Week 3 Preview

September 15, 2009

It was the best opening labor day weekend of college football in my lifetime. Week 2 was just as good, if not better. Week 3 doesn't have all the hype as the past two weeks, but it does have the Texas-Texas Tech game. It's gonna be another great weekend of football.

Thursday, September 17
A pair of ranked ACC teams clash
No. 14 Georgia Tech at No. 20 Miami
What a matchup. It looks like the curse of Thursday night is artificially coming back this Thursday because two ranked teams will face off in an ACC battle so undoubtedly one ranked team will lose. Will it be Georgia Tech or Miami? Tech’s coming off a close win against Clemson and Miami a huge win over Florida State. Clemson was able to slow down GT’s triple-option and pushed QB Josh Nesbitt into having a horrible night throwing the ball. Miami is one of the faster defenses in the ACC. It’s going to be a good one. 7:30 on ESPN.

Friday, September 18
Boise State to continue WAC dominance
No. 10 Boise State at Fresno State
Fresno’s lost a lot from the past years including quarterback Tom Brandstater, and they’re coming off a 34-31 loss in overtime to Wisconsin. They played well and stuck with the Badgers, but Wisconsin is down this year too. This used to be a key matchup in the WAC, but this year, Boise State, coming off a 48-0 win will continue their dominance in conference. Fresno needs to play well in this game though to at least boost their morale because their headed to Cincinnati in Week 4. Boise’s one of the funnest teams to watch so tune in Friday night at 9 pm ET on ESPN.

Saturday, September 19
No Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree this time
Texas Tech at No. 2 TEXAS PrimeTime: 8 pm ET on ABC
This is it. A big moment that all Texas fans have been a year for: to play Texas Tech again. The game’s going to be in Austin, but I’d like it to be in Lubbock so Texas can take it to all the Tech fans at the same time. That same crowd that stormed the field last year, will be feeling bad about their football team at the end of Saturday night. We all remember, but let’s flash back…Texas Tech cost Texas a national championship. Then-No. 1 Texas led 33-32 with a minute left until Michael Crabtree scored a touchdown for Tech with 0:01 second left to beat Texas 39-33 and ruin the undefeated season of Texas. If not for that, Texas stays No. 1 all year long and brings home the national championship trophy.
Revenge will be sweet, but it would be sweeter if Texas Tech was in better position for national title contention, to show them what it feels like to have heartbreak. Either way, a win will be a win, but Tech’s no pushover this year either, it’s going to be a great game and whoever wants it more will win, and there’s a possibility it won’t be Texas…

Shootout in Oklahoma?
Tulsa at No. 12 Oklahoma 3:30pm
So Oklahoma went on a 64-0 nothing win without Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham. Impressive. This will be another big test for Oklahoma, they’re defense is stifling but now they’ve got to face the potent offense of Tulsa led by former-Texas quarterback GJ Kinne. Even without Bradford, (considering Tulsa’s defense), scoring shouldn’t be a problem for OU. If they play defense, this will be a big non-conference win. Oklahoma has arguably the toughest non-conference schedule. But, if OU’s defense doesn’t show up, this good be a shootout and an upset much like the Houston-Oklahoma State game last Saturday. as ESPN’s Andre Ware said: “Oklahoma will lose four games this year.” Will this be another loss? After this, they’ve got a two week layoff until they play Miami.

Kiffin vs. Florida
Tennessee at No. 1 Florida 3:30pm on CBS
The Lane Kiffin era in Tennessee has started 1-1 and is about to be 1-2, under .500 where the season is expected to finish for the Vols despite Kiffin’s belief that they can compete for an SEC Title. We all know about the criticism Kiffin has received from the media since becoming Tennessee's head coach this summer and Kiffin has dissed Tim Tebow and the Gators several times. This was already a fierce rivalry, Kiffin made it worse for his team. Florida's coming out to romp Tennessee.

No. 19 Nebraska at No. 13 Virginia Tech 3:30 on ABC
This was supposed to be a big-time game but some of the hype has dulled down after Virginia Tech’s loss to Alabama that dropped them out of the top 10. This game was thought to be the big boost VT would get to put them right in the middle of national championship contention. After Tech's loss to Alabama on Opening Night it hasn't panned out that way, but it's still a great matchup between two very high level teams. If you can't watch them all and have to pick a day game for Saturday, it's this one to watch.

ECU tasting upset
East Carolina at No. 24 North Carolina 12 pm
We all remember that dramatic upset that East Carolina pulled over North Carolina in 2007 with a 34-31 win. That was ECU’s real rise to prominence. They beat some more marquee teams after that. Quarterback Patrick Pinkney is back for a 6th year and he’s looking to lead the Pirates to the Conference USA Title, but it’s going to be hard for them to beat Houston.
If UNC plays like they did Saturday in their 12-10 win over UConn, they’re in for a bad game. They needed a late safety to win the game, and ECU might have the best offensive line in C-USA. The Tar Heels need to get some offense going, they’re on upset alert this weekend.

Nightmare in Oregon
No. 18 Utah at Oregon 3:30pm
Oregon’s fallen off the national radar since that loss to Boise State and whole sucker punch by LeGarrette Blount that found him suspended for the rest of his senior season. But all of that has died down and so had Oregon football. They were supposed to challenge USC and California for the Pac-10 Title, but it’s just not going to happen. I’m looking for Utah to go into Eugene and take it to the Ducks, like Boise State did a year ago. This will be a big win for the Utes.

