Basically, if Buffalo can win this game, it will quiet some skeptics.
Western Michigan will look to move up in the west by beating Eastern Michigan, while Northern Illinois (0 league wins) and Toledo (2 league wins) will play. Sounds exciting.
Bowling Green plays Ohio, which is just 1-3 in the league a year after winning the MAC East.
Finally, in the Can't We Just End Non-Conference Play Already Bowl, Ball State plays Illinois.
Exhibit #214 why I need to stop making pre-season predictions ... my Utah-winning-the-MWC call may be slightly off-kilter, but I labeled New Mexico as being able to compete. And that's exactly what they're doing. Thursday night they moved to 6-2 with a 3-1 conference record after a 34-31 win over our nation's best Air Force. Rodney Ferguson wasn't exactly efficient with his yards-per-carry for UNM, but 41 carries for 153 yards, two touchdowns, and zero fumbles deserves the game ball.
AFA, meanwhile, fumbled the ball away five times. Yeah, that'll hurt. But the Cadets are gonna take the next couple of games out of conference, with Notre Dame and Army in their sights.
In the forefront of BYU's mind is not to extend their conference lead to 4-0, but rather to lend a prayer or two to their previously scheduled opponents as their hometown battles wildfire. Their game against San Diego State has been rescheduled to December 1, so they will abruptly join TCU in a bye week.
Your other two games, mainly inconsequential to the MWC crown, are UNLV at Wyoming and Utah at Colorado State. But the Utes need one more win to become bowl eligible and keep their distant MWC title hopes alive. And by "their MWC title hopes" I clearly mean "my MWC prediction hopes."
So last week went basically as planned. USC beat Notre Dame, Oregon beat Washington in a game that saw nearly 500 yards of rushing offense, and UCLA beat Cal in a fairly even match-up. This week we have more yet more conference games, including two of the best match-ups of the week in all of college football.
#9 USC at #5 Oregon (3:00pm EST)
Oregon has been putting huge point totals on everybody, and supposedly defense is a USC strong point. If USC can slow the Ducks down, look for a USC win in this game. Otherwise Oregon should be able to outpace the Trojans.
Article comments
1 - Pico
Hi, Josh, your fan club checking in...
Wow, I had forgotten about the intense hatred Bama has toward Phil. Thanks for reminding me, lol. Funny how just a couple of weeks ago the Tenn/SC tilt was expected to be possibly the one that decided the East. But UT gets their 3rd blowout (when they lose, they lose big) and Spurrier actually loses to Vandy. I think you'll get your wish in this game, however.
Ga/Fla...oh yeah, Florida all the way.
And the others:
Auburn/Ole Miss: despite the loss last week, the War Eagles have played much better since dropping one at home vs. Moo State in week 3 and will probably win out from here. So of course they'll take this one against a coach who is in a race with Bill Callaghan to the head of the unemployment line.
MSU/KY: Moo State in an upset! Yeah, dream on.