Week 3 – The Best Games and My Top 5 Heisman Candidates

Disclaimer: Starting this week, games #15 and onwards will just have 1 bullet point about each team. Next week all games #6 through 14 will have 2 bullet points about each team. The whole part of his experiment was to make it easier for me to wrote but to still get my point across, but it just made it harder last week.

My Week 2 Record: 17-8

Closest (Or Exact) Pick: JVST @ Louisville, my pick was a Louisville win, 42-14, final score was a Louisville win, 49-14.

Excited I Got This Pick Right: Illinois’ upset win against Kansas

Ashamed I Got This Pick Wrong: Kentucky beating South Carolina

Reactions: I wanted to get 20 wins this week, and although I did worse, I still picked 2 big upsets, which were Illinois and Pitt. I did miss on some picks like Maryland over Michigan State and Central Michigan over FIU. However, I really though that Kentucky was going to beat South Carolina. I picked the Wildcats to win 27-16 because of their defense. The defense let up 3 touchdowns and 24 total points. SC picked off Brock Vandagriff and returned for a touchdown to win 31-6. I’ll talk more about this game later, but neither side of the ball for Kentucky did anything. As for the closest pick, I though Louisville would beat Jacksonville State 42-14, and they scored just 1 more touchdown to win 49-14. I also picked Illinois to win 24-20. They won 23-17. Although I was only 4 points off, Kansas would’ve had to make a field goal and Illinois would’ve had to miss an extra point. The difference between that and just a touchdown was enough to give Louisville-Jacksonville State the spot. All I want for this week is too match or do better than my Week 1 record, when I went 19-6.

(Rankings based off of the AP Poll)

(20) Arizona @ (14) Kansas State – This game could be a preview of the Big 12 championship game, and this could also be the best Friday game of the season. Both teams had big wins in week 1, and then both teams struggled a bit last week. For Arizona, it was a 22-10 win over Northern Arizona, and for Kansas State it was a 34-27 win at Tulane. It’s the Arizona Wildcats at the Kansas State Wildcats in a night Friday game that could certainly cause a shake-up in the Big 12.

Arizona was very, very underwhelming last week. Arizona destroyed New Mexico in week 1, winning 61-39. Noah Fifita found Tetairoa McMillan 10 times for 304 yards and 4 picks, leading to a 61-39 win. I was expecting TMac and Arizona to take that momentum into week 2 and blow out Northern Arizona. And mostly everyone though that too. There was no way that Arizona, who just put up 61 points against New Mexico, was going to win by just 12 against FCS Northern Arizona, right? I mean, they were 36.5-point favorites! But something about Northern Arizona scares something in the Arizona teams. NAU beat Arizona back in 2021, and the Lumberjacks have beaten Arizona State 14 times before. McMillan caught only 2 passes for 11 yards last week, and one of his catches went for negative 1 yard. Arizona fell behind 10-3 in the second half before Tyler Loop made a 48-yarder right before halftime. Coming out of the half, Noah Fifita found Jeremiah Patterson for a 17-yard touchdown. That led to Arizona scoring 9 more points, a safety and a Kedrick Reescano 56-yard touchdown run. Arizona did have 10 penalties for 95 yards which didn’t help their case, either. I’ll get into Fifita’s and the rest of Arizona’s offensive stats in a sec, but they all need to step up against a ranked Kansas State team.
The offense could not find any consistency. Fifita went 18/26, which is good, but he only threw for 173 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 pick. His pick turned into a field goal for NAU, but if he can capture his magic from week 1, This will be a high scoring game. Fifita went 19/31 for 422 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 1 pick. TMac was a big factor in week 1, and Fifita flourished. He wasn’t a big factor last week, and Fifita struggled. Jacob Cowing left for the NFL, and without him, his numbers haven’t been the same. TMac is the only player on Arizona with over 100 yards, as he has 12 catches for 315 yards and 4 touchdowns. Running Back Quali Conley has the second most receiving yards on Arizona, with just 67. Jeremiah Patterson is the only other player with a touchdown, and if Kansas State can follow in NAU’s footsteps and shut down McMillan, Fifita is going to have a problem. Conley was the leading receiver last week with just 38 yards. He did have a good day on the ground, as he had 17 carries for 112 yards. Reescano had 6 rushes for 71 yards and a touchdown, but it was a steep drop off after that. Malachi Riley had 15 yards on just 1 carry, and Rayshon Luke had just 2 yards. As a team, Arizona had 29 carries for 188 yards and a touchdown. Fifita was also sacked twice last week, which didn’t help.
Arizona’s defense has been a bright spot for them. Although they let up 39 points and 470 yards, Arizona picked off New Mexico twice. They were also on the field for 35 minutes, which made it harder to stay on top of things. Then last week, Arizona held their opponents to just 10 points and 200 total yards. They also held NAU to going just 4-12 on third downs and 0-2 on fourth downs. Arizona recovered a fumble which helped ice the game. They also got a safety, and scored a touchdown on the next drive. Kansas State is a high scoring team, and Arizona are going to need their offense to have a big game so they don’t have to rely on their defense.
It was a small setback for Kansas State, but they got over it. Kansas State fell behind early, going down 14-3 in the second quarter. They inched a point closer by scoring a touchdown and holding Tulane by just 2 field goals to go down 20-10 at half. K-State scored 10 points in the 3^rd, and tied it up about 4 minutes into the fourth after both teams traded touchdowns. After scoring their touchdown, Austin Romaine forced a fumble and Jack Fabris picked it up and returned the ball 60 yards for a score. Both teams punted before K-State had an endzone pick to ice the game. When Kansas State fell behind, they didn’t switch what they were doing and continued to run the ball. When you have a young quarterback under center, its more important than every to get him acclimated and comfortable. This was his first road game, and it was against a good opponent. DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards both helped Avery Johnson feel those ways, compared to Tulane defaulting to the pass. Speaking of Giddens and Edwards…
DJ Giddens and Dylan Edwards were a dynamic duo. They combined for 23 carries, 168 yards, and a touchdown on the ground, and DJ Giddens added 4 catches for 63 yards and a touchdown through the air. Giddens had 19 rushes for 114 yards and Dylan Edwards had 4 rushes for 54 yards and a touchdown. On the year, Giddens has 32 carries and 238 yards, and 7 catches for 69 yards and a touchdown. Edwards has just 9 carries, but 100 rushing yards 2 rushing touchdowns. He has 3 catches for 17 yards and a receiving touchdown. Avery Johnson has relied on these guys so much that Jayce Brown, the leading receiver, has just 88 receiving yards. Johnson has thrown for 334 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 1 pick, while adding 77 yards on the ground. If these defenses want to get a statement win, they have to make the opposing quarterbacks uncomfortable. Just like how Kansas State is going to have to hone in on Tetairoa McMillan to make Fifita uncomfortable, Arizona is going to have to do the same to Giddens and Edwards.
The K-State defense needs to step up. They held UT Martin to just 134 yards and 6 points last week, but pretty much every team did something similar to their FCS opponents this season. They obviously let up more yards and points against Tulane, but they did get 2 key turnovers. The first was a fumble return that was the winning score, and the second was a pick in the endzone that iced the game for the Wildcats. Both of those came in the fourth quarter, and if Kansas State can take that momentum into the first half of this game, they’ll have a pretty big lead.

Both teams have young quarterbacks that rely heavily on other parts of the team, and whichever defense does a better job at stopping those parts of each team should get the win. Giddens and Edward haven’t been stopped yet, but Tetairoa McMillan has. K-State repeats what Northern Arizona did, and get the 34-31 win.

2. (4) Alabama @ Wisconsin – This might look like a cakewalk for Alabama, but I’m here to tell that its not. Bama made a lot of mistakes last week, and this is the first road game of the Kalen DeBoer era. How well will they do? As for Wisconsin, can they pull of the upset and potentially the first field storming of the college football season? There’s a lot of questions, and I’ll start with Bama, who…

Need to make fewer mistakes. Against USF, they won 42-16, but not without struggles. I’ll start with the most obvious one, which was their problem with fumbles. They fumbled the ball 3 times, 1 from Jalen Milroe, 1 from Kenrick Law, and 1 from Jam Miller. Law’s fumble was first, but it was at the end of the half and didn’t make too much of a difference. The second fumble was Jam Miller’s, and he turned it over at Bama’s 39. USF recovered it and 5 plays later scored a touchdown. At that point the score was 14-13, and after the team’s traded punts for a few drives, a promising Alabama drive that got all the way to USF’s 2, was stopped when Jalen Milroe put it on the ground. Bama did force a 3-and-out and then scored on the rest of their drives, but Wisconsin is good enough to capitalize on the mistakes by Alabama. The Crimson Tide also had 13 penalties for 120 yards, which resulted in a lot of stalled drives. Because of this, it took Alabama forever to get some good back-to-back drives.
Outside of his fumble, Milroe played great. He went 16/26 for 194 yards and 2 passing touchdowns. Although he was sacked 3 times, Milroe still had 2 rushing touchdowns. His passing touchdowns went to the star freshman Ryan Williams. I would also like to say that there’s only 2 types of college football fans in 2024. Either you’re a fan of Ryan Williams of Alabama or a fan of Jeremiah Smith, the next great Ohio State receiver. I’m personally a fan of Ryan Williams, and his game against USF showed why. The first two scores of Alabama’s day were Milroe’s two rushing touchdowns, and they were 10 and 5 yards long. After Kobe Prentice caught a 16-yarder from Milroe, USF made it a 1 score game with 6 and a half minutes left. Ryan Williams then caught a 43-yard bomb from Milroe, and Bama didn’t look back. Williams finished the game as Bama’s leading receiver, catching 4 of Milroe’s passes for 68 yards and a touchdown. He has 6 catches for 207 yards and 3 touchdowns so far. I think he could be a big part of Bama’s offense this season, and…
Jam Miller could also be a big part of the Crimson Tide’s offense. Miller had the third most yards for a back last season on Alabama, and after Jase McClellan left for the NFL and Roydell Williams left for FSU, Miller is RB1 this season, and hes just 8 yards away from passing his total amount of yards last season. Remember, Miller had a big touchdown in the SEC championship game last season, so we know he can perform in the big-time moments. Miller has 20 rushes for 194 yards and 2 touchdowns on the year, and most of that is from last week. Because Bama destroyed Western Kentucky in week 1, he didn’t play much, but still finished with 5 carries for 54 yards and a touchdown. That means he had 15 carries for 140 yards and a touchdown last week. His touchdown was 56 yards, which put the game away and secured a Bama win. Even though he lost a fumble, he’s not going to lose one every week. If you do end up making mistakes early, that’s better than making them late because you can learn from them and correct them before the biggest games of the season.
When will Wisconsin not have a good running back? Just like how the Packers can go from Hall of Fame Quarterback to Hall of Fame Quarterback (get well soon Jordan Love), It seems like the Badgers can go from historic running back to historic running back. Ron Dayne won the Heisman back in 1999, but more recently, Wisconsin has gone from Melvin Gordon to Corey Clement to Jonathan Taylor to Braelon Allen and now to Chez Mellusi. Dare Ogunbowale was a pretty good running back for a year between Gordon and Clement, and even made it to the NFL. Mellusi had a heart-breaking injury last season, and after the injury costed him his redshirt senior year, he got a medical redshirt to play again in 2024. He’s made the most of it, and has 35 carries for 134 yards and 3 touchdowns. Even though we’re just 2 weeks into the season, Mellusi leads all of Wisconsin backs in those 3 categories. He had 74 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries in week 1, and 16 carries for 60 yards and 2 touchdowns last week. Even though he had a great performance last week, he wasn’t the leading rusher. That went to Cade Yacamelli, who had 8 carries for 73 yards. Mellusi still got most of the carries, and even though Bama has a great defense, we saw USF attack it a bit last week. Wisconsin will never not have a bad o-line, so that should help Tyler Van Dyke feel…
Tyler Van Dyke should feel very comfortable if Wisconsin can run the ball. Without Mellusi, Braelon Allen had all the eyes on him from not only Wisconsin and their fans, but also from opposing defenses. That led to the worst year of his college career, and made Tanner Mordecai have to lead the offense. Before he got injured, he wasn’t doing the best job. Once he came back, he actually played a bit better, but his stats were majorly skewed because he had a good game in the Reliaquest Bowl, which was against LSU which had a lot of opt-outs. However, Van Dyke has looked like the opposite of Mordecai, throwing for 406 yards and a touchdown. Even though Wisconsin technically runs the air raid offense, that’s clearly not true, and you can see it through Mordecai’s touchdown to interception ratio from last year. I expect Van Dyke’s to be something similar, but with slightly better numbers as long as he doesn’t get hurt. He’s looked good for how Wisconsin has been playing in these first 2 games, but going up against the Bama defense will be hard. I think he gets stifled, and ultimately it all comes down to the Wisconsin running game.
How will the Alex Grinch defense do against Bama? We all know how bad the USC defense was last year, and Wisconsin brought him in this offseason. So far, they’ve let up 13.5 points per game and 249 yards per game. They’ve forced 2 turnovers so far this season, which was a pick and a fumble in week 1. The Wisco (Yes, I like to call the Wisconsin football team Wisco sometimes) defense has to be able to apply more pressure as well. They have just 4 sacks, but the best way to beat the Alabama defense is to stop Milroe and you do that by getting sacks and being in the backfield. Wisconsin needs to do that in order to win this one.

