Early Games
The No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs have a cupcake matchup against Arkansas State, and I haven't been able to watch much of Georgia so far this season. This seems like an opportune time to get more acquainted with Kirby Smart's Dawgs, especially as the top of the SEC race looks to be a doozie; the SEC boasts three of the top four teams and five of the top ten. It'll also be good to familiarize thyself with Georgia and their guys before headlining next weekend in Athens, as they host Notre Dame. The Dawgs are 33 point favorites heading into this one, and they've outscored their opponents 93-23 through the first two weeks. Don't expect this to be competitive; think of it as doing your homework for massive games featuring Georgia throughout the rest of this young season.
We've also got some in-state, cross-conference action in the Keystone State, between No. 13 Penn State and Pittsburgh. Pitt lost week one to their ACC Coastal foe UVA, but turned things around last week by topping Ohio 20-10. As you probably remember, Pitt lost last year's ACC Championship game to Clemson. On the other side, the Nittany Lions have done some damage so far this season: they stomped Idaho 79-7 before barreling over Buffalo in a 45-13 win. This will be Penn State's third consecutive home game before they head to College Park, MD to take on the No. 21 Terps. It's been a few seasons since the Nittany Lions haven't had Trace McSorely under center, but sophomore Sean Clifford hasn't given any Penn State fans reason to worry; so far in 2019 he's thrown for 559 yards and six touchdowns, without any interceptions. When these two teams played last year in Pittsburgh, Penn State throttled the home team 51-6.
I had mentioned the No. 21 Maryland Terrapins earlier, who will be facing off against the Temple Owls this Saturday in Philly, before hosting Penn State. The Terps are new guys to the top-25, after they dismantled Syracuse last weekend in a 63-20 embarrassment. At the time, Syracuse was in the 21 spot of the rankings, which, let's be honest, was a complete joke to begin with. Just a complete shot in the dark by the voters. Temple has had a very solid football program recently, and this will be their first season under head coach Rod Carey after Geoff Collins left for the Georgia Tech job. The Owls worked Maryland pretty good when the two met last year, coming out with a 35-14 win. Temple enters this one as 7.5 point home dogs.
Afternoon Games
Sure, we don't have any games between ranked teams this weekend, but this is the closest you can get without having both in the top-25. We've got No. 19 Iowa taking on Iowa State, who was tied with Nebraska for the 25th spot in last week's poll. Although Iowa State won last week, it was a narrow three-point victory over Northern Iowa. The Cyclones dropped in the rankings, but are still sitting just outside; they received the most votes of any non-ranked team for the week three poll. The Hawkeyes will be the road team, yet are still favored by 2.5. The last time Kirk Ferentz and Iowa lost was on November 10th of last year to Northwestern, and they're currently riding a five game winning streak. They are also looking to extend their winning streak in this rivalry to five, as the last time Iowa State won was 2014. The College GameDay crew will be on campus in Ames, which always adds an extra tablespoon of rowdiness to the recipe.
Out west, No. 24 USC heads to Provo to take on BYU. This game doesn't have the heaviest of implications but it'll definitely help indicate what direction USC's season is about to head in. Things were already looking questionable, and then their starting QB JT Daniels tore his ACL. However in his debut start, a 45-20 win over Stanford, freshman QB Kedon Slovis looked impressive: he completed 84.8% of his throws, going 28/33 with 377 yards, three touchdowns, and no picks. So things aren't looking as grim as they seemed for the Trojans. BYU comes into this one with a 1-1 record, as they lost to a really good Utah team in week one, and beat a really bad Tennessee team in OT last week. They finished last year at 7-6 with an irrelevant bowl win over Western Michigan. These two programs have only gone up against each other twice (2003 and 2004), with USC winning both of those. After USC, BYU still has Washington and Boise State on their schedule, so this will be a good test to see where they stand amongst some of their future competition. The Trojans are favored by 4.5.
No. 19 UCF doesn't seem to be fading away anytime soon, and I should probably further familiarize myself with their game before I continue to completely disregard their boastful cheers of G5 domination, and hostile pleas to get a shot at the playoff. Stanford isn't quite as much of a threat as they've been in years past, and UCF has played better P5 competition, but the Cardinal should still give the Knights a good test in Orlando on Saturday afternoon. UCF is a 7.5 point favorite. Stanford QB KJ Costello returns from injury, and his absence was certainly felt in their 45-20 loss to USC last week. For UCF, it looked as if their starter was going to be former Notre Dame QB Brandon Wimbush, but he didn't play last week against FAU. Even if Wimbush is good to go this weekend, don't be surprised if you see freshman Dillon Gabriel get the nod instead. So far this year, the Hawaii native has thrown for 372 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions on sixteen completions. He also notched a rushing touchdown in the FAU game.
Night Games
No. 9 Florida heads to Lexington, Kentucky to open up SEC East play. This one would be even more intriguing if Kentucky didn't receive news that their quarterback, Terry Wilson, has torn something in his knee that will prevent him from playing another snap this season. The Gators will be looking for vengeance as they fell short at home last year to Kentucky, 27-16. The last time the Wildcats beat Florida before last year was in the 1986 season. And the last time Kentucky was victorious over Florida in consecutive meetings was 1976-77. The Gators are favored by eight on Saturday night.
Before the regular season had started, No. 1 Clemson heading to the Carrier Dome to take on Syracuse seemed like it'd be much more hyped up than the current scenario. As I had mentioned before, Syracuse starting the season ranked No. 22 (and jumping a spot after beating Liberty) was just erroneous. And we saw them get exposed when Maryland wiped the floor with them in week two. But of course we can't forget, in Clemson's recent dominance, 'Cuse has pestered them the past two years. In 2017, the last time Clemson travelled up to Syracuse, they lost 27-24 (Cuse lost their remaining five games after that). Then in 2018, the Orange gave the Tigers a scare after Trevor Lawrence went down with an injury, and Kelly Bryant had already transferred. They came up short, and Dabo's boys squeaked out a 27-23 win. If Syracuse believes they'll give the Tigers a run for their money this time around, they might be the only ones. Clemson is currently favored by 27.5.
UCLA has some of my favorite uniforms in college football. Their coach, Chip Kelly, was absolutely awesome when he was the coach of a different team. Those are about the only good things that I can say about anything UCLA football related for now, and they're certainly not the reason I'll be tuning in on Saturday night. I'll be checking in on the UCLA game not in need of a competitive game, but in need of an explosive offense completely taking advantage of a subpar team. Jalen Hurts and this Sooners offense are something to behold, and I highly recommend soaking it in and observing. Soak it in until, ya know, the next time Oklahoma has a stellar quarterback accompanied by numerous offensive playmakers.
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