Action Jackson Preview, Week 7

Posted by: Avinash on Thursday, October 11th, 2007

harbaughThere will be no liveblogs this week or for awhile, partly because it’s Homecoming Week and I’ll be out and about, partly because last Saturday’s nine hour festa threw me into such a funk I’m still trying to register my surroundings. So I’ll quickly go over this weekend’s festivities outside of Cal, and recap it sometime next week.

Believe it or not, there are big matchups happening outside of Berkeley–not like ours is terribly big on a national scale, but whatever. Here’s the brief rundown, all times PST.

Thurs.
#21 FSU (4-1) at Wake Forest (3-2), 4:45 ESPN. I can’t even take this game seriously. FSU’s last three road games: at BC, at Va. Tech, at Florida. They will lose two of these games and spoil the BCS hopes of the other. Classic 21st century Seminoles.

(EDIT: I am watching the first quarter before switching to the NLCS. You know the game is in great shape when the most exciting part is the punts.

Apparently Wake won this thing. It’s nice to have the Seminoles out of it again.)

Fri.
#16 Hawaii (6-0) at San Jose State (3-3), 5:00 ESPN. After this, Hawaii has one more road game, four more at home (Boise St. and Washington aren’t going to be cupcakes though). So if an upset’s going to happen, it needs to come now–terrible defense of the Rainbows against terrible offense of the Spartans. Should be a crapfest.

Sat.
Georgia Tech (3-3) at Miami (4-2), 9 AM, ESPN. AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID.

#18 Illinois (5-1) at Iowa (2-4), 9 AM, ESPN. Big upset at home last week for the Illini, and now some big national prominence. Going on the road against a sagging Hawkeye team. Surely, Iowa has no chance? Hmmm…

Kent St. (3-3) at #3 Ohio St. (6-0), 9 AM, BTN. Let-down game? Me hope so.

#23 Texas (4-2) at Iowa State (1-5), 9:30 AM, FSN. I predict slaughter.

#4 BC (6-0) at Notre Dame (1-5), 12:30 PM, NBC. Still need a test to judge whether the Screaming Eagles of Bahhhhston are pretenders or contenders. This is not the test.
lesbathes
#1 LSU (6-0) at #17 Kentucky (5-1), 12:30 PM, CBS. Brutal stretch for the Tigers, and after their exhausting battle in Death Valley, this could be a big test of their resolve–especially after Kentucky’s performance last week, they could overestimate their chances. Or LSU could win by 35. That Kentucky game showed a lot of flaws in that Wildcat offense, especially when they play a talented defense. In any case, hard to believe any outcome will top the Bluegrass Miracle.

#19 Wisconsin at Penn St., 12:30 PM, ABC/ESPN. Fighting for a spot in the Capital One Bowl.

#7 South Carolina at UNC, 12:30 PM, ABC/ESPN. (in ridiculous Southern twang) Steve Spurriah always has his team ready for the big game, don’t he chippah? Get yourself hollerin’ for this one ‘fella, it’s gonna be a barnburnah’.

(Terribly mangled. It’s been a long time since I lived in the South)

UConn (5-0) at Virginia (5-1), 12:30 PM, ESPNU. This might be your game of the week. ESPN has saved you the trouble to watch it by putting it on its premium U network. The battle for respectability begins.

Texas Tech (5-1) at Texas A&M (5-1), 12:30 PM, ABC. These schools long for the Cold War. Much simpler times.

#24 Georgia (4-2) at Vanderbilt (3-2), 3 PM, ESPN2. The rebound game. Was Georgia that bad or Tennessee that good?

#11 Missouri (5-0) at #6 Oklahoma (5-1), 4 PM, FSN. My guess is no one was circling this on their calendar in August.

#22 Auburn (4-2) at Arkansas (3-2), 4:45 PM, ESPN. Looks like this will be the only thing on after our game (except for the Wash-ASU fest, which I’ll get to in a bit). Strange sport where you have the Heisman frontrunner, Darren McFadden, and the offense average over 338 rushing yards, but you still manage to blow both of your SEC games. Here’s reason #1 you lose.

houstonnutt

Games not on TV worth monitoring:#25 Tennessee at Miss St. (huge game against their hated rival after this one, trap game here), Baylor at #20 Kansas (could this guy be coaching in a BCS bowl game?), Louisville at #15 Cincinnati (on ESPNU, although none of you probably get it–just to see how many points the Cards cough up).

Pac-10

Arizona (2-4) at #10 USC (4-1), 12:30 PM, ABC. Now must-see TV after USC choked the bone last week. And it looks like Sanchez will get the start. In the words of a famous man I once looked up to,

It’d be hard for me to see USC blowing two games in a row at the Coliseum. Their main tests lie far ahead.

Wazzu (2-4) at #9 Oregon (4-1), 12:30 PM. Two weeks after losing to Cal, the Ducks have moved up from where they were before the game (#11), and it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re a little bit higher after this week. At UW (a team they HATE), USC, and ASU at home to follow–a 2-1 or 3-0 stretch will leave them in prime position for the BCS.

TCU (3-3) at Stanford (2-3), 2 PM. Poor Ostrander will probably be bench-warming for another year. It’s all about Tavita baby. It’d be typical Stanford to get routed in this game, but these are not typical times.

UW (2-3) at #14 ASU (6-0), 7:15 PM, FSN. Pretty much comes down to Jake Locker making plays–the rest of the Huskies struggle with this concept. The Sun Devils did not look impressive at Wazzu (and are lucky to still be undefeated), but they play a thousand times better in Tempe (caveat: they needed a 19 point comeback against OSU to look this way, plus beat downs of San Diego St. and San Jose St., the traditional powerhouses of California football). On a sidenote, how the hell do both UCLA and ASU have a week off before facing us?

So after the madness of last week, affairs should be a little bit tamer. Which probably means another five teams in the top fifteen go sprawling. Never a dull moment in college football.



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