Buckeyes need to improve
No. 11 Ohio State at Toledo 12 pm
Toledo just pulled a major upset on Friday night after stomping Colorado on national tv. Ohio State’s not playing their best football, is this another upset ready to happen or will the Buckeyes finally get a blowout win and put themselves back in the elite tier of teams? Keep an eye on this one.

Another big game for Notre Dame against another Michigan team.
Michigan State at Notre Dame 3:30 on NBC
These two teams lost in the last 30 seconds last Saturday in heartbreak. Notre Dame to Michigan on Tate Forcier’s touchdown pass to Greg Matthews with 11 seconds left and then Central Michigan on Andrew Aguila’s game-winning field goal. This is a big game for both teams. Notre Dame has high expectations a.k.a. making the BCS, and Michigan State is the big dark horse in the Big Ten, and the way Ohio State’s playing, the Spartans could edge the Buckeyes for second place behind Penn State. This is a big game and a great matchup but because of it being in South Bend, I gotta go with the Irish in this one.

Arizona at Iowa 3:35 pm
Arizona’s sittin pretty at 2-0 with new quarterback Matt Scott right now. Everyone wanted to talk about Stanford as the dark horse in the Pac-10, well how about Arizona? My Wildcats are gonna prove they’re legit with this upset against Iowa. Iowa has been playing as poorly as anybody even though they did get back on track versus Iowa State. This is actually an almost even matchup statistically. I’m looking for a great game, but an Arizona upset win that will lead them in the right direction in two tough Pac-10 road games coming up at Oregon State and at Washington while Iowa better get things straight cuz they’re going to Happy Valley next week to get crushed by Penn State.

Upset special: Beavers will do it again in Corvallis.
No. 17 Cincinnati at Oregon State 6:45 pm
Cincinnati’s is lighting it up. They routed Rutgers on Labor Day and last Saturday’s game was even better with a 70-3 win over Southeast Missouri State. Cincy’s looking good on every level and I admit that I was wrong when I said they would not the favorites to win the Big East Conference. I put on my confidence in South Florida this year to do well, and they are, but Cincinnati has definitely emerged as the team to beat as shown by their jump from being unranked to moving up to No. 17.
Now, all of this just said may change in this game. Corvallis is a tough place to play especially for a team that’s flying across the country. This is where so many teams have been upset in the past including then-No. 1 USC. Oregon State is a football team led by the Rodgers brothers on offense.
Now, the fact that the Beavers needed a field goal to beat UNLV worries me a little, and once again Jacquizz and James Rodgers accounted for essentially all the Oregon State offense. I haven’t seen much of Cincinnati’s run defense, but Quizz is a small quick back who just sneaks by you and then bursts into the open field, I don’t know if Cincy can defend that at this point. And the secondary is all new and inexperienced, but I do think if they lock on James Rodgers they could make Oregon State one dimensional in the run game without Sammie Stroughter to complement James on the outside.
I think it’s going to be a game that comes down to the wire and I would love to see Oregon State knock off Cincinnati, so Cincy, you’re on upset alert.

BYU looking for another big win over BCS-school
Florida State at No. 7 Brigham Young 7pm
I do not understand how this cannot be a nationally televised game. It’s one of the biggest games of the weekend. Florida State didn’t come out on fire against Jacksonville State after that loss to Miami. They only won 19-9 against Jacksonville State, that’s pathetic if you’re Florida State. They would have lost if they didn’t score two touchdowns in the final 35 seconds. It would have been the most embarrassing thing the Seminoles would ever deal with. The problem was they couldn’t run the ball. Their season relies on the play of Christian Ponder, but give him some help please. If you can’t run the ball, he has no support, and he can’t even fake play action. Now they have to travel cross country and face BYU’s defense that shut down Oklahoma’s high-powered offense. Doesn’t sound too good for Florida State.
If BYU wins this game, they’ve set everything up for themselves to go undefeated and possibly make the national championship game assuming they protect their home turf against the other three Mountain West Conference power, who BYU all play at home. The schedule’s there, but BYU has to take care of Florida State first.

Grudge Match
West Virginia at Auburn 7:45 pm on ESPN2
This is a grudge match for Auburn after their 34-17 loss last year to the Mountaineers when Noel Devine ran all over that Auburn defense with 207 yards on the ground. This year’s game should be a closer game and defenses should come up big. The big difference is that both quarterbacks are no longer there, West Virginia’s Pat White of course has moved on to the NFL while Auburn’s Kodi Burns gave way to Chris Todd and switched to wide receiver. With a win in Jordan-Hare Stadium, West Virginia could make its way into the Top 25 depending on how the other teams do, while Auburn is just looking for something to boost their confidence as they head into their grueling SEC schedule after Ball State next week.

Kansas State at UCLA 10:15 pm
Kansas State Head coach Bill Snyder is back from retirement to rejuvenate the Wildcats program while UCLA is also rebuilding under Rick Neuheisel and got a big win over Tennessee. This is actually a really good non-conference matchup between two teams that will be back in contention in two or three years. Keep an eye on this game to get a sneak peek into the future.