Wisco is the obvious underdog, and although I think the crowd and Alabama’s mistakes from last week will make it a close game in the first half, Alabama will pull away in the second. Bama wins, 34-24.

3. Texas A&M @ Florida – If you told me that I would have this game ranked 3^rd before week 1, I would’ve said that’s perfectly reasonable. If you told me that after week 1, I would’ve called my future self crazy. But here I am, with the two embarrassing week 1 losers in the SEC facing off. Because both of these teams’ seasons have gone the way they’ve gone, this should actually be a pretty close game and potentially a classic. I think Texas A&M’s week 1 loss was worse, so I’ll start with them, and they need…

Texas A&M needs week 2 Conner Weigman to come out, not week 1. I came into this season with high expectations for Weigman. After his promising 2023 was cut short, I thought he could build on that and lead Texas A&M to a big win over Notre Dame. He had a 68.9 completion percentage in 2023, but he did not look anything like himself in week 1. He was a lot more of a gunslinger, going 12/30 through the air for 100 yards and 2 picks. Both of them were in the first half, but the first led to a field goal. The second was right before the half. Even though they didn’t impact most of the game, those picks will demoralize you and make it harder for you to bounce back. We saw that on Texas A&M’s only touchdown drive of the entire game, which happened to take place in the second half. Weigman didn’t complete a single pass the entire drive, and although he did run the ball twice, Texas A&M got bailed out by 2 big Notre Dame penalties. However, we saw more of the 2023 version of Weigman in week 2. He went 11-14 for 125 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added 40 yards on the ground and was only sacked once. TAMU won 52-10, so Weigman played just the first 5 drives, which were most of the first half drives. If Weigman can recreate that magic against Florida, I’m not ready to count Texas A&M out of a potential at-large bid to the CFP.
Texas A&M needs to continue to run the ball and run the ball well. Texas A&M is averaging 329.5 rush yards per game, which is 5^th in the SEC. Le’Veon Moss leads the team with 29 carries for 154 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had 2 first half touchdowns of 2 and 6 yards. Even though they could barely throw the ball against Notre Dame, Le’Veon Moss was the lone brights spot on the Texas A&M defense. Moss had 20 carries for 70 yards and a one-yard touchdown run. He should be a big part of the Texas A&M offense this season, especially games where Weigman struggles. Although Amari Daniels had just 5 carries for 20 yards against Notre Dame, he ran for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns off 12 carries against McNeese State. He was the leading back last year with 532 yards, and I think Moss should out rush him, but don’t sleep on Daniels either.
The defense has been very hit or miss so far this season. They held McNeese State to just 14 first downs and picked them off twice, both resulting in scores. Although Texas A&M has let up 635 total yards this season, fourth worst in the SEC, they’ve given up just 33 points. In the Notre Dame game, they let up a lot of yards, but forced a lot of points and a failed fourth down conversion. Sure, they let up 280 total yards and 10 points to McNeese State, but pretty much all of that came in the second half when the backups and third-stringers were in. It depends what version of the Texas A&M offense and what version of the Florida offense we’re going to see that will determine how well the A&M defense will play. If we get good performances out of both, the TAMU defense will be on their heels.
Can DJ Lagway recreate the magic from last week? Because Graham Mertz was out with an injury, DJ Lagway started against FCS Samford. He was given most of the game to play, and he shined. After Florida went into the half up 14-0 off the back of 2 Montrell Johnson Jr. touchdown runs, Lagway broke out in the second half, throwing 3 long touchdowns. His first went to Tank Hawkins, which was a 36 yarder. The second was 41 yards long to Aidan Mizell, and the third and final touchdown pass was an 85-yard bomb to Eugene Wilson III. Lagway finished the game with 456 yards and 3 touchdowns on 18-25 passing. Even though it was against an FCS team, Lagway showed how he’s different than Mertz and made some plays that Mertz can’t. Even if Mertz comes back, I would start Lagway and see how he does against a SEC defense. If he struggles, then put Mertz in. Lagway looked really good last week, and if he does get the start and plays badly, then you can label me as an overreactor.
Montrell Johnson Jr. needs to keep on running the ball well. He was one of the few bright spots for Florida in their week 1 defeat, rushing 11 times for 106 yards and a 71-yard touchdown. He followed that performance up with 15 carries for 67 yards and 2 more touchdowns last week. They were 1 yard and 7 yards long. He took more of a backseat role in the second half, and he still ended up as the leading rusher. Outside of Johnson, no one else on Florida has more than 50 yards or double-digit carries. If Texas A&M shuts down Johnson and Mertz starts or is already in, Florida might be cooked.
The receivers are also going to have to have a big impact if Florida can get the win. Regardless of who’s starting at QB for Florida, the receivers are probably going to have to bail them out. For Lagway, this is his first real test. Eugene Wilson III and Elijhah Badger are going to have to ease him in to the game. Wilson is the leading receiver with 13 catches for 191 yards and a touchdown, while Badger has 6 catches for 166 yards. If Mertz starts, him and Badger are going to have to develop on-field chemistry. They’ve had the whole offseason to build chemistry, but in Mertz’s one start, Badger had 3 catches for 43 yards. He had the same number of catches under Lagway, but 123 yards.

Whoever starts at QB for Florida will make this a different game, but I think Texas A&M can go into the Swamp with an improved Conner Weigman and get the 27-24 win.

4. (24) Boston College @ (6) Missouri – I think this is the first time I have ever put a ranked vs. unranked game above a ranked game, let alone an unranked matchup. But there’s a first time for everything, and I’m not going to act like Boston College @ Missouri is the second-best game of the weekend. For one, they’re on opposite sides of the polls, which usually leads to the high ranked team crushing the lower ranked team. Also, do I think Missouri is the 6^th best team in the country? No. Do I think Boston College is the 24^th? Also no. However, this game should still be a good game. I don’t know if we can still call a win over Florida State a quality win anymore, but that’s what Boston College is hanging their hat over. Missouri had some pretty big expectations coming into the season, and they haven’t blown it against Murray State and Buffalo. Congratulations Missouri, that can get you ranked 6^th in 2024. That’s a really big accomplishment. Enough of my spiel, lets get into what you’re actually here for. I’ll start with the Boston College Eagles, and if they’re going to win, they need…

Boston College is going to need Thomas Castellanos to be great through the air. Castellanos was electric on the ground last season, running for 1,113 yards and 13 touchdowns. He was a little underwhelming through the air, throwing for 2,250 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 14 picks on a 57.3 completion percentage. Although he has changed it up, Castellanos is still very run heavy. So far, he’s thrown for 340 yards and 6 touchdowns on a 73.1 completion percentage and has added 81 yards and a touchdown on the ground. He ran the ball just 1 time last week for 8 yards. BC won 56-0, so he obviously didn’t play the second half. Maybe Bill O’Brien told Castellanos to not run so he doesn’t get hurt in a seemingly easy win, or maybe there just weren’t enough opportunities for him to run the ball. I expect in such a big for Castellanos to go back and maybe try to run the ball a lot more, but he showed us what he looks like on the road against a top 10 team, which was impressive. He went 10/16 through the air for 106 yards and 2 touchdowns, while running the ball for 73 yards and another touchdown. Castellanos went 9/10 for 234 yards and 4 touchdowns last week. If he throws the ball more, expect more of a high scoring game. If he runs more, expect the opposite.
The rushing game isn’t just Castellanos, however. Treshaun Ward and Kye Robichaux are a two headed monster in both the rushing and receiving game, and Turbo Richard has also been a pretty good back for the Eagles. Ward is the leading back with 20 carries for 132 yards and a touchdown, Robichaux is right behind him with 25 carries for 112 yards and a touchdown, and Richard has 19 carries for 102 yards. BC is averaging 284.5 rushing yards per game, which is 9^th in the nation and first in the ACC. This has led to their average time of possession being 34 minutes and 36 seconds, which has led to their two wins.
Boston College’s defense has been great so far this season. Even though they let up 300 yards in week 1, they held FSU to the same number of points and first downs, which was 13. Although they forced a fumble, it didn’t lead to anything. Even so, BC got 3 sacks and was in the backfield all night, holding FSU to just 21 yards on 16 carries, which is 1.3 yards per rush. BC’s defense was able to stay fresh against FSU because the Eagles held the ball for 39 minutes, and something very similar happened last week. BC forced 2 turnovers, pitched a shut-out, and let up just 137 total yards and 9 first downs against Duquesne. Although the TOP was nearly 30-30, Boston College’s backups played in the second half, so they were obviously fresh. BC rolled over their FCS opponent, but it doesn’t matter how good the Boston College defense is because…
Missouri might have the best defense in college football this year. Only two teams have allowed 0 points so far this season. Those are Missouri and Purdue. Purdue has only played 1 game this season, and it was a 49-0 win over FCS Indiana State. Missouri has played 2 games this season, so I would say that they have the true best defense. They’ve only allowed 127 yards per game as well. They’ve forced the worst completion percentage in the nation, which is 37.1%. They’ve only gotten 3 turnovers this season, too. Watch out for Chris McClellan on the defensive line, as he has 1.5 sacks and 1.5 TFLs. As a team, they’ve let up just 14 total first downs. If you gave me the time of day, I could write for hours about the stats that these Tigers have had on defense, but I won’t because if you haven’t seen Mizzou’s defense play yet, I don’t want to spoil it for you.
Nate Noel has been a great replacement for Cody Schrader. After Schrader left for the NFL, Missouri was in need of a new RB1. They went to the transfer portal and brought in Noel from App State. Although the most touchdowns he’s ever ran for is just 6, he ran for over 1,100 yards in 2021 and had 834 yards last season. So far, he has 23 carries for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns. He’s had nearly identical carries in both of his games, rushing 11 times against Murray State and 12 times against Buffalo. He had 48 yards and a 9-yard touchdown run against Murray State, and had 73 yards and a 4-yard touchdown rush against Buffalo. However, most of Missouri’s offense…
Most of Missouri’s offense runs through Brady Cook and Luther Burden III. Cook has thrown for 456 yards, 1 pick, and 1 touchdown so far this season. He’s also ran for 84 yards and 3 touchdowns on 9 carries. Cook has thrown for 228 yards in both of his games, and threw the touchdown against Murray State and the pick against Buffalo. Cook hasn’t had to play the entire game because Missouri are in these blowouts, which has hurt Burden’s numbers a bit. Burden has caught 7 catches for 64 yards and a 16-yard touchdown. He’s also ran twice for 21 yards and a 3-yard touchdown. Just like Cook, Burden hasn’t played the entire game, but both should this week. Cook has more options than just Burden to throw too as well. Theo Wise Jr. is the leading receiver for Mizzou, and he has 16 catches for 180 yards. He had a big game last week, catching 13 passes for 150 yards. Missouri is going to need another big game out of him if they want to win. Marquis Johnson had 9 catches for 93 yards as well.

