Can UT stop Ole Miss? A&M's chances at Alabama? A hangover for UH? | A Texas take on college football

The Texas Longhorns face a must-win game against Ole Miss and will be without edge rusher Colin Simmons but plenty of questions about the future of quarterback Arch Manning.

Texas A&M is at Alabama and trying to salvage a season with the upset. In the Big 12, Houston has another ranked game, this time at Utah.

Columnists Kirk Bohls and Cedric Golden tackle the top 10 issues in college football this week:

If Texas couldn't stop Trammel Jones Jr. and Florida with a Colin Simmons for a half, does it have a prayer of beating Ole Miss and Trinidad Chambliss without its star player?

BOHLS: A prayer, yes. A great chance? Uh, we'll have to see a totally different, efficient West Coast offense, more runs out of Arch Manning, at least two take-aways and 60-minute defense if the Longhorns are going to get it done. This is a draw-a-line-in-the-sand game. Unfortunately, Ole Miss is playing much better, its defense has really improved and tailback Kewan Lacey is now healthy. That spells a 35-31 Rebels win.

GOLDEN: Of course it does, but it's complicated. Life in the SEC is as predictable as spring weather in Lubbock. The Horns are somehow a 3½- point favorite despite a couple of embarrassing losses, but even the most wounded animal still has some fight in it. I don't see the Horns getting run out of their own stadium, but we're about to find out if the Horns are desperate enough to turn this thing around. I don't see them doing it. The defense is about to have its most difficult game of the season. Give me Ole Miss, 31-24.

Should KJ Lacey play and how many snaps does he realistically get for the Longhorns on Saturday?

BOHLS: He should play. Steve Sarkisian ought to give him at least two series for a change of pace to see if he can spark this moribund offense. After all, he benched Quinn Ewers once. I'd expect Lacey to play about 10 snaps.

GOLDEN: Sure he does, especially if the Horns get blown out. My sizable gut tells me Steve Sarkisian will die on the Arch Manning hill but on the off chance the Horns are down three or four touchdowns, it would make sense to give the backup quarterback a look. Don't be surprised if Manning has a big game because Ole Miss has the capability of scoring a lot of points, which may force the Horns to go to more of an up-tempo offense early. From these eyes, Manning has done some of his best work in hurry-up mode.

What constitutes a victory for Texas A&M against an angry Alabama? Getting out of Tuscaloosa alive?

BOHLS: I can't imagine a worse time for the Aggies to stroll into Crimson Tide territory when Kalen DeBoer's desperate team is playing with its post-season life in the balance. And maybe his future employment. A&M has yet to score a touchdown on the road, but maybe Marcel Reed finds some success against the Tide's suspect pass defense. I'm expecting something like a 32-17 Bama win.

GOLDEN: Scoring more points. Moral victories don't work in the Southeastern Conference. The Aggies should walk into Bryant-Denny Stadium with their follicles on fire because at 4-3 and needing two wins to make it to a bowl game, they face a rough climb with games remaining against the Tide, resurgent South Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas. I like them at home against the Gamecocks, but they're going to be underdogs in the other three. Alabama will be angry after the Tennessee loss. They take it out on the Aggies, 31-17.

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Will Houston have a mental hangover against Utah?

BOHLS:I don't think so. I believe in the Cougars, who are playing at their best. Conner Weigman is a legit candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year, but Utah's Devon Dampier is equally deserving. I wasn't that impressed with the Utes' win over lowly Colorado, but I'll take Utah's defense to make the difference for a 28-24 victory.

GOLDEN: No, they will play well. The Utes have a stingy defense, but they haven't faced a team with the firepower Houston possesses. QB Conner Weigman is my pick for national comeback player of the year and his team is well accustomed to shootouts. The Houston defense isn't a world beater, but this one should come down to the wire. I'll take the Utes at home, 33-30.

What is your lock of the week?

