This Weekend in College Football: Week 2

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

  • Pennsylvania State @ Virginia (ABC): Last week I said Penn State wouldn’t be that bad. I was wrong. I’ll take UVA here.
  • Miami @ Kansas State (FX): Yes, it is in fact, the Miami, not a Miami. That said, this Miami did allow Boston College to score 32 points last week. Whoops! I’ll take K-State here.
  • Auburn @ Mississippi State (ESPN): 5 years ago, these two teams “worked” together to score 5 points in a game. Hopefully that number will be eclipsed this year. I actually like Miss State better here, for whatever reason.
  • Central Florida @ Ohio State (ESPN2): The Big Ten’s other team suspended from postseason play, but unlike Penn State, the Buckeyes still have some teeth. They should win easily.
  • Tulane @ Tulsa (FSN): I won’t believe Tulane is any good at all until proven otherwise.
  • Maryland @ Temple (ESPNU): Temple scored 41 points against Villanova last week. Maryland scored 7 in the 4th quarter to come from behind against William & Mary. Yeah.
  • East Carolina @ South Carolina (SEC): Does South Carolina have a quarterback? We’re still not sure. Nonetheless, it is difficult to pick against them here.

12:30: Ball State @ Clemson (ACC): I nearly didn’t list this one, but well here it is.

3:00: North Carolina @ Wake Forest (ACC/FSN): Again using the “how badly did they beat their opening week creampuff” metric, Carolina wins in a landslide.

3:30:

  • Purdue @ Notre Dame (NBC): Hard to get a read on this one, but it is safe to say that Navy is a slightly more impressive blowout win than Liberty. I’ll take the Irish here.
  • Air Force @ Michigan (ABC/ESPN2): Michigan just has to be too fast for Air Force, don’t they? Maybe they’ll let their awesome running quarterback run the ball this week.
  • Southern California vs. Syracuse (@East Rutherford, NJ; ABC/ESPN2): Syracuse is no longer terrible, but that doesn’t mean they’re good. USC is one of the nation’s top teams, no doubt, but their depth is so razor-thin an injury or two could spell disaster against the right team. Syracuse is not that team.
  • Florida @ Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (ESPN): Oh boy it’s TAMU’s SEC debut! I’m not really that excited about it. Also, they’ll probably win for what that’s worth.
  • Rice @ Kansas (FSN): Even Kansas should be able to at least beat Rice. Probably. Maybe.
  • Michigan State @ Central Michigan (ESPNU): Even if you didn’t know anything about these two teams, you probably still like the chances of the team that starts with the name of the state rather than the one that has a cardinal direction and then the name of the state. Just sayin’.
  • South Florida @ Nevada (CBSS): I like Nevada here. They just beat Cal in the refurbished Memorial Stadium, and USF has to fly all the way to Reno to face off at altitude against Nevada’s somewhat rare offense.
  • Iowa State @ Iowa (BTN): Oof. Iowa only beat Northern Illinois 18-17. This year is certainly ripe for a Iowa State win, which is probably news to many but not Paul Rhodes.
  • Western Kentucky @ Alabama (SEC): A Western Kentucky backup linebacker boasted this week that they’re going to beat Alabama. Look, I think it would be hilarious, but well, good luck with that.

400: Wisconsin @ Oregon State (FX): Sometimes you make a big deal out of top teams nearly losing to FCS teams, especially game ones like Northern Iowa. Sometimes, you don’t. This game is an example of the latter. I like the Badgers here.

7:00:

  • Washington @ Louisiana State (ESPN): As I commented to a Washington alum friend on Facebook, having a live tiger at practice is pretty much a win-win as far as I’m concerned. Still not sure how it will help the Huskies beat LSU, at LSU, at night though, unless they were practicing letting it loose on LSU players or something.
  • Louisiana-Monroe @ Arkansas (ESPNU): I believe this is my first chance to mention this season how much we here at ASimSports love, love having John L. Smith back as a head coach at a major college program. I may watch this just for the halftime interview. Arkansas should probably still win though.
  • Texas-El Paso @ Mississippi (SEC/FSN): Hey Ole Miss still sucks right? Though I’d like UTEP’s chances a lot better if the game were in the strange confines of El Paso, but I’ll take the Miners anyway.
  • Presbyterian @ Georgia Tech (ESPN3): I spent most of the summer ranting at anyone who would listen how dumb having our most important conference game the first week of the season was, but they, that’s ESPN for you. Anyway, we have to use this game to get back to normal and shake off the rust heading into the remaining two conference games this month, which are now that much (much) more important.

7:30: Nebraska @ California-Los Angeles (FOX): So apparently Taylor Martinez learned how to throw this past offseason and UCLA probably still isn’t really that good? Yeah, those are just the kind of write-ups you’re going to get in September, sorry. I like the Huskers.

7:45: Georgia @ Missouri (ESPN2): Oh good, another SEC debut. I hope Mizzou rips them to shreds, because by joining the SEC Mizzou went from like the 2nd or 3rd best passing team in the Big 12 to far and away the best passing team in the SEC. So you know what, let’s get crazy and pick the Tigers here.

8:00:

  • Louisiana Tech @ Houston (CBSS): Geez Houston we knew that you lost just about everyone from your pretty good team last season but losing to Texas State is just proving that point a little too hard, eh? I’m not sure firing their offensive coordinator is going to fix their issues, so I’ll take LaTech.
  • Vanderbilt @ Northwestern (BTN): Vandy lost in a very Vandy-like fashion last week to a pretty okay South Carolina, while Northwestern came from behind to win dramatically over Syracuse. I think both these teams are pretty decent and will pull off at least one major upset this year, but on this night I like the Commodores.

10:30: Illinois @ Arizona State (ESPN): I just have no opinion on either of these teams, so let’s go back to the creampuff beatdown metric mentioned earlier. Hrm, let’s see… well, even adjusting for the division of the opponent, the scale still favors the Sun Devils.

Don’t forget if you live on the West Coast you probably have a and/or the Pac-12 networks now. Those may get included in future weeks.