Both teams have great offenses, and even better defenses. Missouri is the better team and have the homefield advantage, and they win, 38-27.

5. Washington State Vs. Washington – After the whole Pac-2 debacle this offseason, this week is Washington State’s week to prove that the deserve a spot in the power 4. And unlike Bedlam, the Apple Cup will continue to be played even after a team left for a new conference. I’ll start with Washington State, who…

Wazzu is going to need a big rushing game if they want to win. Washington’s offense has been really good so far this season. They average 32.5 points per game and 491.5 yards per game. Outside of their defense, the only way Washington State is going to stop it is by controlling the clock. How are they going do that? By running the ball. Quarterback John Mateer is the leading rusher with 252 yards and 2 touchdowns. However, they Cougars are going to need leading back Wayshawn Parker to have a big game. He has 19 carries for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns, and is averaging 8.7 yards per carry. Against Portland State, he had 8 rushes for 96 yards and a touchdown. He added a 52-yard touchdown catch in that game as well. He cooled down against Texas Tech, rushing 11 times for 70 yards and a touchdown. They’re going to need him to play a lot more like his week 1 self in order to beat their rivals.
They’re also going to need to stop allowing points. Like I stated, Washington has a high caliber offense. Washington State’s defense is not at the same level. They’ve allowed 23 points, and let up more points against Portland State than against Texas Tech. They’ve also allowed 470 yards per game, and have just 2 sacks. They have forced 5 turnovers, but 4 of them came last week. If they can keep that momentum rolling into this week, that’s good but I’m going to need to see more of a good Wazzu defense to truly move me.
John Mateer is going to be the key for Washington State. I previously stated that Mateer is the leading rusher for Washington State, and most of that is because of last week. He ran about 20 times for nearly 200 yards and a 4-yard touchdown run. He did struggle a bit through the air, going 9/19 for 115 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 pick. So far this year, Mateer has 467 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 1 pick on 55.6% completion percentage. If he can get his completions up this game, Wazzu has a real chance at an upset.
Will Rogers has finally put it together. Maybe it’s because Washington has only played Weber State and Eastern Michigan, but Willl Rogers finally looks like a complete quarterback. It seemed like a long time ago that Rogers had his breakout 2021 season, but it was just 3 years ago. He was pretty accurate in that season, before his competition percentage started to dip down, finishing the season with a 60% completion percentage. However, his completion percentage has shot back up in 2 weeks this season, and its sitting at 78.8% right now. He’s thrown for 511 yards and 5 touchdowns as well. He’s never thrown a lot of picks in a season, but none so far is still impressive.
Rogers has made the team around him better, too. Last week, Rogers tossed 4 touchdowns, 2 of them to Denzel Boston. They were 13 yards and 1 yard long. Although Boston only finished with 32 yards, his red zone ability should be enough for Wazzu to big attention to him this game. The leading receiver last week was Jeremiah Hunter, who hauled in 5 passes for 72 yards and a 24-yard touchdown. He didn’t get a single catch in week 1, but he should have a bigger role in this game after breaking out last week. Although he hasn’t caught a touchdown yet, Giles Jackson is still the leading receiver for UDub, as he has 16 catches for 164 yards. If Rogers is truly the quarterback this season that I think he is, we should see Washington’s passing attack at full force.
Washington is going to need to force turnovers. They’ve had 2 easy weeks, and have only gotten 1 turnover. That was a fumble against Eastern Michigan. The have gotten 8 sacks, and with all of the incompletions that Mateer has thrown, Washington can certainly force a strip sack or make him throw a bad ball than ends up in the hands of a Washington defender. There is no more Jabbar Muhammad in the secondary, but outside of no interceptions so far this year, they haven’t let it show. Washington has only let up 227 total passing yards this season.

Although I want to see big things out of both defenses, the game should come down to which quarterback plays better. I believe that will be Will Rogers, and Washington lives up to the UDub nickname to win, 28-23.

6. West Virginia @ Pitt – Another rivalry game between 2 cross-conference opponents, West Virginia will travel into enemy territory to take on the Pitt Panthers. Pitt just beat another one of their rivals last week, that being Cincy, and they made a comeback to do so. I’ll start with the Panthers, who…

Pitt needs to not fall behind early. The Panthers were down 14-3 at the end of the first quarter, and were down 17-6 at half. Cincy added another touchdown and another field goal to make the score 27-6 with about 20 total minutes left in the game. But then, Eli Holstein threw 3 touchdowns, 2 of them to Konata Mumpfield and the other being a 56-yard touchdown pass to Desmond Reid. Ben Sauls kicked the game winning field goal with 17 seconds left. Then, when Cincy got the ball back, they fumbled the ball to ice the game for Pitt. I don’t think West Virginia is crazy better than Cincy, but Pitt still can’t afford to fall behind early.
Eli Holstein is going to need to have another big game. So far this year, Holstein has thrown for 635 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 2 picks. He threw for 333 yards against Kent State and 302 against Cincinnati. He had 3 touchdowns and 1 pick in both games. Although Kent State threw the ball right back, Holstein’s pick turned into a touchdown against Cincinnati, and that led to them trailing for most of the game If Pitt wants to win 2 rivalry games in row, Holstein is the key.
The rest of the offense around him is great, too. Konata Mumpfield is the leading receiver, but it’s not like he’s the dominant receiver. He has 10 catches for 180 yards and 3 touchdowns so far this season. 2 other Pitt Panthers have over 100 yards, and another receive is close to 100. Desmond Reid has 9 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown out of the backfield. Reid has 33 carries for 293 yards and another touchdown on the ground. Kenny Johnson has 7 catches for 105 yards and a touchdown, and Gavin Bartholomew also has 7 catches for 91 yards. Holstein has an array of pass catchers to throw to, and its going to make it even harder for West Virginia’s defense to stop it. Speaking of West Virginia’s defense…
They need to stop giving up yards. Obviously, West Virginia was going to give up a lot of yards and points against Penn State, and they did. They gave up 457 yards and 21 first downs in week 1, along with 34 points as they lost, 34-12. Although Penn State forced a turnover, they fumbled the ball back the exact next play. WVU didn’t get any sacks, and that was a trend that did not continue last week against Albany. They got home twice, and also improved their TFLs from 2 to 9. However, WVU didn’t force any turnovers last week, something that you thought would’ve happened. They still let up a lot of yards and first downs, 374 and 21 of them, respectively. They did only let up 14 points this time, but that was expected. The only thing that made this somewhat poor defensive performance was…
West Virginia’s offense was on point last week. Garrett Greene was nearly perfect, throwing for 236 yards and 3 touchdowns on 17/23 passing. He added 68 yards and a touchdown on the ground as well. 4 total touchdowns in a blowout performance against an FCS team is nothing to gawk at, but it was an impressive bounce back from his week 1 performance. West Virginia had 2 100-yard rushers last week as well, and as a team they ran for 305 yards and 4 touchdowns on 32 carries. CJ Donaldson Jr. had 14 carries for 125 yards and a 2-yard touchdown run, and Jahiem White had 10 carries for exactly 100 yards and a 14-yard touchdown run. Greene’s touchdown run was for 40 yards, and Nico Marchiol had a 12-yard touchdown run on his only touchdown run. Those 4 were the one’s to run as well, which is a little fun fact. Through the air, 10 different players had a catch, but no one had more than 4 or more than 50 receiving yards. The leading receiver was Kole Taylor, who had 3 catches for 47 yards and a 39-yard touchdown. There was a lot of parody in WVU’s offense last week, and that won’t be the case this week because they’re not playing another FCS team. I expect Pitt to force West Virginia to throw to just 1 sole receiver, which they also didn’t have in week 1.
West Virginia needs to force turnovers. Like I previously stated, WVU has just 1 turnover this year, a fumble recovery against Penn State. I also stated that they fumbled it away the next play, basically rendering it useless. West Virginia has no interceptions as well. They have 5 passes deflected, which is a good start. However, they also can’t apply pressure. They only had 2 sacks so far this year. When you can get to the opposing quarterback easily, they will be more likely to make a bad pass. If WVU can’t force a turnover against Albany, I don’t think they’ll be able to force a turnover against Pitt, as long as the Panthers don’t make a mistake.

West Virginia has a lot to work on, and I think Holstein and the Pitt offense will be pretty opportunistic against a struggling defense. Pitt wins, 35-31.

