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New week and new heat ladies and gents. A lot happened in college football last weekend. Alabama was a touchdown away from losing to Mississippi State. Of course Nick Saban used his black magic to make sure this didn’t happen, but if it did, this would have been the first time since 1966 that the top 3 teams all went down in the same weekend. That would’ve been kinda cool, but ultimately we don’t need this playoff picture getting any foggier. Also, shoutout to The Boys of 405! They do a killer pro sports podcast. Great dudes with utterly hilarious content. I would highly recommend getting on that email list to cop that fire. This week in college football, there really isn’t any match ups that jump out at you. A lot of these teams are getting ready for rivalry weekend next week, but if you live in the future, you die in the present. I don’t know who said that, but they’re probably dead now. New fire coming in extra hot.
24 Michigan at 5 Wisconsin
GameDay will be jumping around in Madison, Wisconsin for this one. It will be the best matchup of the Saturday. This game is a tale of two seasons. Wisconsin probably feels like the committee needs to put some respek on their name. The Badgers are yet to drop a game, but their whack non-conference schedule has kept them out of the top 4. Michigan started the year with an impressive win against Florida, but has dropped games to Michigan State and Penn State. Both teams are coming into this one with something to prove.
Wisconsin, as I mentioned, is undefeated. They beat a ranked Iowa team last week and have their sights set on breaking into the top 4 with a win against the Wolverines. The Badgers really haven’t shown any weaknesses. Alex Hornibrook has been fine. Not great, but fine (17 TDs and 12 Ints). The strength of the offense is the run game behind Johnathan Taylor’s freshman season. If Wisconsin wins out, I want this dude in New York for the Heisman ceremony. On defense they’ve looked great. The only problem is we have only seen them against BIG 10 offenses (we need a yawn emoji). The truth is, we don’t really know how good Wisconsin is. I believe this is a solid football team. The only problem is they may need to finish the year undefeated to get into the playoff. For the Badgers to win, they need to do what they’ve been doing. Easy enough right? Run the ball well. Control the the filed. Play solid defense. This is the recipe for anyone to win, but if Wisconsin can’t run it against Michigan they could be in hot water. Hot water may not be so bad based on what the game time temperature will be in Madison, but you get the idea.
Michigan started the year with so much promise, but are now faced with the possibility of becoming unranked. John O’Korn took over the offense after Wilton Speight went down, but he was benched for Brandon Peters. For real though, the offense looked ill with O’Korn at quarterback. They really could not do anything. It was tough to watch. Peters hasn’t exactly been sensational since taking over as the starter (4 passing TDs), but the maize and blue haven’t lost since he was handed the keys to the car. For what it’s worth, Peters hasn’t thrown a pick. The defense looked brilliant early in the year, but they looked suspect during that stretch when O’Korn was the starter. I would attribute this to morale being low and the fact that they were always on the field. The offense was basically useless. For the Wolverines to salvage their season and steal a win against Wisconsin, Brandon Peters needs to play lights out. The offense needs to prove they can drive on the Wisconsin and the defense needs to get off the field on third down. If they can keep it close until the fourth quarter, things could get interesting.
This is a season defining game for both of these programs. Michigan finds themselves on the ropes and Wisconsin is on the edge of glory. There is really a lot to learn about Wisconsin and this may be their toughest game of the year to this point. With that said, life has knocked Michigan down and beaten them up. Life doesn’t fight fair. I think life will continue to beat on Michigan in the form of the Wisconsin Badgers. I’m taking the Badgers to win soundly. On Wisconsin!
Arizona at Oregon
A little Pacific 12 unranked action. This may not look like a huge game, but with a sleepy weekend slate in college football, this game could be interesting and will have an impact on Khalil Tate’s Heisman hopes.
