squad – even if they’re starting to look a lot like Urban Meyer’s Florida squads in terms of arrest records – going to keep the machine rolling? We’ll see.
Having Penn State vs West Virginia as a secondary noon option is fantastic.
The game sounds better in name than it likely will be in reality, but Miami vs Florida in the midday slot is fantastic. If you’re looking for an underrated game that should be entertaining to go along with it, look at that Miami (OH) vs Northwestern game. I’d love to see a MAC team take down a Big Ten school in the opening week.
The primetime Saturday slot is all about Notre Dame taking a trip to Texas A&M. There are a ton of storylines in this one, but the primary one is likely to be Mike Elko’s ties to both programs. Elko was the DC at Notre Dame before leaving for a massive pay raise to take the Texas A&M DC job. He then parlayed two years as the head man at Duke into the head job in College Station, and this will be his first game there. Excellent stuff all around, and should be a great game.
USC-LSU on Sunday night is must-watch TV, especially if you love lots of points. Although now that I’ve said that, watch this be some 17-14 game.
On Monday night, Boston College is either going to hilariously send Florida State to an 0-2 start in the ACC or they’re going to get smoked by 45 points. I don’t see any in-between.
Football’s back, folks! All is well.
Rankings for SP+ Ratings and Sagarin Ratings listed, respectively, ahead of each team’s name.
Thursday
FCS/166 Western Carolina @ 29/37 NC State – 7:00pm – ACC Network
FCS/207 NC A&T @ 74/81 Wake Forest – 7:00pm – ESPN+/ACC Extra
40/51 North Carolina @ 47/56 Minnesota – 8:00pm – FOX
FCS/44 North Dakota State @ 60/48 Colorado – 8:00pm – ESPN
85/91 Coastal Carolina @ 96/104 Jacksonville State – 8:00pm – CBSSN
Friday
132/157 Temple @ 13/13 Oklahoma – 7:00pm – ESPN
FCS/165 Elon @ 51/74 Duke – 7:30pm – ACC Network
110/118 Western Michigan @ 26/30 Wisconsin – 9:00pm – FS1
38/28 TCU @ 77/89 Stanford – 10:30pm – ESPN
Saturday
16/21 Clemson vs 1/1 Georgia – 12:00pm – ABC
6/9 Penn State @ 34/29 West Virginia – 12:00pm – FOX
36/39 Virginia Tech @ 89/107 Vanderbilt – 12:00pm – ESPN
FCS/172 Austin Peay @ 31/26 Louisville – 12:00pm – ACC Network
130/175 Kent State @ 66/65 Pittsburgh – 12:00pm – ESPNU
FCS/131 Chattanooga @ 15/16 Tennessee – 12:45pm – SEC Network
19/18 Miami @ 23/31 Florida – 3:30pm – ABC
107/116 Ohio @ 67/59 Syracuse – 3:30pm – ACC Network
80/85 Miami (OH) @ 75/72 Northwestern – 3:30pm – Big 10 Network
FCS/247 Western Illinois @ 98/113 Northern Illinois – 3:30pm – ESPN+
FCS/127 UC Davis @ 52/49 California – 5:00pm – ESPN+/ACC Extra
FCS/143 Richmond @ 78/79 Virginia – 6:00pm – ESPN+/ACC Extra
82/67 UNLV @ 76/70 Houston – 7:00pm – FS1
9/6 Notre Dame @ 14/15 Texas A&M – 7:30pm – ABC
63/78 Fresno State @ 7/11 Michigan – 7:30pm – NBC
37/57 UCLA @ 109/120 Hawaii – 7:30pm – CBS
106/119 Georgia State @ 58/55 Georgia Tech – 8:00pm – ACC Network
FCS/223 Houston Christian @ 27/41 SMU – 8:00pm ESPN+/ACC Extra
FCS/163 Nicholls State @ 120/149 Louisiana Tech – 8:00pm – ESPN+
90/84 Wyoming @ 79/64 Arizona State – 10:30pm – FS1
Sunday
21/19 USC vs 10/8 LSU – 7:30pm – ABC
Monday
73/77 Boston College @ 12/20 Florida State – 7:30pm – ESPN