College Football Week 6
Let's see what predictions I get wrong this week.
Tuesday
Southern Miss vs Troy - Not much intel on either team but it is October which means the Sun Belt plays on Tuesday nights. ***Goose Crowder with an excellent performance***
Wednesday
Jacksonville St vs Kennesaw St - I guess Conf USA plays on Wednesday nights in October? Another derivative of the original MACtion. Jax State has a talented dual threat QB in Caden Creel who seems to be passing a little more this season. Would like to see him hit 1k rush yards again. S Caleb Nix paces the team in tackles and has 1 INT.
News Mexico St vs FIU - Rooting for the Kohl to Anderson connection here. Kohl has been INT prone so far but the offense is pass heavy.
Thursday
4 games on Thursday night but none really move the needle.
Sam Houston vs Liberty
Missouri St vs Western Kentucky
South Florida vs UTSA
South Alabama vs Arkansas St - The Red Wolves QB is Trey Owens, 4 start transfer over from Texas.
Friday
Florida St vs Louisville - Brohm got his QB in Kienholz. The rest of the team stinks and the defense is awful. Kienholz at least gives the Cardinals a chance.
Iowa vs Washington - The Hawkeyes didn't play the role of spoiler against Ohio St last week but still have a very favorable schedule. Washington has been a bust of a team with it's NIL grift QB. Hawkeyes certainly have a chance in this one though. Iowa DB Zach Lutmer left the OSU game due to injury but it sounds like the issue was cramping. On the other side S Alex McLaughlin is one of the better DBs in the country but flying under the radar. Hank Brown has a shoulder injury and his status is questionable.
Wyoming vs San Jose St - Rooting for the Spartans again - Weaver to Hoch. Wyoming's magical NIL savior QB has stunk.
Iowa St vs BYU - RB Aiden Flora is emerging as an electric playmaker reminiscent of Christian McCaffery and Reggie Bush. He has been a big time playmaker on offense and special teams. BYU will provide a tough test as they have a quality defense.
Saturday
Indiana vs Nebraska - The Hoosiers dominated Rutgers last week. Josh Hoover played outstanding and Becker had a multi TD, 100 yard receiving effort. The running game is also very good and the Hoosiers are ranked 4th in total defense. Nebraska is 5-0 and should be ranked going into this week over some 1 loss SEC teams but we know how the media likes to skew everything in favor of that conference. QB Anthony Colandrea has been solid this year, this should be a good indicator of where both teams stand.
UCF vs Oklahoma St - The Cowboys are coming off a bye week. Mestemaker is arguably the most exciting QB in the country and Wyatt Young of course is dynamic and one of the best WRs in the country. Hope he gets on a roll and puts up some big numbers.
UNC vs Pitt - The Panthers lost their talented QB Mason Heintschel for the season after suffering an ACL injury on a meaningless play late in the 1st half. The Panthers eeked out a win against the Hokies but their douchebag coach Pat Narduzzi wrote a check he can't cash when he complained about Pitt not being ranked after the victory. UNC played a respectable game for the most part against Notre Dame, I expect them to defeat the Panthers this week.
Wake Forest vs NC State - I mentioned Wake WR Jack Foley last week and he became an offensive contributor. I will do the same this week. The Demon Deacons seem to be a better team than they were supposed to be. Again, their defense has a few palefaces to check the box score.
Tulane vs Army - Army lost a close one last week. Hellums will need to get it going on the ground to get back on track for a 1k rushing season. Zach Mundell also needs to get more involved in the offense.
South Carolina vs Florida - A battle of two SEC teams that can't play defense. Florida seems to be the better of the two teams. Beamer's seat continues to get hotter and Sellers draft stock appears to be falling. Back up QB Cutter Woods seems to also be ramping up offensive snaps during practice. A full program collapse for the Gamecocks would be great.
Texas vs Oklahoma - QB John Mateer has not been good this year and leading up to the Red River Rivalry there has been news that the two Sooners back up QBs are receiving more reps. Oklahoma has done well defensively but the offense has been bad - whether that is Mateer or the OC Arbuckle remains to be seen. As an aside with Michigan's generational NIL QB I see a lot of blame not focused on him but the OC Jason Beck. Interesting how the opposite is at play here with Mateer. Arch Manning will need to show up in this game and play well. Maybe a Parker Livingstone revenge game? Texas WRs have not been good this year.
Stanford vs Notre Dame - This one probably won't be close. CJ Carr quietly accounted for 5 TDs last week for the Irish. Talich also tallied an INT. Andrew Luck has a long way to go to rebuild the Stanford program and he isn't doing a great job so far.
Ole Miss vs Vanderbilt - 2 more defense challenged SEC teams face each other. For Vanderbilt the question is if freshman QB Jared Curtis will play after missing last weeks game due to injury.
UCLA vs Oregon - This would just be funny if the Ducks lose to the Bruins. Hope Perich gets an INT though!
Houston vs Kansas St - The Cougars have quietly been a good team this year. Kansas St is favored in this one but Houston on paper is the better team. We would all like to see Trent Walker get more involved. The silver lining has been TE Patrick Overmeyer turning into a reliable target for Weigman. But that bumps Walker down the pecking order, he appears to be the 4th option for the Cougar offense.
Duke vs Ga Tech - Duke is at 4-0 and their defense has plenty of White contrinutors. QB Walker Eget is playing well in the run heavy offense. TE Jeremiah Hasley is the Blue Devils leading rusher. White defenders are contributing to the Blue Devils stout defense. The Yellow Jackets got off to a bad start with the last minute loss to Colorado and they will probably end up losing this game.
