Week 5 Key Matchups

October 13, 2009

So here they are. I'm not gonna go into too much detail this week so I'll be real brief, here's the big games...

Tuesday Night Football:
Arkansas State at Louisiana-Monroe
Nothing special here except to see to small programs play each other.

Wednesday Night Football:
No. 5 Boise State at Tulsa 8pm on ESPN
This is Boise's last non-conference challenge. Props to them for having a decent non-conference schedule. We'll really see how good the Boise defense is against this Tulsa offense.

Thursday Night Football:
No. 8 Cincinnati at No. 21 South Florida 7:30pm on ESPN
What a surprise, it's Thursday night a ranked team is going to lose again, but this time it's guaranteed with two ranked teams playing but anyway the Big East conference did not have a single team in the rankings preseason, but now they've got two undefeateds in and Cincy in the Top 10. I'd love for South Florida to upset Cincy but it's' going to be tough offensively without their star quarterback Matt Grothe (torn ACL). USF's defense should be able to slow down Cincinnati, but it won't be enough.

Friday Night Football:
Pittsburgh at Rutgers 8pm on ESPN
Pitt is one big win away from getting into the Top 25. Rutgers on the road would qualify as a good win.

SATURDAY:
RED RIVER RIVALRY: No. 2 TEXAS VS. No. 20 OKLAHOMA 12pm on ABC
The sad thing is that Oklahoma's already lost two games this year and dropped to No. 20 in the rankings when this could have been a No. 2 vs. No. 3 matchup and Texas could have handed Oklahoma it's first one loss, but hey it's third loss is alright too.

No. 7 Ohio State at Purdue 12pm on Big Ten Network

No. 11 Iowa at Wisconsin 12pm on ESPN

Northwestern at Michigan State 12pm on ESPN2

Wake Forest at Clemson 12pm on ESPN GamePlan

Arkansas at No. 1 Florida 3:30 on CBS
Arkansas got a taste of Alabama's defense but still scored 20 points. Can they do the same to Florida's defense and expose some weaknesses?

No. 6 USC at No. 25 Notre Dame 3:30 on NBC
HUGE game in South Bend for Notre Dame. Jimmy Clausen's leading the pack in the Heisman race right now, win this and he's headed to New York. This is going to be a tough tough challenge for freshman QB Matt Barkley on the road.
All eyes on this game.

Texas Tech at No. 15 Nebraska 3:30 on ABC
We'll see how good Nebraska's defense really is against Tech's high-powered offense.

California at UCLA 3:30 on ESPN GamePlan

Virginia at Maryland 4pm on ESPNU
The ACC's two worst teams, who wins?

No. 4 Virginia Tech at No. 19 Georgia Tech 6pm on ESPN
This is for the ACC. I circled this game on the calendar back in July.

Stanford at Arizona 6pm on Comcast

No. 9 Miami at Central Florida
Miami played Florida A&M last week and now take on the UCF Knights. It's the lighter part of their schedule but Jacory Harris and crew better stay focused and stay sharp to face Clemson's D next week.

Kentucky at Auburn 7:30 on ESPNU

No. 22 South Carolina at No. 3 Alabama 7:45 on ESPN
I'm the biggest South Carolina fan in the world this week.

Missouri at No. 16 Oklahoma State 9:15 pm on ESPN2


I'll be watching all these games...and more