Mark Blaudschun
By Mark Blaudschun
FWAA.com
We are almost a month into the season and the contenders – Miami, Texas, Ohio State,
Georgia – are starting to separate themselves from the pretenders – Texas A&M, Oklahoma
and Oregon. And we have a solid week of challenges, which should provide more spacing.
Texas at Tennessee: Great early season SEC showdown. Texas was vaulted to No. 1 because of three good series
in a less-than-sparkling game with Ohio State. So be it.
Texas is better than Tennessee, but the game is in Knoxville, and the Volunteers are a solid
Top 20 team. A win on Saturday will put them in the Top 5. It may take another Arch
Manning Heisman clip to pull this one out.
Oklahoma at Georgia: This could get ugly very early. The game is in Athens. Georgia is looking for style points to
impress the CFP Selection Committee. And Oklahoma has no offense. Tt does have a defense, though, and that could keep this game competitive for at least a half. But after that, all bets are off at what happens between the hedges.
Ole Miss at Florida: A “watch out” game for Ole Miss, coming off an emotional home victory over LSU.
Florida showed some signs of life in a shoot-out victory at Auburn. Now, the Gators are home
and can really make a climb upward by beating Ole Miss, which would overload the Top 10
with SEC teams.
Oregon at USC: Fraud alert in the Big Ten. Who knows what Oregon really has under the hood after a
lackluster win over Boise State and a loss to Oklahoma State. An 84-0 win over Portland State
was predictable last week.
Now we have the meeting in the Coliseum with a USC team which barely put away Rutgers
and has looked less than dominating under the loose reign of Kia Riley. (Yes, it's Lincoln, but
as we have said before, we are downgrading his status.
Oregon should win going away, but I'm not sure if these Ducks can fly in the playoff
atmosphere that will dominate this September Big Ten showdown. (Oregon vs. USC is a Big Ten
showdown? Sorry, that still doesn’t sound right.)
Utah at Iowa State: An intriguing, underpublicized Big 12 matchup that has the winner emerging as a potential
conference champion, and perhaps even a playoff contender.
The Big 12 looks like the most balanced league this season, with everyone from Texas Tech to
West Virginia appearing to be dangerous.
#230