Week Four Preview

Posted by RalphNuts on Sep 20, 2012 in NCAA Football | 0 comments

Top 8 games to watch this weekend

1) Thursday—BYU at Boise State—BYU is coming off a heartbreaker against Utah and now has a short week to travel to the smurf turf. Boise State still has questions against on offense and could be ripe for an upset if BYU is over the Holy War hangover.

2) Friday—Baylor at Louisiana-Monroe—The Warhawks split against Arkansas and Auburn taking both SEC west squads into overtime on the road. Now ULM gets the National Spotlight at home against the Baylor Bears who have looked impressive 2-0 through the first two contests outscoring their opponents 107-47.

3) Sat—Oregon State at UCLA—Oregon State is always a sneaky squad under Mike Riley and now they have had two weeks to prepare for the Bruins. This is the type of game that have given the Bruins fits in the past. As impressive as UCLA has looked through 3 weeks they still have underclassmen at key positions and this is the best defense the Bruins will have faced to date.

4) Sat—Missouri at South Carolina—Missouri bounced back with a quality win against Arizona State this weekend and now has their first SEC road game. Pinkel was 14-9 in conference games away from Columbia in the last five years in the Big 12. This Missouri squad had Georgia where they wanted them through 3 quarters. South Carolina is still a little bit of an uncertainty at QB. I looked for another close one for the Gamecocks similar to their game against Vanderbilt in Week One.

5) Sat—Michigan at Notre Dame—The Fighting Irish bandwagon is starting to get crowded. It should get even packed if they take care of business against Michigan this weekend. The Notre Dame defense has given up an average of 10 points/game this year against Navy, Purdue and Michigan State. Notre Dame should have won last year but for some heroics by D. Robinson. This time around Notre Dame get revenge.

6) Sat—Kansas State at Oklahoma—Bill Snyder has energized the KSU program again and the 10-3 last year doesn’t appear to be a fluke after the 3-0 start this year. However, Kansas State has struggled against Oklahoma. In their last 3 outings the Wildcats have been outscored by an average of 52-27 against the Sooners. This Sooner offense doesn’t seem quite as equipped as their offenses of the past few years. Still a tough spot for the Wildcats.

7) Sat—Clemson at Florida State—Florida State has looked great but hasn’t played anyone yet. However given up 3 total points in three games is amazing nonetheless. Clemson is the only real contender for Florida State in the ACC at this point. Can the Tiger offense score 24 points on this defense? Is Boyd plays well at QB and Ellington RB and Watkins are effective it could be enough.

8- Sat—Arizona at Oregon—Will the Oregon starters play a full game? The likely answer is yes because I think Arizona has enough to keep this within a couple of scores. I’m still not convinced on the Oregon defense as they have given up 24.3 points on average through the first three games. They will be tested by an Arizona offense that has averaged 46.3 through its first three contests. 51-35 type of game.