7. (18) Notre Dame @ Purdue – Notre Dame was feeling high and mighty after taking on and beating Texas A&M in Kyle Field, but they were looking way too far ahead. Literally everyone thought Notre Dame was a lock for the College Football Playoff, but most people thought that about Florida State before the season. They now have to win out and win big, which could be a challenge with high-scoring Louisville on the schedule at the end of this month and having to go on the road to USC in the final week. This is also a perfect environment for the Spoilermakers to thrive. I’ll start with the most disappointing team of the past week, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

How did that happen? I mentioned a lot of things about the surroundings of this game for Notre Dame in the introductory paragraph, so I’m not going to repeat them again. Anyways, Notre Dame started the game with a 13 play, 75-yard drive that ended with an 11-yard touchdown run from Riley Leonard. After a great kickoff, Notre Dame had 4 plays that got them to their own 17-yard line before Ethan Hampton launched a pass to Antario Brown for 83 yards and a touchdown. NIU added a field goal near the end of the quarter, and another one in the second quarter. Notre Dame couldn’t put the ball either in the endzone or through the uprights after their long touchdown drive to start the game. On their drives following their touchdown, they had a 3-and-out, a pick, a 6-play drive that ended in a punt, a 7-play drive that ended in a punt, and a missed field goal right before half. After halftime, NIU missed a field goal of their own before Notre Dame had their second touchdown drive, taking a 1-point lead after Jeremiyah Love ran for a 34-yard touchdown. The teams traded punts, Notre Dame stopped NIU on fourth down, and they traded punts again. After trading punts for the second time this half, Riley Leonard threw another pick, which led to NIU’s game winning field goal. Notre Dame did get the ball back, but their attempt at a game winning field goal was blocked. Notre Dame made a lot of mistakes, and this one particular player made a lot of mistakes. That player was…
Riley Leonard made a lot of mistakes. He went 20/32 through the air for 163 yards and 2 picks. His first pick led to a NIU field goal, and although that field goal wasn’t the game-winning one, it obviously still made a difference. He missed a lot of throws, especially key ones late. On Notre Dame’s final drive, Leonard went 1-4, with his only pass going for 19 yards. This led to Notre Dame’s game winning field goal attempt being 62 yards. His to picks were the only ones ND had as well. However, many of these plays could’ve been impacted by another injury of Leonard’s. He injured his non-throwing shoulder, but its looking like he will play in this game. If not, it will probably be Steve Angeli.
Notre Dame’s defense is not the problem. They’ve allowed just 29 points in 2 games, 13 in week 1 and 16 last week. Although they were outgained, letting up 388 yards and 16 first downs, NIU did hold the ball for 10 more minutes than Notre Dame. In week 1, ND held Texas A&M to 246 yards and 17 first downs, and held them to going 0-2 on fourth downs. They only let up 1 touchdown the entire game as well, along with forcing 2 turnovers. Although Notre Dame’s defense has not been a problem this season, it might be this week because…
Purdue’s offense looked good in week one. Like really good. Yes, Purdue was playing an FCS team, but when you looked as good as they did, I don’t think its an overreaction. Hudson Card didn’t just have a career day; he had a generational game that’s already in the history books. He went 24/25 through the air for 273 yards and 4 touchdowns. His touchdowns were 9, 8, 8, and 31 yards long. He obviously didn’t play the full game, but being able to throw for that many yards and touchdowns in about a half of play is still impressive. However, the most impressive part of his game was his completion percentage, which was 96%. He currently has the highest completion percentage out of any QB, but he’s only played 1 game, while pretty much everyone else on the list has played at least 2 or 3. Card also had a lot of good pass catchers to throw to as well. Max Klare was the leading receiver, with 5 catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. Purdue seems to churn out great college WR1s pretty much every year, and I think they probably have the second-best group of wide receivers to play for them in recent memory in the BIG Ten, with Ohio State obviously being first. Jahmal Edrine might be that WR1 this year, and he caught 4 catches for 59 yards. Unless he gets injured, Edrine will have a full game to show what he can do this week. Leland Smith had 2 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown, and Jaron Tibbs and De’Nylon Morrissette both had touchdowns.
Purdue wasn’t lacking on the ground, either. With such a good offensive performance through the air, you would expect the numbers to not be so good. However, that could not be further from the truth. Devin Mockobee was the leading rusher for the Boilermakers, rushing 11 times for 89 yards. He has been a consistent back for Purdue in the past 2 years, and should be again this season. However, the star of the show for the Purdue backs was Elijah Jackson. He had 83 yards and a 69-yard touchdown, but did that on just 3 carries. He averaged 27.7 yards per rush, and if he can do something similar this week, Jackson will be another wrinkle that could foil Notre Dame’s defensive plan.
Purdue’s defense was lights out. Although they didn’t get any turnovers, they held Indiana State to 154 yards and just 11 first downs. They held Indiana State to going 1-12 on third downs too, which is insanely impressive. They Held their opponents to just 50 passing yards and 2.4 yards per rush as well. They got 3 sacks and had 11 TFLs, basically putting up shop in the backfield.

With a week to rest, Purdue should be very fresh, well Notre Dame is all beat up. This time should’ve also given Purdue enough time to iron out minor mistakes they made, like the number of penalties they had. This is the best environment for a Spoilermaker upset to spawn, and they do. Purdue wins, 24-20. The World’s Largest Drum will also be able to make an appearance in this year’s matchup.

8. Tulane @ (15) Oklahoma – Is Oklahoma ready for the SEC? That’s the question we’ve all been asking when it comes to OU football this past week, and for good reason, one that I’ll get into in a second. Tulane is coming off a close loss, but their young quarterback had a pretty good performance. I’ll start with the Sooners, and the reason that question is a good one is because…

Oklahoma struggled with Houston. Houston was coming into this game after getting blown out by UNLV the prior week, which made OU 27.5-point favorites. However, OU only won 16-12, which has raised doubts about how well they’re going to do, especially with one of, if not the hardest schedule in CFB this year. I mean, they have Tulane, Tennessee, Texas, Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama, and LSU on the schedule still. Their 2 other SEC games are at Auburn and against South Carolina. Oklahoma is going to need every win they get, and they’re going to need this win badly. Jackson Arnold is going to play very well if OU wants to finish the season ranked. Arnold went 19/32 for 174 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 pick. His touchdowns went for 10 and 11 yards. Arnold was sacked 3 times and 3 passes deflected as well. In week 1, he went 17/25 through the air for 141 yards and 4 touchdowns. On the year, Arnold has thrown for 315 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 1 pick. He’s had some up and downs, and that is reflected in his wide receivers’ numbers. Deion Burks has caught 15 passes, but only has 89 yards. He does have 3 touchdowns, although they all came in week 1. Brenen Thompson, Bauer Sharp, and Jake Roberts also have touchdowns. They also all have yards in between 50 and 60 yards. Arnold’s numbers would’ve been much better if Nic Anderson hasn’t been hurt. He might be able to return this week, but if not, Burks has to break out.
OU needs an RB1. Who’s it going to be? Will it be Taylor Tatum, who is the leading rusher with 75 yards and has the only touchdown, but has just 6 carries. Jovante Barnes has the most carries, with 17, and had just 2 less yards than Tatum. Gavin Sawchuk is in his third year at OU, and had 745 yards on the ground last year. Although he has 10 carries so far, he only has 19 yards. Me personally, I would go with Sawchuk just based of what he did last year, but there is a new OC, so maybe history at OU has nothing to do with it. Anyways, Oklahoma is going to need to run the ball, as their average TOP is 26 minutes and 45 seconds.
Oklahoma’s defense needs to continue to force turnovers. They’ve picked off opposing QBs 3 times so far this season, and have picked up 5 fumbles. They forced 6 against Temple in week 1, 4 fumbles and 2 picks. All 6 of those turnovers turned into points for Oklahoma as well. Then, last week, Oklahoma had both a fumble recovery and an interception. The fumble was on a muffed punt, and Oklahoma scored the next play. As for the pick, Oklahoma missed a field goal the next drive. They’ve been doing every thing right so far on defense, and they’re going to need to do that again this week because…
Tulane’s offense has been on fire. They were obviously great against SE Louisiana, putting up 472 yards and 25 first downs, along with 52 points as they shut out their opponents. They had a much harder opponent the next week, that being Kansas State. They did have less points and first downs, 27 and 21, respectively. However, they did outgain themselves from the prior week, gaining 491 yards last week. They probably had less yards in week 1 because they put their backups in, but all of their healthy starters played the full game in week 2. Those yards did come with a price, however, as Tulane had 2 big turnovers. They had a fumble, which Kansas State returned for the game-winning touchdown. Tulane did get the ball back and drove all the way down the field, reaching Kansas State’s 2 before an OPI pushed them back to the 16. Quarterback Darian Mensah then threw a pick in the endzone, sealing the game in K-State’s favor. Speaking of Mensah…
Tulane’s young quarterback, Darian Mensah looked really good. He went 19/29 through the air for 342 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 pick. He did lose the fumble as well, but both of those came late in the game. However, he played very good for someone who had just their second career start. Mensah went 10/12 for 205 yards and 2 touchdowns back in week 1 as well. Oklahoma’s defense should pose an even bigger problem for Tulane and Mensah this week, but he does have a pretty good receiving core around him. Mario Williams had 10 receptions for 252 yards, Dontae Fleming has 4 catches for 100 yards, and Alex Bauman has brought in 4 catches, 3 of those were touchdowns, for 75 yards. Yulkeith Brown has the other touchdown reception. Bauman will be a big red zone threat for Mensah this week.
How will Tulane’s defense fair? Oklahoma’s offense was a little iffy last week, and so was Tulane’s defense. Tulane only let up 10 points in the first half, but folded in the third quarter, letting up the same amount of points. The Tulane defense let up another touchdown in the fourth quarter as well. As a unit, Tulane let Kansas State gain 400 yards and 19 touchdowns in about 27 minutes. If K-State did all of that in just 27 minutes, then Oklahoma, who doesn’t have a good average TOP, should be able to do something similar if they can get their offense to click.

I think Oklahoma can get their offense to do that, and the Sooners win 28-17.

9. (16) LSU @ South Carolina – Gameday will finally be in Columbia, South Carolina for the first time since September 27^th, 2014. That was just under 10 years ago, which is still shorter than LSU’s win streak over SC. There’s a lot of promise in Columbia this season, and that will be reflected in the Gamecocks play and potentially the final score. I’ve been talking about the Gamecocks so much; I might as well start with them.

