Not really other games since the Buffs have a much needed bye week.
On to week eight. Getting into crunch time. Some key games for teams hoping to win their conference and have a shot at the playoff or at least something better than the soggy potato chip bowl.
Other teams are just trying to stay competitive and work towards the important six wins and bowl eligibility.
And some coaches are just hoping to win enough games to keep their jobs through the end of the year.
Again we get football all week starting Tuesday night with some g5 (little g on purpose, these are FBS teams but most would get blown out by some of the better FCS programs.)
Best one is Western Kentucky (4-2) at Jacksonville State (5-2). WKU is tied for the CUSA lead at 2-0 in conference with Liberty but Jacksonville is only a game behind.
Liberty (6-0) is already bowl eligible and hosts Middle Tennessee (2-5) on Wednesday, Also that night Florida International (3-4) has lost 3 in a row. Four in a row would be a huge upset because they are at Sam Houston State (0-6) who is trying hard to be the worst team in FBS.
Thursday night gives the nation a chance to see undefeated James Madison (6-0) playing at Marshall (4-2.) Each of these teams has beaten an ACC team this year (bad ACC teams but ACC nonetheless.)
We have had some quality games scheduled on Friday nights this year. This week doesn’t have one of those. We get SMU (4-2) at Temple (2-5.)
Saturday doesn’t take long to get the big games started.
The early games feature Jerry Sandusky’s (7) Penn State Pedos at Gym Jordan’s (3) Ohio State Divert your Eyes. Both teams are 6-0 so this game has big playoff implications.
Also in the national spotlight early (22) Air Force is at Navy (3-3.) Air Force has been excellent this year but the service academy games are often unpredictable as these games are the most important on the schedule for these teams. Air Force leads the nation in rushing at 334.2 ypg (and averaging 5.62 ypc.) while the Navy is 5th at 235.7 ypg (averaging 4.91 ypc.)
Mid-day games include a couple of interesting choices.
Washington State (4-2) which just fell out of the top 25 is at (9) Oregon who is also coming off a loss to Washington. What new level of ugly will Oregon reach with their uniforms?
Biggest SEC game this week is (17) Tennessee at (11) Alabama with the Tide trying to work their way back into the top 10.
Unusual for both of these teams to be unranked, Big 12 game of the day is Oklahoma State (4-2) at West Virginia (4-2) with both teams pushing for bowl position and to move back towards the rankings.
Is Duke for real? (18) Duke starts the evening at (4) Florida State. FSU wants the playoff, Duke wants respect.
Not likely to get any respect, the Mel-Tugger less Michigan State Spartans (2-4) “welcome” their cross-state rivals (2) Michigan. Not only is Michigan pushing for a playoff berth they aren’t likely to forget or forgive last year's incident in the tunnel after the game when two Michigan players were attacked by multiple Michigan State players. Wolverines may put up a very big number.
In another PAC12 battle (14) Utah has all kinds of injury problems but they also have a history of giving all kinds of problems to (18) USC who is coming off getting blown out at Notre Dame last week.
Top ranked Georgia has a bye week.
Tempted to look at the “battle” or better labeled “slaughter” of Michigan as the blowout of the week but that dubious honor goes to Virginia (1-5) who’s only win was against a bad FCS team at (10) North Carolina who has scored 40 or more 4 times this year and 31 in each of the other two against solid defenses.
Again multiple candidates for the garbage game of the week. Avoiding the national news for rape, murder, or drug dealing and other felonies Baylor (2-4) is still committing bad football playing at Cincinnati (2-4.) The Bearcats have lost 4 in a row and it's hard to imagine that only a couple years ago they were in the playoff.
Northwestern (3-3) is a bad team as well but they have been a bad team in prior years and still managed to beat Nebraska (3-3.) If the Huskers are going to have any hope of getting their sweaty, red polyester clad fans out of that barren wasteland for a bowl game they need to win this one because after this their schedule gets much more difficult.
The PAC may provide a big blowout as (5) Washington hosts Arizona State (1-5).
Closer to home Colorado State (3-3) isn’t likely to be in position for another miracle comeback facing UNLV (5-1) in Las Vegas. After this their next two games are Air Force and at Wyoming so their margin to get a bowl game is getting very thin.
As mentioned earlier Air Force is at Navy, Wyoming has a bye week.
Northern Colorado (0-6) is at Cal Poly (2-5) who has lost 4 in a row. Not to be outdone, Northern Colorado has now managed to lose 8 in a row going back to last year. After this one the schedule for UNC gets tougher so if they are going to avoid going winless this is likely their best chance along with the Northern Arizona game near the end of the year.
The small colleges have one more week before the big game of the year between Western and Mines.
This week Colorado Mines (7-0, 5-0) is at Black Hills State (4-3, 3-2)
Western Colorado (7-0, 5-0) hosts New Mexico Highlands (2-5, 1-4)
CSU Pueblo (4-3, 3-2) is at Chadron State (3-4, 2-3)
And Fort Lewis (0-7, 0-5) who only lost by 48 last week is at South Dakota Mines (3-4, 2-3)
Useless trivia, Fort Lewis has had 17 head coaches since they started playing football as a four-year school in 1963. Only one of those coaches has a winning record, Bill Cooke who was there 1984-1987 and went 20-16-1. They have now lost 34 straight games.