Arizona has been a different team ever since Khalil Tate took over as the starting quarterback. Tate has been putting up NCAA Road to Glory kind of numbers (almost 1,000 yards passing and 1,200 rushing). The man has launched himself into the Heisman conversation in just six games as the starter. Arizona isn’t going to be competitive enough as a team for him to win the little bronze statue, but I think his efforts should be applauded none the less. Running back, J.J. Taylor has also been a force to be reckoned with by complimenting Tate’s running ability. He’s done a good job keeping teams honest when Tate elects to give the rock in the Wildcat’s read option scheme (6 yards a carry). On defense, the Wildcats haven’t been amazing, but at 7-3, they have done enough to win some games and allow the Cat’s to be bowl eligible. With that said, they may have their paws full with the Ducks this weekend. For the Wildcats to win, they need to continue to be efficient on offense. This game could be a shootout so Khalil Tate will need to be on his game both throwing and running the ball. If Tate can do this and keep from turning the ball over, they should be alright.
For Oregon, things took a turn for the worst when QB1, Justin Herbert, went down with a broken collarbone. Since then, the offense has sputtered a little with Braxton Burmeister as the new starter. The Ducks have the potential to be explosive, but have failed to get in rhythm and, as a result, been one dimensional. The defense has been average. They’re in the top 50 in total defense, which to their credit, is not awful given the conference they’re playing in. For the Ducks to spread their wings and fly against Arizona, they need to contain Khalil Tate. This is easier said than done, but if they can get some key stops early, the entire team will feed off of it.
Bottom line, Oregon needs one more win to become bowl eligible. The Ducks have been faced with adversity throughout their season, but have shown their resilience each week. However, resilience is not enough to tackle Khalil Tate. I like the Wildcats to get it done on the road.
Texas at West Virginia
I know, I know. It’s another unranked matchup, but most teams are taking it easy this week before rivalry Saturday next weekend. I get it, but as a fan of college football, it’s annoying. Anyway, this could be an exciting one. Texas has looked like a BIG 12 contender at times and other times they look like the same program that lost to Kansas last year. West Virginia has been a few plays away from being ranked. They’ve been competitive in every game and have an explosive offense. If both teams bring their best ball, this should be fun.
Texas has been tricky to figure out. We’ve seen a couple different quarterbacks from them this year and really don’t know which Texas team is going to show up. They took USC and Oklahoma to the brink. They even looked solid against Oklahoma State. However, all 3 of these games were losses so looking good doesn’t count for much. The two quarterbacks that Texas has utilized thus far, Sam Ehlinger and Shane Buchele, are banged up for this one. According to Tom Herman, wideout, and former quarterback, Jerrod Heard, would get the nod. Anyway you slice it, Texas could be shorthanded on offense. For the Longhorns to win this one, they need a huge performance out of their defense. They need to create a few turnovers to give the offense a short field and maybe even sprinkle in a pick six or something. This could be a tall task for a defense that has been inconsistent, but it needs to be done if Texas wants to secure the bag.
The Mountaineers, as I said before, have been lighting it up on offense. Will Grier leads the country in passing yards and David Sills leads the country in receiving touchdowns (18! Are you kidding me?). The defense is suspect and can’t really stop the run, but they’ve been so dominant on offense that it hasn’t been an issue until they play teams with a similarly explosive offense (Oklahoma State, TCU). Fortunately for West Virginia fans, Texas is not considered an explosive offense. For West Virginia to get a win, they need to break the Longhorns’ will early. If they can get 6 on their first 3 drives, I don’t think Texas will want to play anymore.
Here’s the deal, by nature of this matchup this could be close. Texas is one of those teams that you can never really count out. Like I said, they have looked sharp against some really good teams.. However, with the issues they’re having at quarterback, I don’t think they’re gona be able to score with West Virginia. Country Roads will take Texas home. I like the Eers in this one.
The mission of Coming for Herbstreit’s Job, besides taking Kirk’s way of feeding his family, has been to bring college football to our fellow people in an authentic and hilarious way. I like to think we have stayed true to that mantra. As far as the future goes, we have big plans. To CFHJ Nation, we salute you. I like to think the majority of the hits this page gets aren’t just my mom refreshing the page over and over again, but even if it is, you guys do a great job of making me think you read this. Ignorance is truly bliss. With Thanksgiving around the corner, let’s take time to be grateful for the things that matter. Like StockWatch, college football, and family (that’s my own personal order, but you can play around with it). Have a great day kids, now go outside and play.
Quick Pix
TCU over Texas Tech (Frogs to the conference ship!)
UCF over Temple (NY6 in sight)
Army over North Texas (passing optional)
Louisville over Syracuse (defense optional)
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