I was skeptical of them last week, but almost all of my doubts were washed away. SC only beat Old Dominion 23-19 in week 1, making me pick Kentucky win 27-16. Not only did the opposite happen, it was a huge difference. South Carolina won 31-6, forcing 2 turnovers in the process. One of my main gripes of South Carolina’s play in week 1 was LaNorris Sellers. To me, it looked like all he did was run the ball, and struggle through the air. Both of things did not happen last week, as Sellers stepped his completion percentage up from 43.5% to 71.4%. He had 68 yards and a touchdown on the ground, running the ball about 18 times. He ran the ball 4 times last week for practically nothing. Through the air, he went 10/14 for 166 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a pick. His first touchdown went to Mazeo Bennett Jr. for 24 yards, the second was a 16-yarder to Joshua Simon. Tack on a field goal, a rushing touchdown from Rocket Sanders, and a pick six, and that’s how SC scored their 31 points. Now, Sellers’ game was not perfect. He was sacked 4 times for the second week in a row, but that could’ve been contributed to the O-line struggles.
They have a great running back, but they haven’t made it work. I don’t know if you can still consider Raheim Sanders a great running back after his injuries last year, but I am. So far this year, Sanders has 37 carries for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns. He had 24 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown against ODU, and 13 carries for 54 yards and a touchdown against Kentucky. He’s averaging just 3.8 yards per carry, one of the worst for starting running backs in the SEC. Sanders has definitely lost a step from his 2022 season form, but if South Carolina can iron some kinks with their rushing game, he could have similar numbers. Right now, its seeming like Sellers is just taking up too many of Sanders’ potential carries.
SC’s defense was better than lights out last week. Outside of holding Kentucky to jus 6 points, they only gave up 183 yards and 13 first downs. They forced 2 turnovers, both of which were picks. Kentucky’s first pick was retuned for a touchdown, and when UK got the ball back, they threw a pick on the same drive. However, South Carolina’s secondary was the star of the show. They allowed just 44 passing yards, and forced Kentucky quarterbacks to go 6/17 through the air, leading them to a 2.6 yards per pass average. Brock Vandagriff went 3/10 for 30 yards and the pick six, and Gavin Wimsatt went 3/7 for 14 yards and the other pick. Soth Carolina also held Kentucky to going 3/14 on third downs and 0-2 on fourth downs. SC’s secondary is going to have another big test this week because…
Garrett Nussmeier has been one of the best 1^st year starters in CFB this year. So far, he’s thrown for 610 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 1 pick. That pick came against USC, and it was at the very end of the game, when LSU basically already lost. Nussmeier went 30/39 for 308 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a pick against USC. He then went 27/37 for 302 yards and 6 touchdowns in LSU’s win over Nicholls. Not only is he completing passes, Nussmeier is throwing a lot of them. He’s got the third best completion percentage in the SEC as will. Although he struggled a little against USC, he ultimately overcame those struggles and had a pretty good game.
Nussmeier has a great wide receiving core, too. Kyren Lacy could become the next wide receiver taken early in the NFL Draft, and for good reason. He has 12 catches for 160 yards and 4 touchdowns so far this season, 3 of them coming last week. Aaron Anderson is right behind him with 10 catches for 127 yards and a touchdown, while Mason Taylor has 11 catches for 102 yards. Taylor has been a big red zone threat for LSU the past 2 years, but 7 of Nussmeier’s touchdowns have been thrown in the red zone, and none of them have gone to Taylor. Not only is LSU going to need to use Taylor more in the red zone, they’re also going to need to…
Learn how to RUN THE BALL!!! LSU had one of the easiest games last week, but they struggled, mainly due to the fact that they couldn’t run the ball. As a team, they had 21 rushes for 68 yards and no touchdowns. You’re an SEC team, and you are struggling to run the ball at home against an FCS team. Brian Kelly did at least abandon the running game because it clearly wasn’t working, but that led to Nicholls’ TOP being 31 minutes. If LSU ran the ball well, they could’ve easily held the ball for 40, maybe even 45 minutes. Because they couldn’t do that, Nicholls scored 21 points. That could be because of LSU’s defense, but its still too early to figure out how their defense is going to run. LSU’s leading rusher is John Emery Jr. who has 10 carries for 61 yards. No one on LSU has a rushing touchdown, and they have 181 yards overall as a team. Their O-line are pretty good at pass blocking, because Nussmeier has not gone down yet. Is it a problem with rush blocking, or just a problem with the LSU running backs?

LSU can’t control the clock, and the great environment in Columbia will lead to an upset win for the Gamecocks, winning 34-27.

10. (9) Oregon @ Oregon State – The civil war has always been one of the most interesting college football’s rivalries, but for a weird reason. Most schools that have rivalries, their mascots don’t really come into combat with each other in the animal kingdom. Think about Florida-Florida State. When have you every seen a Seminole tribe member fight a gator (wow, fighting a gator is something I would’ve never thought I would ever write, but hey, it was about Florida). Or Michigan and Ohio State. I don’t know if Wolverine’s eat Buckeyes, but they do on the football field. And historically, the Ducks have destroyed the Beavers in football. But would they in the animal kingdom? Just something to think about. Anyways, I’ll start with Oregon.

The Ducks need to cut out their mistakes and finally get it together. In week one, Oregon did everything right except for score. In week 2, they scored a lot, but also let their opponent score a lot. If they’re going to have a struggle every week, at least make it one that is consistent. Dillon Gabriel has looked pretty good in his first 2 games at Oregon, throwing for 623 yards and 4 touchdowns. I talked more about him in my Heisman contenders, so go read that If you want to see me talk more about him. There isn’t a specific struggle on offense, but there is on defense. It’s been their rushing defense. Maybe its because they were playing against Ashton Jeanty, but they did not look good last week. They let up 221 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns last week, all 3 of these touchdowns coming from Jeanty. Jeanty also ran for 192 yards against the Ducks’ defense. They went from a great rushing attack last week to another great rushing attack this week, as…
Jam Griffin and Anthony Hankerson are a two headed monster at running back. They’ve combined for 78 carries for 475 yards and 6 touchdowns. As a team, Oregon State has 109 carries for 600 yards and 6 touchdowns. Griffin has 38 rushes for 249 yards and 3 touchdowns, while Hankerson has 40 carries for 226 yards and 3 touchdowns as well. Griffin had a big game in week 1, rushing 20 times for 160 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did have 2 fumbles and lost 1, but didn’t have any in week 2. Oregon State’s rushing game proved very valuable last week, as Oregon State held the ball for 41 minutes, leading to their 21-0 win. Oregon State’s rushing game has led to…
ORST’s rushing game has led to pressure being taken off of Gevani McCoy. McCoy transferred in this offseason from Idaho, and has played pretty well so far. He has 295 yards and 2 touchdowns this season. He has been more off a game manager, but for good reason, mainly because he hasn’t had to do much. McCoy will have to step up this week if Oregon State wants to get the upset.
Oregon State’s defense has been great so far this season. They’ve allowed 7.5 points per game this season, and had a shutout last week. They’ve allowed 245 yards per game as well, while forcing 4 turnovers and 3 sacks. Their big game last week has obviously made these numbers a lot better, but that doesn’t really mean anything if Oregon State’s defense can do something like that every week. The Beavers’ defense let up 180 total yards and 7 first downs from SDSU, forcing the Aztecs to go 2-12 on third down. Oregon State forced a fumble as well, which they turned into a touchdown. Theres no way Oregon State’s defense will do something similar this week because…
Oregon’s offense will still be what we thought they would be going into the season. Obviously, there’s Heisman candidate Quarterback Dillon Gabriel. 623 passing yards and 5 total touchdowns, we all know the deal. There are two top-tier receivers for him to throw to, along with another great one, and an amazing tight end. Those first 2 being Evan Stewart and Tez Johnson, the other great receiver is Traeshon Holden, and the tight end is Terrance Ferguson. They’ve combined for 40 receptions, 435 yards, and 4 touchdowns. Out of the backfield, there’s Jordan James, who has 32 carries for 200 yards and a touchdown. Noah Whittington was also used back in 2022. So far this year, he has 20 carries for 54 yards. All of these guts ill have a big impact this game, especially because the stakes are heightened.
How will Oregon’s secondary do? They’ve allowed just 158 passing yards this season, ninth in the Big Ten. We know that Oregon State doesn’t throw the ball, but I would expect McCoy to throw the ball a bit more. If the secondary, bolstered with Jabbar Muhammad transferring in this offseason, can shut down McCoy, I think Oregon will have this game in the bag. However, McCoy has a darn good group of wide receivers.

Regardless of what’s happened between these two schools recently, Oregon has struggled this season, and have lost 2 straight at Reser Stadium. No way that happens again, and Oregon wins, 38-28.

11. Maryland @ Virginia – I thought that Maryland would’ve definitely won last week, and I thought the same thing about Virginia, expect when it came to them losing. The opposites of both happened, but I was at least close. Maryland fell at home to MSU 27-24, while Virginia eked out a 1-point win over Wake Forest. I’ll start with the Cavaliers, and they’re going to …

Virginia is going to need another huge game out of Anthony Colandrea. So far this year, he has 654 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. He’s added 72 yards and a touchdown on the ground. He obviously had a good game in week 1 against Richmond. He went 17/23 through the air for 300 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added 50 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. He did a little worse against Wake Forest, throwing 2 picks. However, Colandrea threw a lot more passes. He threw 43 this time, and completed 33 of them. He also had 357 yards and 3 touchdowns, along with 23 rushing yards. Although it has been just 2 games, Colandrea’s completion percentage has skyrocketed from 62.6% last year to 75.8% this year. He’s going to have to continue to be accurate for UVA if they want to win this key non-conference game.
UVA has a great pair of wide receivers, which doesn’t hurt Colandrea’s chances. Malachi Fields is the leading receiver, coming down with 16 receptions for 250 yards. Although he hasn’t gotten into the endzone yet, he did 5 times last year and should continue to do the same. Trell Harris is the other receiver, as he has 9 catches for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns. Both of his touchdowns have been somewhat long, with a 35-yarder against Richmond, and a 24-yard touchdown catch against Wake Forest. Along with Fields and Harris, Tyler Neville will be a consistent target this game, as he has 5 catches for 73 yards and 2 touchdowns. Both of his touchdowns came last week, and one of them was in the red zone. I expect him to get a lot of red zone targets this week.
Billy Edwards Jr. and Tai Felton need to keep doing what they’re doing. I wrote that they could have a generational season last week, and they showed that in Maryland’s game last week. Edwards went 26/34 for 253 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. His first touchdown went to Tai Felton, which was a 15-yarder. He had a few catches before that on the drive, but that really jumpstarted his game. He caught 11 passes from Edwards for 152 yards and the touchdown. Going back to Edwards, his second touchdown was to Dylan Wade, and that broke the tie to start the fourth quarter. His only pick didn’t even lead to anything either. On the year, he has 564 yards for 4 touchdowns and a pick. In his limited time last year, he ran for 7 touchdowns. So far this year, he has just 1. If Edwards can get more involved more in the rushing game, maybe Maryland can win these close games. As for Felton, he has 18 catches for 330 yards and 3 touchdowns. Although Maryland lost, Edwards and Felton still played like winners. Hopefully they can do the same this week, and maybe come out with the win.
Maryland’s defense has been opportunistic all season. Maryland blew out UConn in week 1, 50-7. A big reason why was because they forced 3 turnovers, 2 picks and 1 fumble. The first pick turned into a field goal, and TJ Sheffield of UConn muffed a punt, which Maryland cashed in for a touchdown the next drive. He second pick didn’t turn into anything, but they still got an interception, so you can’t really hate on them. In week 2, Maryland picked off Aiden Chiles 3 times, the first turning into a touchdown and the second turning to a field goal. Maryland threw a pick right back on Chiles’ third pick, but once again, they still got 3 interceptions.

