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.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Wednesday
7:00: Abilene Christian @ Georgia State (ESPNU): This is technically a FBS game, so I’ll make an exception for Week 1 and include all FBS games, even if they’re against FCS opponents. Other than it being the first game, there’s not really any reason to watch it, of course.

Thursday
6:00: Texas Agricultural and Mechanical @ South Carolina (SEC): As much as I hate the fact that we keep playing Virginia Tech early in the season, I’d probably hate it even more if we had to play a conference game the first weekend of the season. Especially one as critical as this for both teams. I’m going to have to go with the Gamecocks here, though, unless TAMU’s defense has drastically improved int he offseason.

7:00:

• Wake Forest @ Louisiana-Monroe (ESPNU): Hey, it’s football, it’s on TV, and a Louisiana school is involved, so something crazy might happen. And hey, Monroe did beat them last year in Winston-Salem, so what the heck let’s go with them again.
• Eastern Illinois @ Minnesota (BTN): Okay, even I have limits, and it’s likely nothing too weird will happen here.

7:30: Idaho State @ Utah (Pac12): Same, except this game might hold you over for a bit until you get to the night’s other game with a team from the Gem State.

8:00:

• Mississippi vs. Boise State (@Atlanta, GA; ESPN): Any early test for a supposedly much-improved Ole Miss team this year. That said, Boise had a luckluster 8-5 campaign last year. The flip side of that, of course, was that Boise was one of the youngest teams in the country last, and the cool thing about young teams is that a year later they aren’t as young anymore. Boise has lost supposedly indispensable coaches before: recall that the coach that originally put them on the map is the now throughly unhireable Dan Hawkins. Will they be able to cope this time? Probably not, but hopefully it’ll be fun to watch.
• Tulane @ Tulsa (CBSS): It’s the opener for the new-new look American Athletic Conference, aka, the “please don’t call us ‘Conference USA’ by accident” league. These teams are coming off two drastically different 2013’s, but despite that it’s hard to pick Tulane.

9:15: Temple @ Vanderbilt (SEC): Vandy, at least in game one, shouldn’t have any hangover from the James Franklin era.

10:00: Rutgers vs. Washington State (@Seattle, WA; FS1): One assumes that the Air Raid will be even more potent in year two three up in Pullman. I expect to see some happy Wazzou fans in Seattle Thursday night.

10:30: Weber State @ Arizona State (Pac12): Again, this is here, well, because football!

Friday
7:00: Brigham Young @ Connecticut (ESPN): I had a vague memory that UConn had gotten a new coach this year, and I was correct! The head coach of the Huskies is now Bob Diaco. Who is Bob Diaco? Apparently he was a defensive assistant at Notre Dame last year. Huh. Well, given everything else about UConn, I still can’t say I like their odds against BYU.

7:30:

• Bowling Green @ Western Kentucky (CBSS): What happens when the MAC meets the Sun Belt Conference USA? Something, hopefully. Much like the preseason polls, pretty much the only thing I’m going on at this point is last year’s performances, and given that, I’d probably have to go with Bowling Green.
• Jacksonville State @ Michigan State (BTN): Sparty!

9:00:

• Colorado State vs. Colorado (@Denver, CO; FS1): In an event that apparently no one remembers, these Colorado State Rams beat Washington State last year in the New Mexico Bowl (likely because it was a) the first day of bowl games and b) the New Mexico Bowl). At any rate, even last year’s sorry edition of Colorado managed to win pretty convincingly, so I’m going to go with history repeating itself.
• Texas-San Antonio @ Houston (ESPNU): Houston probably shouldn’t have much trouble with a program still young enough be considered “upstart”. Of course, ESPN’s predictor thingy is saying that after opening with Houston, Arizona (at home! in the Alamodome!), and Oklahoma State that these Roadrunners will run the table. Huh. At any rate…

10:30: Nevada-Las Vegas @ Arizona (ESPN): It’s late. It’s the Friday of a long weekend. Let’s face it, the other Friday games haven’t been that great. You probably have better things to do. You could hit the town, especially given that you’ll have an extra day to recover. You may even be in an entirely different town (like me) with limited access to watch the games. So why should you watch this game? A game that the Rebels, who were okay last year actually, lost 58-13? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: because it’s football. And who knows how long it’s going to last. At any rate, the Wildcats should have a walk-over.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Tuesday
7:00: Western Michigan @ Northern Illinois (ESPN2): One of these teams is 1-10. The other is 11-0. I think you guys got this one.

Thursday
7:30: Texas Tech @ Texas (FS1): Texas Tech has come down in recent weeks from their loft undefeated start of the season, going from 7-0 to 7-4. (Of course, considering their awful non-conference schedule, this wasn’t exactly a shock. Their best win on the season is probably SMU.) Texas started with a disaster of a season and managed to turn it around to something reasonable. The Longhorms are still in play for the title, and I think they’ll remain so after this.