BOHLS: After going 5-0, I'm going to take Alabama to cover the spread of 13 1/2 points against A&M.

GOLDEN: Hey, hey, hey. I finally got one. UCLA's win over Wisconsin raised my record to a scorching 1-4 against the spread. Now, since I'm butter - on a roll - I'll take the Bruins again. Lay the 13 1/2 at home against 2-5 Michigan State. Bruins roll, 35-20.

With Simmons on the sideline, who is the best defensive player in the SEC?

BOHLS:  I think it's Tennessee defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam, who is terrorizing opponents with 10 1/2 tackles for a loss, five sacks, two forced fumbles and six quarterback hurries. Pro Football Focus gives him the highest grade of any interior lineman at 90.4.

GOLDEN: The Austin area produces some stud athletes and my pick would be LSU end Princewill Umanmielen, a Manor product, who ranks second behind Simmons among SEC sack leaders with eight. He is the younger brother of Carolina Panthers linebacker Princely and the older brother of Manor star linebacker Princeton. Imagine the pickup football games in that family.

Does a 24-game College Football Playoff make conference championship games obsolete?

BOHLS: It absolutely will. Those have already become redundant, and while they are intriguing games at least in the SEC, they have outlived their usefulness. Besides, college football will need that extra weekend available for first-round playoff games, so blame it on the calendar.

GOLDEN:Not at the bank it doesn't. While games like the SEC Championship place more wait on what happens in one game as opposed to 12 weeks, they're big money makers. As far as the viability piece, a conference title game which follows three non-conference games and nine league games feels overcooked. I would love to see it go away but when you read the league would lose an estimated $80 million to $100 million in greenbacks without it, you know it's staying

How would you fix the atrocious officiating?

BOHLS: Full transparency for starters. I think the televised replay reviews were a step in the right direction but are a joke because they don't seem to be as thorough or logical as they need to be. The final two plays of the Florida State-Miami game, for example, were horribly officiated because the Seminoles got cheated out a game-tying touchdown on both. I can't believe the public has any faith in officiating right now.

GOLDEN: Great question. No, there isn't because unlike the NFL, there are various leagues that house 138 programs and it's difficult to find any kind of uniformity when it comes to the officiating.  It's easy to call for more stringent training and stricter discipline when crews completely drop the ball like they did in costing Western Michigan an upset win in Ann Arbor but getting that buy-in is the most difficult part. If anything, it would great to have a universal replay system like the NFL does in New York but it seems near impossible given the large amount of schools playing.

If Arch Manning were to transfer after this season, where is his best landing spot?

BOHLS:That's a tricky one. To me, the one that makes the most sense would be Ole Miss, the alma mater of both his Uncle Eli and grandfather Archie. Chambliss will be gone to the NFL Draft, so there would be a vacancy at quarterback.

GOLDEN:I could see Manning donning an Ole Miss uniform like Grandpa Archie and Uncle Eli did before him. The support would be there given the family's history plus it would make a great storyline with Trinidad Chambliss leaving for the NFL and Arch occupying the same conference space as his former school. That said, I don't see him playing another season of college ball. His draft stock has slipped but I still see him entering the draft next spring.

What former head coach - living or dead - could fix this Texas offense if given three weeks before the next game?

BOHLS:There are a lot of potential savage punchlines in that question, but I'll resist. Give me the innovative, offensive-minded Steve Spurrier because the Ol Ball Coach knows offense and he could call it "Fun 'n' Gun 'n' We Ain't Done."

GOLDEN: Sarkisian has always admired the late, great Bill Walsh who coached at Stanford before revolutionizing NFL play calling with his famed West Coast offense, which was predicated on short, crisp passes that utilized his players' athleticism after the catch. Texas has enough talented wideouts and good pass catchers out of the backfield to make Walsh's attack pop.

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This article originally published at Can UT stop Ole Miss? A&M's chances at Alabama? A hangover for UH? | A Texas take on college football.