College Football Week Three 2009 Preview

We’re getting to the point where most teams are actually starting to play some real games now. I say “most” because my beloved Penn State is playing Temple this weekend. You know when Temple last beat PSU? 1941. I mean, they haven’t played every year…but still.

I digress. Let’s check out the AP Top 10 this week:

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. USC
4. Alabama
5. Mississippi
6. Penn State (actually, they’re also #5, it was a tie)
7. BYU
8. California
9. LSU
10. Boise State

All of the top ten teams are still undefeated, but that’s not surprising since many of them had super easy games the past two weeks – or no game at all (Mississippi already had their week off).

I have to start at the bottom with Boise State at #10. I predict a win against Fresno State, with a score of roughly 51 – 34. Ok, that game was tonight. So, they remain undefeated – more on that when we review Week Three. Also significant: #20 Miami beat #14 Georgia Tech 33 – 17 on Thursday night. Again, we’ll talk about that more in a few days when I review the entire weekend, but damn. Where did this team come from?

So let’s see. #5 Penn State has a gimme, and #8 California should have too hard of a time at Minnesota. #4 Alabama plays North Texas at home. *shrug* And poor Washington is about to feel the wrath of #3 USC. Even #5 Mississippi is just playing Southeastern Louisiana (who?), and #9 LSU is playing Louisiana-Lafayette. Errr….scratch what I said about people playing real teams.

We aren’t totally without decent match-ups. #1 Florida finally plays someone we’ve heard of at least when they host Tennessee tomorrow afternoon. Can Kiffen and his boys pull off the upset? Highly unlikely, but you never know. Stranger things have happened. I think that it is more likely that Florida will run all over them. We’ll see I guess.

#7 BYU hosts Florida State later that evening. Now, if you would have asked me at the start of the season, I would have said that this would be an interesting game. Florida State has proven, however, that they were highly overrated coming into 2009. I mean, at least they won last week. There for awhile, it looked like they were going to lose to Jacksonville State.

Then there’s #2 Texas, who hosts Texas Tech this week. Texas Tech is 2 – 0, but they’ve played North Dakota and Rice…so they might as well be 0 – 0. What makes this game interesting is that last year, Texas Tech stop the Longhorns at the last second with a Michael Crabtree touchdown. This year, though, they have a brand new quarterback after losing Graham Harrell, and of course, Michael Crabtree is making NFL headlines instead of NCAA headlines. Texas? They still have Colt McCoy. Either Texas Tech is going to prove themselves in this game, or they’ll prove that their first two games really were just against horrible opponents. Texas is out for blood, having been denied the National Championship because of this game last year, so my prediction is that Texas will put them in their place.

McCoy and the Longhorns want a little revenge after last year. Image: Newscom

That covers the top ten, but there are a few other games worth mentioning. #19 Nebraska travels to #13 Virgina Tech, with kick off at 3:30. I think Nebraska has really been a sleeper team so far. Granted, like most programs, their first two weeks were basically not even games, but their offense is pretty strong. I’m looking forward to both teams showing what they got.

I’m also interested to see if Notre Dame bounces back from their loss last week to Michigan. They play one of their rivals, Michigan State, this week. Now, Michigan State isn’t the bottom of the barrel, but they aren’t good by any stretch of the imagination. Ya’ll know as well as I do, though, that college football is all about momentum. Notre Dame was thrown for a real loop last week, so we’ll see if they can spring back.

To be honest, not many games interest me this week. Penn State will be lucky if I roll out of bed in time to watch the kick off, and most of the top ten have easy weeks, once again. I know the major debate in college football is whether or not to have a playoff system, but maybe more important that this is the debate of changing scheduling rules. I mean, when a horrendous team plays a top-ranked team, it just looks bad for both schools.