Week 1 Upset Alert

Hey folks I wanted to give you a few games to look out for this weekend where a top 25 team could be upset in their first game of the season.

Let's start in SEC country with the very first game of the year: Vanderbilt vs South Carolina.  South Carolina is considered by many to push for the SEC East title and a BCS bowl berth.  They are led by 2 of the best players in all of the conference, Lattimore and Clowney.  I don't think the Commodores are likely to pull off the stunning win, but Vandy is quietly building a decent football team again and could hang with the favored Gamecocks for at least half of the game.

Moving on to Friday night, Boise St vs Michigan St.  You already saw my preview of this game in my last post, so you know I expect MSU to roll over the Broncos, but I have been wrong before. Boise St is coming is being mostly overlooked again this year, and usually that means bad things for their opponents when that happens. The smurf-turfers should have enough talent on the roster to keep the game close for a while, and if Maxwell cracks under pressure and turns the ball over a few times, MSU could wish they stuck with Florida International West Tech State Community College to open the season like usual.

Notre Dame is ranked by some sites, so I will include them in this list.  Navy vs ND. ND has 2 scholarship cornerbacks on the roster along with a number of suspensions for this first game.  I think Navy will play them tough and push Notre Dame more than the golden domers would like. 

Southern Mississippi vs Nebraska could be a game that trips up Big Red.  I also previewed this game in the previous post and think it is unlikely, but it could be entertaining for a half.

Finally, the pick most people are going with as upset of the week is Clemson vs Auburn.  Clemson will be without their versatile WR Sammy Watkins for the game and Auburn will be breaking in a new OC.  I think Auburn has enough talent on the roster to slow the high power Clemson offense a bit, but I dont think it will be enough.

If I have to go with one game, I will choose Navy over Notre Dame in a close, ugly, slug-fest.  If you want to argue that ND is not favored enough to call it an upset, fine.  My second choice would be Vandy over South Carolina, although they would have to turn the ball over a lot to give Vandy a chance.