Around the Country: Week 3

There is an immense drop off of marquee games this week compared to last, but even during ‘down weeks’ college football is known to entertain.  This week will travel coast to coast, but will only cover two time slots again.  Hopefully with the non-conference season coming to a close soon there will be a few noon games to actually pay attention to.

Georgia @ South Carolina 3:30 CBS

Both teams had impressive opening weekends. Georgia flexed their muscles against a young Clemson team as star running back Todd Gurley vaulted into many Heisman discussions. The Dawgs comfortable victory also put them in a similar breath as Florida State as favorites to nail down a playoff spot. On the other hand, South Carolina was impressively embarrassed at home against a Texas A&M team breaking in a new quarterback.  The Gamecocks were again tagged as an SEC power, one with national title aspirations but the beat down they took in week 1 abruptly ended those conversations. USC desperately needs a win tomorrow to keep their season on the ledge of disappointment, still leaning towards utter failure. There was a ton of issues in the backend of South Carolina’s defense that I doubt have been patched, and I think Gurley is hands down the best back in college football and should break the slump of running backs going in the first round of the NFL draft. Look for the Gamecocks to put up a better fight, but the Dawg’s to ultimately escape with another building block to the final four.

Minnesota @ TCU 4:00 FS1

In the first interesting B1G game the Gophers travel to Texas for a game that is pretty underrated. I think Coach Kill would love to model the Minnesota program after what Coach Patterson is doing at TCU (play hard nose defense and run the ball).  Minnesota can definitely run the ball, but they are still a work in progress in the other areas.  The Gophers are reportedly going to be without their challenged starting quarterback so now all of the work load falls on rising star running back David Cobb instead of just 90%.  Minnesota can make a statement tomorrow evening with a win, and put themselves in the discussion for B1G West contender, however I think the Horned Frogs defense will be too athletic and able to key on the Gopher run game too much for Minny to get any consistent offense established.

Illinois @ Washington 4:00 Fox

The Illini have been the door mat of the B1G for a few years now, and it didn’t look like that would change this year. However, with the addition of Oklahoma State transfer Wes Lunt Illinois looks to have a dangerous offense. They aren’t extremely talented yet and will likely still struggle in the B1G, but the Huskies pass defense is one of the worst in the nation.  They have surrendered over 700 yards in the air in just two weeks. While the B1G was busy getting steam rolled on national television last weekend they have an opportunity to stop the embarrassment tomorrow. Two wins from Illinois and Minnesota aren’t likely, nor will they change the overwhelmingly negative perception of the conference but it should stop the flood of bad publicity… at least for a week.

Tennessee @ Oklahoma 8:00 ABC

This game being featured here seems like a stretch. Oklahoma is a legitimate playoff contender, while the Volunteers are still in rebuild mode.  Let’s get this prediction out of the way quickly. I don’t think the outcome will ever be in question as I expect the Sooners to dominate every aspect of this game. But the reason that it intrigues me so much is that Oklahoma is ranked in the top 5, but seem to be flying under the radar. Nobody is really talking about the Sooners, and I think that will change tomorrow night as Coach Stoops will be looking to make another statement at the expense of a big bad SEC school.