This Week in College Football: Week 14

It’s a special Turkey Week edition! As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Tuesday
7:00: Ohio @ Miami (ESPN2): The Bobcats need this one to get to bowl eligibility. I think they’ll get it.

Thursday
7:30:

  • Louisiana State @ Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (ESPN): If this were last year’s TAMU team, then I’d probably have them in this one. Of course, LSU’s offensive woes came to a head last week when they lost 17-0 to Arkansas. Oh, the Tigers’ defense did the job, as they held the bruising Arkansas rushing game to under 100 yards, but the offense just did nothing the entire game, only producing one trip to the red zone. (The result was a missed field goal.) TAMU, meanwhile, followed their potentially season-saving win over Auburn with a loss to Mizzou. With their offensive inconsistency, it seems entirely possible that they will be shut down by LSU’s still pretty good defense entirely.
  • Texas Christian @ Texas (FS1): Texas is certainly playing a lot better in the back half of this season, but good enough to beat a regrouped TCU? Probably not.

Friday
11:00: Northern Illinois @ Western Michigan (ESPNU): Friday morning MACtion! A potentially good one too. NIU wins the MAC East outright if they win, due to having a tiebreaker over Toledo. WMU would need some help, as they have a head-to-head loss against the Rockets. Make that a lot of help because Toledo plays relatively hapless Eastern Michigan, so it’s unlikely they’ll lose. I like the Huskies just slightly here.

Noon:

  • Nebraska @ Iowa (ABC): The heat is on Bo Pellini after last week’s loss to Minnesota, but another 9-win season looks rip for taking against the Hawkeyes.
  • Central Florida @ South Florida (ESPN2): UCF’s offense isn’t great, but USF’s is even worse. Should be an easy win for the Knights.
  • Western Kentucky @ Marshall (FS1): Marshall definitely had took close of a call against UAB last weekend, but they should have less trouble here. They’ll face Rice or Louisiana Tech next weekend to see if they can reach 13-0.
  • Houston @ Southern Methodist (CBSS): SMU still possesses the worst scoring offense in major college football. How bad is it? They’re averaging less than 10 points per game. That’s pretty bad. Houston should have no trouble with their cross-town rival.

2:30: Arkansas @ Missouri (CBS): Arkansas did it again last weekend, and they did it in style with a 30-0 demolition of Ole Miss. And you know what? I think they’ll do it again against Mizzou.

3:30:

  • Arizona State @ Arizona (FOX): I’ve actually had the Sun Devils all the way since I started doing bowl predictions, so no reason to back off now I suppose. Otherwise, this one projects to be very close.
  • Stanford @ California-Los Angeles (ABC): Cal was bad enough and Stanford’s defense good enough for the Cardinal to prevail, but UCLA is good enough that I don’t think that’s going to work again.
  • Colorado State @ Air Force (CBSS): While Air Force always presents a challenge, I think Colorado State is legitimately good team at this point.

8:00: Virginia @ Virginia Tech (ESPN): Honestly, I think this game is around a coin flip, except for last week’s 0-0 debacle against Wake Forest by VPI. (Wake won 6-3. In double overtime.) Based on that, I pretty much have to take the Cavaliers, don’t I?

8:30: East Carolina @ Tulsa (ESPNU): The season started with such promise for the Pirates, but alas. They should still be able to handle Tulsa though.