The key of this game is going to be which side will win the battle through the air. Colandrea has been deadly accurate so far this season, but Maryland’s secondary is always by the ball. I think Colandrea can ultimately get the win, however, and so does Virginia. UVA wins, 28-25.

12. Colorado @ Colorado State – WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO TALK ABOUT COACH PRIME?????? Looking at the schedule right now, I think every single Colorado game will be on my list if they can continue to be somewhat competitive. I thought that last year as well, but that’s obviously not how it turned out. However, Colorado has gotten better, and can now try to beat the rivals for the 7^th straight year in a row. As for CSU, they turned it around last week after getting blowen out at Texas. I’ll start with them as well, and they need…

Colorado State needs to get out to an early lead. There was no way that Colorado State was going to beat Texas, but if they started the game out hot, they could’ve pulled off the upset. Texas’ first four drives were not great. They punted on their first, threw a pick on their third, and had a field goal on their fourth. They did also have a touchdown, which had Texas up 10-0. CSU had 4 drives before Texas started scoring touchdowns pretty much every drive, which means they had 4 chances to make one of the biggest upsets of the season. Colorado State changed that in week 2, as Tory Holton had a punt return touchdown on Northern Colorado’s first drive. On CSU’s first drive, they scored a field goal. They did fumble and let up a touchdown later on, but then started to score touchdown after touchdown. Colorado isn’t Texas, but they also aren’t a Northern Colorado. It’ll be interesting to see how Colorado States starts this game. If they do good, they could win. If they don’t the opposite.
Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi needs to break out this week. He had a pretty mediocre 2023 season, throwing for 3,460 yards, 22 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. Obviously, he didn’t have a good touchdown-to-interception ratio, but if he can improve that this year, maybe Colorado State can win the Mountain West. So far this year, he has 240 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 pick. He looked horrible against Texas, but that was because of Texas, not because of his talent. He went 10/18 for just 60 yards and a pick against the Longhorns, but went 18/27 for 202 yards and a touchdown against UNCO. He’s going to need a big game if CSU will upset Colorado.
Will Colorado ever find a rushing game? Colorado’s leading rusher is Dallan Hayden, with just 52 rushing yards. 52! He’s had 14 carries as well, so when he gets the chance to show what he can do, he’s not doing well. As a team, Colorado has 45 carries for 75 yards and no touchdowns. As a team, they average 1.7 yards per carry. Colorado’s offensive line can barely pass block, let alone rush block. I don’t think anything is changing this week for the rushing game, however.
How will the loss of Shilo Sanders affect this defense? Well, let me tell you. Its just going to make it worse. Without their top safety, Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig will have to do everything at the safety position. The Colorado offense is already letting up 391.5 yards per game and 27 points per game, both in the bottom half of the Big 12. Without a great tackler and someone who can get interceptions and get big returns, things are going to be a lot harder for the Buffs defense. Maybe BFN (Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi) will throw Travis Hunters way more, but that could be because Hunter will be lined up against Tory Holton, CSU’s top receiver.

Although I highlighted Colorado’s struggles, there is still a lot of highs, which will give them the 34-21 win.

13. Memphis @ Florida State – They’ve lost twice in a row, but they had a week to rest and gameplan for their next foes, the Memphis Tigers. Those Tigers have won 2 straight, although they haven’t been against the best teams. I’ll start with the Noles, and if they want to win, they need…

FSU will need a big game out of DJ Uiagalelei. Everyone is putting the blame on DJU for FSU’s struggles, and for good reason. He’s thrown for 465 yards, just 1 touchdown, and 1 pick so far this year. He has a 58% completion percentage as well. It seems like Clemson, Oregon State, and FSU have all fallen to the DJU hype, but at least the teams he was on were winners. FSU hasn’t done that this year, mainly because of DJU and his mediocre play. In his defense, however, Florida State doesn’t have a true wide receiver 1. That might seem like a good thing, because then the opposing defenses have to guard everyone. However, its not because none of the FSU receivers have gotten open enough to break out and get the WR1 position. The leading receiver is Jakhi Douglas, who has just 8 catches, which is also the most catches on the team, for 121 yards. Kentron Poitier has the only touchdown. If one of these guys can emerge this week, then DJU might be able to turn things around.
FSU is also going to need to learn how to run the ball. Their rushing game looked promising in week 0, as both of their touchdowns were on the ground. However, they had one of the worst rushing attacks of week 1. They had just 21 yards on 16 carries, which is 1.3 yards per rush. This was a major problem, because Florida State’s defense couldn’t stop BC’s rushing attack. Florida State held the ball for just 21 minutes, but with 2 weeks to fix the rushing game, I think they should. Roydell Williams is the leading rusher, with just 50 yards on 15 carries. He does have a touchdown, but that came all the way back in week 0. Lawrance Toafili should also add something to the rushing game, as he has just 9 carries for 37 yards and a touchdown. That stat seems more like stats from 1 half, let alone 2 games. The only way FSU is going to stay on top of things and win the possession battle is if they run the ball well.
Memphis has a great rushing game, and Mario Anderson is the whole reason why. Outside of Mario Anderson, Memphis has just 99 rushing yards on 28 carries for 3 touchdowns. That’s obviously not good, and is 3.5 yards per rush. However, with Anderson, Memphis’ numbers go up to 55 carries for 270 yards and 7 touchdowns, with 4.9 yards per carry. Anderson himself has 27 carries for 171 yards and 4 touchdowns. Before being pulled because Memphis was blowing out North Alabama, Anderson had 10 carries for 46 yards and 2 touchdowns. He grew a lot more last week, rushing for 125 yards and 2 touchdowns on 17 carries. He also added 23 yards through the passing game. Anderson should be able to torch a defense that has allowed 226.5 rush yards per game.
Seth Henigan has been good, but not great. Memphis hasn’t played great competition this year, playing both North Alabama and Troy at home. Memphis now has to go on the road to Florida State, who have one of the greatest environments in college football. Henigan has 470 yards for 3 touchdowns. He has a good completion percentage, with a clean 70%. He’s only gone down once, which has led to that completion percentage. Henigan’s passing yards have gone from about 3,300 yards to 3,500 o 3,800. If his numbers trend the same way this season, Henigan should throw for at least 4,000 yards, but based on what I’ve seen from him in his first 2 weeks, I don’t think he’ll get there. He hasn’t had to do much, but he will this week.

Some might pick Florida State because of what they’ve done this season, but don’t overthink it. FSU’s defense should be able to slow down Memphis’ offense to win, 28-14.

14. Indiana @ UCLA – This is one of the most underrated games of the week, and it kicks off the nationwide era in the Big Ten. Both teams are undefeated, with Indiana blowing out their competition the past 2 weeks, while UCLA struggled a lot against Hawaii. I’ll start with the Bruins, however, and they…

UCLA needs a rushing game. Starting QB Ethan Garbers was the leading rusher last week, with 47 yards on about 6 carries. The second highest rusher was Keegan Jones, who had just 3 carries for 13 yards. TJ Harden had the most carries, with 9. However, he had just 9 yards. Anthony Frias II added 2 yards on a carry. As a team, UCLA had 20 carries for 71 yards and averaged 3.6 yards per rush. Because of this, UCLA only held the ball for 27 and a half minutes. If they ran the ball, they very well could’ve won by a bigger score.
Garbers wasn’t that great, either. He completed 50% of his passes, going 19/38 for 272 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 picks. His yards were good, but he did throw a lot of passes to get there. He didn’t even complete that many passes too, which made him look worse than he was. He was averaging a first down on every completion he had, however. His only touchdown was a 39-yard touchdown pass to Rico Flores Jr., who finished with 3 catches for 100 yards and the touchdown. Garbers first pick didn’t lead to anything for Hawaii, but his second led to a field goal right before halftime. He can’t make any mistakes this week because…
Indiana’s defense was lights out last week. Although they were playing Western Illinois, they did everything right. They let up just 121 yards and 8 first downs, while forcing 3 turnovers, 2 picks and a fumble. They returned one pick for a touchdown and turned the fumble into a touchdown. All 3 of WIU’s turnovers came in the fourth quarter, where the game is won. If Indian’s defense can do the same this week, IU will have a win.
After an underwhelming week 1, Kurtis Rourke stepped it up. Rourke threw for just 180 yards and a touchdown in Indiana’s week 1 win over FIU. He changed that in a major way in week 2, throwing foe 268 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also stepped his completion percentage up from 62.5% to 88.2%. He added a rushing touchdown as well. So far on the year, he’s thrown for 450 yards and 3 touchdowns. Although his numbers were boosted by Indiana playing an FCS team, if you feel good, you play good, and Rourke has to be feeling better than ever.

UCLA will have a big advantage, as it’s a long plane ride from Bloomington to Pasadena, but I didn’t like what I saw from the Bruins in week 1. Indiana wins, 24-14.

15. UCF @ TCU – Just like Cam Newton or Eminem, it’s back. The historical and infamous Big 12 Mid Game of the Week (cue congratulating music). Both teams are 2-0, with UCF blowing out lesser competition in both the first 2 weeks. TCU snuck past Stanford in the first week before destroying an FCS team last week. I’ll start with UCF first, however, and they’ll…

UCF will need RJ Harvey to keep scoring. So far this year, Harvey has 30 carries for 268 yards. Might not seem like anything crazy, but then you look at his touchdown numbers, and you see that he has 6. That’s already more than his 2022 form, where he had 5. It wasn’t like Harvey was riding the bench that year, either. He had 118 carries for 800 yards. Harvey had 18 total touchdowns last year, and 1,416 yards on the ground. He added 240 through the air. He’s only contributed 8 yards off 1 catch this year, but I’m sure he’ll get more involved as the year progress. Harvey had 2 touchdowns in week 1, and had 4 last week. Although h isn’t on Ashton Jeanty levels, Harvey has been a very solid and borderline elite back in college football, and he’s helped take pressure of KJ Jefferson, who’s not having the best season.
Josh Hoover needs to go back to his gunslinger way to get TCU a win. Hoover played about half the season in 2023 after taking over for Chandler Morris after he got injured. Before Morris got injured, he threw 203 passes. Hoover played meaningful time in 7 games last season, and threw 295 passes in those games. Although he only won 2, he threw 58 passes in the first one. He threw 52 in a close loss to Texas Tech, 36 in another close loss, this time to Texas, and 58 in a high scoring shootout against Oklahoma. This did have a downside, as he had 8 picks in these games. The only one he didn’t which was a win over Baylor, he threw 29 passes, the second least of his season. To start the 2024 campaign, Hoover tossed 42 passes, completing 28 of them for 353 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no picks in a road win over Stanford. He added a rushing touchdown. He simmered down on the pass attempts in TCU’s game against Liu, throwing 25. He completed 20 of them for 267 yards and 2 touchdowns. When Hoover throws a lot, TCU is either really close to win, or they do win. When he throws less, TCU still has a pretty good shot at winning. UCF is going to run the ball a lot so TCU can’t afford to take time out of their game plan to run the football when they have a quarterback that’s being accurate and is throwing it a lot.