8:00: Mississippi @ Mississippi State (ESPN): Miss State needs this Egg Bowl win to get to 6-6, but their offense is struggling to a pretty high degree as of late, and they needed to overtime to beat a beyond moribund Arkansas team last weekend. I’m going with Ole Miss here.

Friday
Noon:

• Iowa @ Nebraska (ABC): Both of these teams struggled on offense, and Nebraska has had too many shaky wins against bad teams. Iowa’s defense appears legit, and this could be a classic Frentez-win, you know, a 9-7 Iowa win or some such.
• Southern Methodist @ Houston (ESPN2): Houston’s been a slightly more well-rounded team over the course of the season. They’ve had three straight tough losses to the American’s “best” teams, so if they can get over that they should be good enough to beat SMU.
• East Carolina @ Marshall (CBSS): This is a tough, tight battle for the C-USA East crown. I like ECU better but I can’t really explain why. This should be a good one if you get theCBS Sports network, though.

1:30: Bowling Green vs. Buffalo (@Orchard Park, NY; ESPNU): Did you know Bowling Green has the nation’s sixth ranked scoring defense? It’s true! I like them here.

2:30: Arkansas @ Louisiana State (CBS): Arkansas just isn’t very good. I mean, LSU isn’t great or anything, but they’re good enough to win.

3:00: Florida International @ Florida Atlantic (FS1): FAU is 5-6 and FIU is 1-10, so FAU by default.

3:30:

• Washington State @ Washington (FOX): It feels like weird stuff always happens in the Apple Cup, but while Wazzou is improved, I think UDub is still just better.
• Miami @ Pittsburgh (ABC): Miami has been extremely inconsistent, and honestly, that was true before they lost their best player. But the talent, man, the talent is still good enough to beat Pitt.
• Fresno State @ San Jose State (CBSS): Living in San Jose, I know the local press have thought of this as something of a lost season for the Spartans. I’ve got two other reasons to pick against them, though. First, Fresno is pretty good. Second, they started running these awful TV ads last weekend that talked about the “tradition” of an inaugural edition of their “rivalry” with Fresno State. Wha?

7:00: Oregon State @ Oregon (FS1): The Ducks will be out for blood after last weekend. At least, they should be.

8:00: South Florida @ Central Florida (ESPN): USF’s last two games are losses to SMU and Memphis. They scored a combined 16 points in those games. This should be a gimme for UCF.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Tuesday
7:30: Buffalo @ Toledo (ESPNU): [Editor’s note: I meant to upload this before Tuesday’s games. Whoops.] Buffalo finds themselves as one of the MAC frontrunners after defeating Ohio last week. They get a plenty game Toledo, though. I’ll take the Rockets due to their defense, home field, and for maximum MAC standings chaos.

Wednesday
8:00:

• Ball State @ Northern Illinois (ESPN2): The top two teams of the MAC West square off in a contest that will likely decide the division. Expect points to be scored in this game. Lots of points. Expect slightly more to be scored by Northern Illinois.
• Miami @ Kent State (ESPNU): This game is the complete opposite of the other game, featuring the two bottom two teams from the MAC East. Kent State actually has two wins, so they’re the favorites against the Miamians from Ohio.

Thursday
7:30:

• Georgia Tech @ Clemson (ESPN): This is always a tough one. Ever since I’ve been in school, this game seems to always be close or a blowout in Clemson’s favor. Of course, past results shouldn’t be influencing the present that much. So thinking about the present, well, it doesn’t look good for Tech.
  This is a game where we will have to play almost mistake-free football to win. We will not be able to turn the ball over 3 times and win (well, unless they do the same). Their offense is every bit as potent as ours (if not more). Their defense is a little worse, but then again, they got blown out by FSU which probably affects things a little bit, and either way it’s not much. Clemson is a very good football team. With the game on the road and at night, history aside, we will need all the help we can get. Hopefully we can avoid hurting ourselves.
• Marshall @ Tulsa (FS1): In some quarters, it’s Tulsa that’s known as one of the most disappointing teams of 2013. Ranked in the low-100’s in both scoring offense and defense, it’s very difficult to see how they will be able to keep pace with the Thundering Herd.

Friday
9:00: Washington @ California-Los Angeles (ESPN2): U-Dub is enjoying what I would call a perfectly average season. They have beaten all the teams they are supposed to beat, and lost to all the teams they were supposed to lose to. Other than a win over Nebraska, UCLA hasn’t been much better, at least on paper. I would give the Huskies a very real chance in this game, and in fact, I’m calling the upset here.