College Football, Week 3

Week 3 saw some separation at the top of the college football world. (I’m still boycotting doing a poll until at least October.) USC, Oklahoma and Missouri look to be the class this year, but it can all change from week to week. Also looking classy were my picks last week: 4-3, plus I nailed the upset special when New Mexico beat Arizona. Week 4 looks to be another fun week of games, but first let’s look back at what we learned.

Virginia Tech. In 2004 the Hokies won the ACC despite inconsistent O-line play. Some of the scores from that season, their first in the ACC: NC State 17, VT 16; VT 17, Wake 10; VT 27, UNC 24; VT 16, Miami 10. There were very few easy games that season (the notable exception was a 55-6 whipping on Maryland that was very enjoyable to watch), and 2008 is starting to look just like it. We’ve got UNC this weekend, and after their stomping of Rutgers in Piscataway, this will be a tough road win. If the Hokies pull it out, they’ll be sitting pretty, with a 2-0 record in the Coastal, and both wins against their toughest division opponents.

Pittsburg St. Another week, another close win for the Gorillas, this time a 21-14 victory over Missouri Southern. Pitt St. is now 3-0 and ranked #10 in the D2Football.com Top 25 Medial Poll. This week they play Missouri Western, and based on their 1-2 record I’d say it should be an easy game. But based on their Griffon mascot, maybe the Gorillas will be in for a dog fight.

Ithaca. The Bombers took out Kings College, 38-28. They are now 2-0 and ranked 19th in the D3football.com Top 25 poll. This week they’re home against Hartwick as they open up Empire 8 conference play.

ACC Update. The ACC came out storming in week 3, with big out-of-conference wins for UNC (44-12 over Rutgers), Duke (41-31 over Navy), and most surprising of all, Maryland (35-27 over #23 California). Does this bode well for the conference moving forward? I wouldn’t start saying we’re going to challenge the SEC just yet, but I do think we’ve moved past the Big East to be in the top 5 of best conferences. (Okay, maybe the Mountain West is still better. Phooey.) The lone down spot was Virginia getting shellacked 45-10 at UConn. The Wahoos are really poor this year, and I have to think they could easily lose to Duke on 9/27. algroh might want to update that NFL resume of his before too long.

National Update. The “big” game of the week wasn’t that exciting, with USC routing Ohio St. South Florida showed it has some mettle by coming back from 17 points down to win a close one over Kansas. They look to be the best team in the Big East, but it remains to be seen whether they will avoid any missteps along the way. And Wisconsin proved a lot of doubters wrong by going to Fresno St. and beating them 13-10. The Bulldogs had their chances to pull the upset but just couldn’t pull it off. I’m still not sold on Wisconsin; every year they seem to rise really high in the polls, only to lose 2-3 games in conference that they really shouldn’t. Kind of reminds me of Virginia Tech circa 2001-2003.

Jumping On the Bandwagon: Missouri; South Florida; Penn St.; Vanderbilt; BYU
Jumping Off the Bandwagon: Ohio St.; Arizona St.; California; Arizona; Rutgers

Games to watch in Week 4
West Virginia @ Colorado: The Buffalo fans are doing a “black out” for the game, where all the fans dress in black. Irony alert – they’re trying to stop the Mountaineers Pat White. WVU bounces back, 27-20.

Alabama @ Arkansas. Two undefeated teams, but it’s not even the marquee matchup in the SEC West (see below). Bama by 3.

Florida @ Tennessee. The winner gets the inside track on the SEC East crown. Tennessee’s loss to UCLA the first week looks even worse after BYU crushed the Bruins last week. Florida beats them down in Neyland Stadium, 44-17.

Boise St. @ Oregon. Can the Broncos work some magic? Not at Autzen Stadium. Oregon by 10.

Virginia Tech @ North Carolina. It worked last week, so let’s try it again. UNC 14, VT 13.

Utah @ Air Force. Everyone seems to forget about Air Force in the Mountain West, but they’ll be sneak a few victories this year. I’m really hoping that Utah and BYU go undefeated until they play each other in “The Holy War” the last weekend of November, but I smell an upset here. Air Force by 2.

Wake Forest @ Florida St. Wake has won the last 2 games in this series. I think the Seminoles break the streak. FSU by 6.

LSU @ Auburn. The Tigers vs. the Tigers on the Plains. Auburn can’t be expected to win this one after beating Mississippi St. 3-2 last week. Yes, 3-2. But this game is traditionally close. LSU 13, Auburn 10.

Georgia @ Arizona St. This looked to be a great matchup…until the Sun Devils went out last weekend and lost to UNLV. Were they looking ahead, or are they just not that good? I say the latter. Bulldogs by 17.

Upset Special: Ball St. over Indiana. David Letterman’s school rolls over the Hoosiers.