I think TCU will be able to out match UCF through the air, and they also have a pretty good rushing game as well. With that being said, TCU wins the first Big 12 Mid Game of the Week, 27-13.

16. Air Force @ Baylor – As of recently, Air Force has been dominant against power conference teams, winning 5 straight. Although none of those have came this year, they have a chance to get one more win and increase the streak to 6. It’ll be tough, however, as they’re playing a hunger Baylor team, fresh off a loss at Utah. I’ll start with the Bears, and…

Dequan Finn has not been who we have known. For 3 straight years, Finn was holding it down at Toledo, leading them to a 11-1 regular season last year. He transferred up from the MAC to the Big 12 this offseason, and has disappointed. He got more and more accurate over the course of time at Toledo, but has a 53.5% completion percentage right now. He went 9/21 through the air last week, a completion percentage of 42.9%. He only has 307 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 2 picks. He’s been sacked 4 times, and has only ran for 26 yards. He does have a touchdown, but its not looking like he’s going to have similar rushing numbers to last year, when he ran for 563 yards and 7 touchdowns. He’s going to have to change something amount his play his week, whether it be him running the ball more or being more accurate, but something has to change this week. As for Air Force…
AFU’s triple option worked to perfection last week… for San Jose State’s defense. Air Force could only muster 143 rushing yards on 46 carries, which is an average of 3.1 yards per rush. That might not seem like the worst stat, but Air Force held the ball for just 30 minutes. One of the major benefits of running the triple option is that you can control the clock, but Air Force didn’t last week and it led to their demise. AFU also went 3-16 on third downs, and 2-5 on fourth. That also has to change this week,

Air Force’s offense didn’t work last week, and I don’t see it working again this week, as Baylor wins 38-15. Odds:

17. (5) Ole Miss @ Wake Forest – Ole Miss’s season has been headlined by offensive domination, and I expect that to continue this week. Wake Forest suffered a close lose last week to Virginia, and now have a tougher opponent this week. I’ll start with the Rebels, however.

Outside of Jaxson Dart, this offense is still really good. I’m not going to talk about Dart because he’s in my Heisman section, so go read that at the end. Henry Parrish Jr. leads the team on the ground with 22 carries for 205 yards and 4 touchdowns. Matt Jones is right behind him with 3 touchdowns, while adding 100 yards on the ground off 14 carries. Both of these guys should have a pulse on this game. In the receiving game, Although Tre Harris is the clear WR1, with 17 catches for 310 yards and 2 touchdowns, other wide receivers have good numbers. Antwane Wells Jr. has 8 catches for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Cayden Lee also has 8 catches, but 142 yards and a touchdown. Caden Prieskorn has 6 catches for 125 yards and a touchdown as well. Ole Miss has stars everywhere on offense, and it might take them to a long-awaited upset over an SEC powerhouse like Georgia this year.
Demond Clairborne is the back-borne of this team. Funny joke, right. Anyways, Clairborne has pretty good numbers so far this season, with 38 carries for 220 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had more of a personal performance in week 1, with 17 carries for 135 yards and a touchdown. In week 2, he sacrificed the yards for touchdowns, as he had 2 of them and 86 yards off 21 carries. He added a catch for 14 yards. Both of his touchdowns were the first 2 touchdowns for Wake Forest, and the Demon Deacons turned to more of a pass-happy team in the second half of the game as it became closer. Clairborne should have another team-geared performance this week, as Wake Forest is going to throw a lot in order to upset Ole Miss.

However, Ole Miss wins big, 56-14.

18. Virginia Tech @ Old Dominion – After a surprising week 1 loss at Vanderbilt, VT turned it around last week to blowout Marshall at home, 31-14. They now have to go on the road again, but staying in the state to play Old Dominion, a team still looking for their first win. I’ll start with the Monarchs, and…

Although they’ve lost both of their games, they’ve been close both times. They started off the season with a 23-19 loss at South Carolina, and it was expected that they lost, but it was not expected that it was close. They were down 16-7 with a quarter and a half left, but came back to take the lead 19-16 with just under 10 minutes left. SC’s quarterback ran it in for a touchdown after ODU committed their second fumble of the game. In total, ODU had 4 turnovers, 2 fumbles and 2 picks. ODU had to clean up their turnover problem, which led to SC holding the ball for nearly 36 minutes. Although they did better, Old Dominion didn’t clean up their act in week 2, fumbling once and also throwing an interception. ODU’s defense must have gotten a lot of practice when it came to picking off quarterbacks, because they had 4 picks last week. Old Dominion still lost however, punted after 2 of the picks and throwing it right back after another. They did score the next play on ECU’s first interception, however. ODU’s most egregious stats from last week was the third down conversions, going 5-16. That’s another thing they have to work on to win this game.
VT is also going to have to work on the third downs. Although they went 7-15 in week 1, they went 5-16 just like ODU in week 2. This led to a slow start, as after turning it over on downs on the first drive, they punted on their next 4 drives. They had a field goal before punting twice more and ending the half up 10-7, as they had a punt return touchdown. Virginia Tech did pull away in the second half to win 31-14, but if they do something similar this week, their season might be defined by it.

Virginia Tech’s defense should be able to force a lot of Old Dominion turnovers, which leads them to a 38-24 win.

19. Cincy @ Miami of Ohio – The Cincinnati Bearcats are coming off a close loss to their rival Pitt, and now have to go to another rival’s stadium to take on a winless Miami of Ohio. I’ll start with the RedHawks, who need to…

Miami of Ohio is going to need Brett Gabbert to go back to his old ways. Gabbert was pretty bad in week 1, throwing for 227 yards and 2 picks on a 59.5% completion percentage. He’s never had that good of a completion percentage, but the most picks he’s thrown in a season is just 8, and that was his freshman season. Gabbert also went down 4 times, which could’ve led to his struggles. If his O-line improves, he should as well.
How did Cincy blow that lead? They were up 27-6 before Eli Holstein threw an 11-yard pass to Konata Mumpfield with 46 seconds left in the third quarter. Holstein threw 2 more touchdown passes, but Cincy did stop 2 two-point conversion attempts. Pitt kicked a game winning field goal with 17 seconds left. They blew a horrible lead, but Brendan Sorsby was not the reason why. He went 22.38 for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns, but couldn’t lead Pitt to one score on their last 4 drives. If he can change that in a close one, potentially even this game, it’ll show how big of a jump up Sorsby has made.

Even though Gabbert struggled last week, I think he’ll turn it around and lead Miami of Ohio to the 13-7 win.

20. UNLV @ Kansas – After suffering an upset loss last week, Kansas will try to not repeat the same mistakes they made to take down a red-hot UNLV offense. I’ll start with the Jayhawks, and of they need to win, they need…

Kansas needs Jalon Daniels to play like his Heisman contender self. We all thought that Daniels could be in the Heisman consideration going into this season because he was fully healthy. But after watching him play for 2 weeks, he’s either severely regressed or he isn’t fully healthy. He had an interesting week 1 game, going 9/15 through he air for 150 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 pick. He didn’t run a single time, which changed last week. In their loss to Illinois, Daniels ran 10 times, but for just 35 yards. In 2022, Daniels had 3 games where had 10 or more rushes. He had 85, 123, and 83 yards in those games. He had 2 touchdowns in one, and 1 touchdown in another. Maybe Daniels really isn’t 100% healthy, but I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist. Anyways, Daniels had a 56.3% completion percentage last week, throwing for 141 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 3 picks. Daniels’ first pick turned into a field goal for Illinois, the second was a pick six, and while the third didn’t amount to anything for Illinois, you shouldn’t be throwing 3 picks in the first place. If Kansas is going to win this game, they’re going to need the old Daniels back, and I don’t know of we’re going to get that after last week.
UNLV’s offense is clicking with their quarterback. Matthew Sluka is his name, and he just led UNLV to one of the best offensive performances that we’re going to see. He didn’t do anything too crazy, throwing for 161 yards and 3 touchdowns, along with running for 70 and a touchdown, but its what the rest of UNLV did. As a unit, UNLV ran for 503 yards and 6 touchdowns, on 62 carries. To have that many carries and to average 8.1 yards per rush is impressive, and they could do something similar this week, but the yards and carries will obviously be toned down. No one for UNLV had more than 1 touchdown as well.

Daniels didn’t play well last week, and going up against a offense that’s on fire, Kansas falls to UNLV, 34-23.

21. Nevada @ Minnesota – The story of Nevada’s season so far has been close games. They lost to SMU in week 0, 29-24, won in week 1, 28-26, and lost last week, 20-17. Minnesota was apart of a close game in week 1 as well, losing 19-17. However, they blew out Rhode Island last week. I’ll start with the Gophers, and their…

Minnesota’s defense needs to keep on rolling and forcing turnovers. They were obviously going to play well last week, and they did. They held Rhode Island to just 135 yards and 6 first downs, as they steamrolled 48-0. They forced 4 turnovers as well, 3 interceptions and 1 fumble. The first interception led to a touchdown, the second led to a field goal, and the third was a pick six. As for the fumble, it would’ve resulted in 3 points for Minnesota at the end of the first half, but they missed it. They were a lot more average against UNC, but they did let up just 250 yards, and picked off Max Johnson as well. It resulted in a touchdown for the Golden Gophers, one that if they did not miss a field goal, would’ve been huge. Its not everyday that you get an interception that results in a touchdown for you on your next drive. If Minnesota can force more turnovers throughout the season, they could make a pretty good bowl game. For this game, if they get those turnovers, they’ll have a pretty good chance to win.
Can Nevada win a non-close game? Like I wrote in my little introductory paragraph, all 3 of Nevada’s games have ended by a difference of just 1 score. Their first game was a loss at home to SMU, blowing a 24-13 lead in the process. They had that lead until 8 minutes were left in the game, and Brashard Smith ran it in for SMU. Nevada had a safety on their next drive, which gave SMU the ball back. Both teams traded punts before SMU scored and Nevada couldn’t complete a 4^th down conversion. In week 1, Nevada barely won, holding Troy off to win 28-26. They almost blew a lead again, as they were up 28-17 with just over 6 minutes left. Then last week, Nevada held Georgia Southern to 285 yards, while they gained 500. Georgia Southern only held the ball for 22 minutes and 40 seconds, but that didn’t matter. This time, Nevada didn’t have a lead to blow. They were down for the entire second half, and couldn’t even score a single point in the fourth quarter.

If Nevada either has a lead in the fourth or its looking like it’s going to be a close game, I would pick Minnesota to win. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do, although I don’t think this game will be close. Anyways, Minnesota wins, 30-14.