Va Tech vs Cal - Ethan Grunkemeyer was good all season but threw 2 bad INTs in last weeks loss to Pitt. I'd expect a bounce back game here and more targets for Hokies TE Luke Reynolds.
Illinois vs Michigan St - Battle of two middling Big Ten teams. Surprised the Illini are 2-3. QB Katin Houser has played well this year. RB Laughery has made the most of his limited touches and WR Clement has emerged as the number 2 target in the receiving game. For the Spartans they are in rebuild mode with Fitzgerald. Hopegully he sticks with Milivojevic and lets him develop. The offensive roster around him barren. LB Brady Pretzlaff and DL Eli Coenen are two players to look out for on defense. The Illini have a couple DBs - Mac Resetich and Tanner Heckel.
Maryland vs Ohio St - The Terrapins are in a deserved free fall. Ohio State impressed against Iowa last week and QB Julian Sayin has been under the radar believe it or not with the media hyping up the magical SEC QBs this year. Watching the Iowa game last weekend I noticed Atkinson, Pierce and Alliegro on the field. OSU is palatable enough for the time being.
Tennessee vs Arkansas - A small caste miracle - Fatso Heupel is benching the upside ridden black QB for George MacIntyre. This after MacIntyre came in last week after the upsiders abysmal showing against Auburn and helped spark the passing game and lead to a victory. Arkansas is a poor team so on paper this is a favortable matchup of MacIntyre to make his starting debut.
San Diego St vs Oregon St - QB Braden Atkinson is the nation's leader in passing yet he shows up on none of the Heisman candidacy lists the "experts" churn out.
LSU vs Kentucky - Leavitt managed to throw another INT against McNeese St. Really wish he would stop being so turnover prone. Would like to see LSU get a win here against Kentucky.
UAB vs Memphis - QB Marcus Stokes looks to continue his redemption arc. Would like to see him get Tipton the ball and maybe even include WR Brady Kluse in to get his numbers up.
North Dakota St vs UNLV - QB Jackson Arnold had another solid game in the victory against Cal last week rushing for over 100 yards. DB Jake Pope is a tackling machine. For NDSU QB Nathan Hayes has been efficient. I just find it hard to muster up much enthusiasm for NDSU as they enter the FBS and are already showing signs of changing their recruiting and team composition.
Georgia vs Alabama - If Stockton has a big game he should make his way into the periphery of the Heisman conversation. DB Bray Hubbard and LB Luke Metz have been impact players for the Alabama defense. Would like to see them have quiet games though.
USC vs Penn St - USC can't play defense and PSU has lost it's offensive identity. If Campbell were smart he would let Hansen get 20 touches this game, have Becht throw the ball no more that 25 times, get the TEs involved and take the top off the defense with Eskildsen catching USC's poor defense off balance. The PSU offensive playcalling has been bad and non-sensical. They also got embarrassed on defense. USC is not impressive despite their record.
Syracuse vs UVA - Everytime I speak highly of UVA they make me look foolish. Syracuse benched Angeli for a magical upsider. UVA all the way in this one. Get Pribula back on track.
Air Force vs Northern Illinois - QB Liam Szarka was lost for the year with an injury eliminating one of the best candidates for a 1K rushing season.
JMU vs Ga Southern - JMU has quietly gone 5-0. QB Camden Coleman has been one of the better P5 QBs. Nick Herman is productive when he gets the ball but he is a distant number 2 in terms of carries for the Dukes. Wouldn't mind seeing CB Chance Gamble get an INT this week. I wonder if QB Max Johnson has any shot at becoming another Shough, even a poor man's version. His career would look different if it weren't for Brian Kelly.
Louisiana vs La Tech - La Tech winning this game would be a minor caste victory. Louisiana has a black QB named Lunch. For the Bulldogs seeing QB Trey Kukuk, RB Andrew Burnette and underrated TE Eli Finley put up some big numbers would be nice.
Minnesota vs Purdue - Iowa Lite defeated Michigan last week. Purdue's offense will be more of a challenge but Purdue is also defensively challenged. Boilermakers QB Ryan Browne is having a very good year for what has been a struggling Purdue program over the past few seasons. For the Gophers QB Drake Lindsey wasn't great against Michigan but made enough plays to contribute to the win. The defense has been solid, ranked 38th in points allowed per game. The offense should also benefit from facing the Boilermakers defense who rank 128th in points allowed per game.
Hawaii vs Arizona St - The Sun Devils were surprisingly dominated by Baylor last week. Facing a putrid Hawaii program should help get them back on course. This will probably be a bit of a reload year for Dillingham. He passed offensive playcalling duties off to the OC this week. Still a big fan of Cutter Boley who has played well. If this is a blowout maybe RB Grayson Rigdon gets some touches and LB Owen Long is the best defender on either team.
Kansas vs Utah - I dislike Lance Leipold tremendously. Jackson Bennee is due for a big game. WR Braden Pegan will hopefully have a big game as well.
Boise St vs Fresno St - The Bulldogs are a surprising 4-1. They have 5-6 contributors on the defensive side of the ball including DB Ethan Tierney who has 2 INTs this season. The once perennial favorite here Boise St Broncos have a DB by the name of Travis Anderson with 3 INTs and contributors at LB. Very similarly built teams, might be an entertaining late night matchup. The Broncos have efficient QB Maddux Madsen, TE Matt Wagner and WR Ben Ford. Fresno State has QB Jayden Mandal and RB Julius Gillick to watch out for.
