After a strong start two weeks prior, our bold predictions last Saturday floated gently back to Earth.
Sure, one of Indiana and Texas did take a close surprise loss—the Longhorns, 27–24 to Oklahoma on kicker Tate Sandell’s 47-yard field goal at the final horn. However, it was slim pickings otherwise: USC stayed firmly in the CFP race after beating Penn State, Georgia Tech held Duke running back Nate Sheppard to 99 yard rushing and Wake Forest pulled away from NC State.
Well, back to the drawing board for a week crawling with big-time matchups. Here are four bold predictions for the weekend to come in college football.
Nebraska upsets Oregon as quarterback confusion continues to reign in Eugene
Who’s going to start for the Ducks Saturday? At press time, we have no idea, with Dylan Raiola, Akili Smith Jr., and Brock Thomas all in play after a disastrous Raiola performance gave way to some solid Thomas numbers in Saturday’s 17–15 loss to UCLA. The Cornhuskers, a better team than the Bruins by ESPN’s Bill Connelly’s SP+ metric and motivated after losing to Indiana, are a bad outfit to run into amid quarterback uncertainty—their strong secondary could punish any signal-caller Oregon throws out, especially Raiola. One locked-in day from quarterback Anthony Colandrea can, and will, wipe out the Ducks’ seven-point spread advantage and carry Nebraska closer to a CFP berth.
Indiana puts aggressive pressure on Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin—and hands the Buckeyes a narrow second loss
The Buckeyes’ offensive line has looked flawed at points this season, and now it’ll be down a starter Saturday in Austin Siereveld. Conversely: the Hoosiers rank third in the country in sacks this year with 20, trailing only Tennessee and LSU. Expect Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin to come under sustained pressure from Indiana, the way he did against the Hoosiers in the Big Ten championship (when he was sacked five times). That, and a big day for Indiana’s wide receivers, should be enough for Indiana to slip past the Buckeyes and drastically reduce coach Ryan Day’s team’s margin for error.
Revenge is sweet for Missouri quarterback Austin Simmons
For a team with a defensive coach (Pete Golding), Ole Miss isn’t exactly cloaking itself in glory on that side of the ball; the 392.4 yards per game it’s allowing is only better than Florida among SEC teams. On Saturday, the Rebels host Missouri and a quarterback with the motive and the means to embarrass their defense: Austin Simmons, who lost his job a season ago to Trinidad Chambliss. Simmons had not thrown an interception before tossing one to Texas A&M last Saturday, and averages 239 yards per game even after that off day. If Simmons struggles against Ole Miss, the Tigers’ defense is more than capable enough to carry the day—and solidify Missouri as CFP contenders.
A big television personality breaks ranks and savages the reportedly imminent 24-team CFP
Expect the prospect of a 24-team CFP to loom as a huge topic of discussion on every television station Saturday. However, don’t expect much in the way of debate: every network will have ample motive to shower praise on the system, given that ESPN will almost certainly have to farm out CFP inventory to other channels if the tournament doubles in size next year. In that case, the viral clip of the day will go to a commentator brave enough to represent the majority of fans. A few candidates: College GameDay loose cannon Pat “Rat” McAfee, plain-speaking play-by-play man Sean McDonough (on Alabama-Tennessee duty), and eternal opportunist Robert Griffin III (calling Arizona State-Texas Tech).
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