22. New Mexico State @ Fresno State – Both teams are sitting at 1-1, but they are not similar what so ever. New Mexico State barely won in week 1 against Southeast Missouri State, and then played Liberty very close, but fell 30-24. As for Fresno State, they played Michigan close before losing the game late, and then put up a lot of points against Sacramento State. I’ll start with Fresno State, and if they need to win, they need…

Fresno State needs Mikey Keene to stop throwing picks. So far this year, Keene has thrown for 593 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions. Against Michigan, both of his interceptions turned into touchdowns for Michigan. Keene threw a pick on the first drive of the game, and Michigan put it in the endzone 5 plays later. Then, at the tail end of the game, Keene threw an interception that Will Johnson returned for a touchdown. Both of Keene’s picks didn’t turn into anything for Sacramento State, but he should still not throw 2 picks against an FCS opponent. Keene had just 10 picks last year, but he might’ve gotten worse in the offseason.
Can New Mexico State find a WR1? Their quarterback, parker Awad, has not been hurt from this, throwing for 200 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 pick. The wide receiver room is a lot more confusing, however. Monte Watkins is the leading receiver, as he has 64 yards and 1 touchdown. But that was just 1 catch, so we can remove him from the conversation, especially because he is a running back. PJ Johnson III is the leading wide receiver, as he has 3 catches for 57 yards. Kordell David has the most catches on the team, with 4, but has just 31 yards. Awad’s other touchdown went to running back Seth McGowan. I don’t know who it’s going to be for NMSU, but they’re going to need to find one and find one fast, because otherwise they will fall behind.

Even though Mikey Keene has struggled, I think he can finally overcome it, and Fresno State wins big, 38-15.

23. (12) Utah @ Utah State – Utah and Utah State are renewing their rivalry for the first time since 2015, but it couldn’t have come at the worst time. After their quarterback, Cam Rising, came back from an injury last year, he got hurt again last week. I’ll start with the Utes, and if they’re going to win, they need…

Utah needs backup quarterback Isaac Wilson to play well. Wilson has played in limited action so far this season, going 11/20 for 104 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 picks. After taking over for Rising last week, he went 4/9 for 30 yards. He’ll have the entire game this week, and has some good receivers to throw to. Dijon Stanley is the leading receiver, with 4 catches for 155 yards and 2 touchdowns out of the backfield. Money Parks also has 4 catches, with 84 yards and a touchdown. Brant Kuithe has the most touchdowns, with 3. He also has 5 receptions for 74 yards. Although Wilson’s touchdown didn’t go to any of these guys, they will be his top targets this week. Wilson’s touchdown went to Caleb Lohner, and it was 20 yards. Wilson’s brother is Zach Wilson, by the way. Maybe he’ll be able to prove that he’s a different quarterback than his brother, and it could make him a lock for Utah’s starting spot next year.
Utah State couldn’t do anything on defense last week. We expected Utah State to lose on the road at USC, but even I didn’t expect it to be that bad. I picked USC to win, 34-12. However, USC went out and destroyed Utah State, 48-0. Utah State let up 544 yards and 28 first downs. They did force 1 fumble, but Utah State did nothing with it. Utah State’s defense was also on the field for 33 minutes because Utah State went 2-11 on third downs and 0-2 on fourth downs. USU’s offense couldn’t stay on the field, leading to their defense becoming tired. They’re going to need that to change this week if they want to upset their rivals.

I think Utah State will do a bit better on defense this week, but they can’t get the upset. Utah wins, 34-10.

24. North Texas @ Texas Tech – If this game is not high-scoring, I will eat a hat. I thought Texas Tech and Washington State would be a high scoring shoot-out, but it was not. However, North Texas is averaging 43.5 points, and Texas Tech is averaging 34. TTU’s defense hasn’t been the best either, and their offense will have to keep up, which I think they can. I’ll start with Texas Tech, and…

Behren Morton needs to cut out his mistakes. He was great in week 1, throwing for 378 yards and 5 touchdowns on a 71.4% completion percentage. However, the step-up from an FCS defense to an FBS defense showed us a lot of Morton. He threw for 323 yards, putting him at 700 yards so far this year, which is fourth in the country. However, he threw for 1 touchdown and 2 picks on a 58.6% completion percentage. Maybe it was the shock of going from an FCS defense to an FBS defense, but he should’ve settled in this week. Josh Kelly has been a great receiver for Morton, as he has 19 receptions for 250 yards and a touchdown. Coy Eakin has added 10 catches for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns. Morton should be back to his week 1 form, and he’s going to need it because…
North Texas also has a great offense. Like I stated in the intro, they’re averaging 43.5 points per game, scoring 52 against South Alabama and 35 against Stephen F. Austin. Chandler Morris has the second most yards in all FBS so far, with 737. He also has 7 touchdowns and 3 picks, along with 2 rushing touchdowns. He had 415, 3 passing touchdowns, and both of his rushing touchdowns against South Alabama, but struggled against SFA. He did throw for 322 yards and 4 touchdowns, but just like Morton, he didn’t have a good completion percentage and threw a lot of picks. He had a 59.1% completion percentage and 3 picks. Damon Ward Jr. has 13 receptions for 246 yards and 2 touchdowns, but had just 1 catch last week. He’s going to need to make a big impact in this week of UNT will upset Texas Tech. DT Sheffield also has 13 catches for 150 yards and 3 touchdowns. North Texas isn’t bad on the ground, either. They had 67 carries for 286 yards and 4 touchdowns as well.

No matter how well the North Texas offense is, Texas Tech won’t be losers once again, but it will be high scoring. Texas Tech wins 48-34.

25. Ball State @ (10) Miami – Miami is at the top of a lot of lists this season, which has made Miami a top 10 team for the first time in 15 seasons. Cam Ward is a big reason why, but the U is a lot deeper than just him. As for Ball State, they didn’t play week 1, and had a tricky game against Missouri State. I’ll start with Miami, and they’re going to…

Miami is going to need a big Damien Martinez performance. He was a big transfer coming in, and has been pretty good so far this season. He’s ran for 156 yards and a touchdown off 26 carries. He had 15 carries for 65 yards against Florida, and 11 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown against Florida A&M. Martinez is not playing badly, but I just want to see more out of him, especially because Ball State will key in on Cam Ward. Now, will they be able to stop Ward? Probably not, but they might be able to slow him down. If that happens, then Miami will need a huge game from Martinez.
Ball State had an interesting 1^st game. Both teams punted to start to game, before Ball State threw a pick six. Ball State took the ball back, drove down the field, but then missed a field goal. Missouri State punted, Ball State got their first touchdown, MOST punted on 2 more drives, while Ball State turned it over on downs and punted. MOST had 2 more punts to start the second half, and Ball State once again turned it over on downs and punted. Missouri State got a touchdown, and then Ball State got one, before MOST muffed the punt. Ball State scored another touchdown. The Cardinals then forced a fumble and scored. Both teams traded a touchdown, before MOST scored a touchdown. Ball State did the same, and MOST scored again. Ball State finished with a 42-34 win, with 48 total points in the fourth quarter. Ball State gained 435 yards and 25 first downs, and held the ball for 38 and a half minutes.

There is no way that Ball State can do the same and hold the ball for 38 and a half minutes, and Miami wins, 45-7.

My top 5 Heisman Candidates:

Carson Beck, QB, Georgia – Georgia had a layup this week, playing Tennessee Tech, and Beck did not disappoint. They rolled 48-3 off the back of Beck and his 242 yard and 5 touchdown performance. He went 18/25 through the air as well. He obviously didn’t play the full game, but he still had 5 touchdowns. Yes, it was against FCS competition, but we’ve seen other quarterbacks on this list struggle with FCS teams. Beck has 520 yards and 7 touchdowns on the year on a 70.7 completion percentage. His 7 passing touchdowns are tied for the second most so far in the FBS. I think Beck and Georgia should have another layup this week before a bye and then a big matchup against Alabama.
Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas – I left Ewers off this list last week after a win over Colorado State because we all knew what was going to happen. Texas was going to steamroll, Ewers would play pretty well, and get pulled in the third quarter. However, Ewers and Texas not only went to the Big House, they blew out Michigan in their biggest road win over a top 10 team since 1979. Ewers led the Longhorns to a 31-12 win, going 24/36 for 246 yards and 3 touchdowns. On the season, he has 506 yards 6 touchdowns, and 1 pick. If Texas can get over Georgia in November, they should win out and I think they could get an SEC championship win and get the first seed in the CFB.
Dillon Gabriel, QB, Oregon – After an underwhelming performance against Idaho at home last week, one of my bullet points for Oregon was to put the ball in the endzone. Not only did he do that, Dillon Gabriel did a lot. He had 2 passing touchdowns, 1 to Evan Stewart and another to Traeshon Holden. They were long, too. His first touchdown pass went to Stewart and it was 34 yards. His second has 59 yards long, and that kept Oregon in that game. I always wrote last week that Dillon Gabriel didn’t do much on the ground back in week 1, but he then ran for a touchdown to score Oregon’s first points. He was sacked 4 times, but he was still deadly accurate. I don’t know if its Dan Lanning, Offensive Coordinator Will Stein, or just the water in Eugene that makes quarterbacks some of the most accurate passers in football, but they are. Bo Nix set a record for his completion percentage last season, and Gabriel went 18/21 last week. He threw for 243 yards and 2 touchdowns as well. He has an 84.3% completion percentage so far this season, by far the best of his career. It’s the third best so far this season, and the second best in the Big Ten. Hudson Card is in front of him, but he’s only played 1 game this season compared to Gabriel’s 2. Oregon goes to Corvallis this week to take on their rivals, and if Gabriel can keep on playing like he is, Oregon’s got this win in the bag.
Cam Ward, QB, Miami – Although Ward drops on this list, he did not play bad whatsoever, I just think Ewers and Gabriel played better. It didn’t help that Miami was playing Florida A&M, either. Ward went 20/26 through the air for 304 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also ran for a touchdown. Just like Beck, Ward didn’t play for the whole game, but he was responsible for most of Miami’s points in a 56-9 win. On the year, Ward has 689 yards, 7 total touchdowns, and just 1 pick. He’s also only been sacked twice, and both came last week. Ward has been virtually untouchable, and he should be again this week when Miami plays Ball State.
Jaxson Dart, QB, Ole Miss – I left Dart off the list last week for very similar reasons to Ewers, but I can’t deny what he’s been doing these past 2 weeks. Although he only through for 1 touchdown, which was an 18-yard pass. That went to Antwane Wells Jr., who finished with 6 catches for 78 yards and the touchdown. Dart also ran for a touchdown, which was 3 yards long. Dart finished with 377 passing yards on an insane 25/27 passing. His first 24 passes were all completions, which set SEC and Ole Miss records. The streak ended when Dart through a crosser to Tre Harris that they couldn’t connect on with just under 10 minutes left in the game. Ole Miss did most of their damage on the ground, but Dart still has pretty good numbers on the year. He has 795 yards and 8 total touchdowns on the second highest completion percentage in America, which is 87%. Ole Miss has been looked at like a team that can’t get over the hump and beat the nest of the best in the SEC. With Texas and Oklahoma joining, Ole Miss is going to need Dart to play his best, and its looking like he is right now. Ole Miss should take down Wake Forest this week, and I would expect Dart to play a big part in the potential win.