On to week eight. Getting into crunch time. Some key games for teams hoping to win their conference and have a shot at the playoff or at least something better than the soggy potato chip bowl.
Other teams are just trying to stay competitive and work towards the important six wins and bowl eligibility.
And some coaches are just hoping to win enough games to keep their jobs through the end of the year.
Again we get football all week starting Tuesday night with some g5 (little g on purpose, these are FBS teams but most would get blown out by some of the better FCS programs.)
Best one is Western Kentucky (4-2) at Jacksonville State (5-2). WKU is tied for the CUSA lead at 2-0 in conference with Liberty but Jacksonville is only a game behind.
Liberty (6-0) is already bowl eligible and hosts Middle Tennessee (2-5) on Wednesday, Also that night Florida International (3-4) has lost 3 in a row. Four in a row would be a huge upset because they are at Sam Houston State (0-6) who is trying hard to be the worst team in FBS.
Thursday night gives the nation a chance to see undefeated James Madison (6-0) playing at Marshall (4-2.) Each of these teams has beaten an ACC team this year (bad ACC teams but ACC nonetheless.)
We have had some quality games scheduled on Friday nights this year. This week doesn’t have one of those. We get SMU (4-2) at Temple (2-5.)
Saturday doesn’t take long to get the big games started.
The early games feature Jerry Sandusky’s (7) Penn State Pedos at Gym Jordan’s (3) Ohio State Divert your Eyes. Both teams are 6-0 so this game has big playoff implications.
Also in the national spotlight early (22) Air Force is at Navy (3-3.) Air Force has been excellent this year but the service academy games are often unpredictable as these games are the most important on the schedule for these teams. Air Force leads the nation in rushing at 334.2 ypg (and averaging 5.62 ypc.) while the Navy is 5th at 235.7 ypg (averaging 4.91 ypc.)
Mid-day games include a couple of interesting choices.
Washington State (4-2) which just fell out of the top 25 is at (9) Oregon who is also coming off a loss to Washington. What new level of ugly will Oregon reach with their uniforms?
Biggest SEC game this week is (17) Tennessee at (11) Alabama with the Tide trying to work their way back into the top 10.
Unusual for both of these teams to be unranked, Big 12 game of the day is Oklahoma State (4-2) at West Virginia (4-2) with both teams pushing for bowl position and to move back towards the rankings.
Is Duke for real? (18) Duke starts the evening at (4) Florida State. FSU wants the playoff, Duke wants respect.
Not likely to get any respect, the Mel-Tugger less Michigan State Spartans (2-4) “welcome” their cross-state rivals (2) Michigan. Not only is Michigan pushing for a playoff berth they aren’t likely to forget or forgive last year's incident in the tunnel after the game when two Michigan players were attacked by multiple Michigan State players. Wolverines may put up a very big number.
In another PAC12 battle (14) Utah has all kinds of injury problems but they also have a history of giving all kinds of problems to (18) USC who is coming off getting blown out at Notre Dame last week.
Top ranked Georgia has a bye week.
Tempted to look at the “battle” or better labeled “slaughter” of Michigan as the blowout of the week but that dubious honor goes to Virginia (1-5) who’s only win was against a bad FCS team at (10) North Carolina who has scored 40 or more 4 times this year and 31 in each of the other two against solid defenses.
Again multiple candidates for the garbage game of the week. Avoiding the national news for rape, murder, or drug dealing and other felonies Baylor (2-4) is still committing bad football playing at Cincinnati (2-4.) The Bearcats have lost 4 in a row and it's hard to imagine that only a couple years ago they were in the playoff.
Northwestern (3-3) is a bad team as well but they have been a bad team in prior years and still managed to beat Nebraska (3-3.) If the Huskers are going to have any hope of getting their sweaty, red polyester clad fans out of that barren wasteland for a bowl game they need to win this one because after this their schedule gets much more difficult.
The PAC may provide a big blowout as (5) Washington hosts Arizona State (1-5).
Closer to home Colorado State (3-3) isn’t likely to be in position for another miracle comeback facing UNLV (5-1) in Las Vegas. After this their next two games are Air Force and at Wyoming so their margin to get a bowl game is getting very thin.
As mentioned earlier Air Force is at Navy, Wyoming has a bye week.
Northern Colorado (0-6) is at Cal Poly (2-5) who has lost 4 in a row. Not to be outdone, Northern Colorado has now managed to lose 8 in a row going back to last year. After this one the schedule for UNC gets tougher so if they are going to avoid going winless this is likely their best chance along with the Northern Arizona game near the end of the year.
The small colleges have one more week before the big game of the year between Western and Mines.
This week Colorado Mines (7-0, 5-0) is at Black Hills State (4-3, 3-2)
Western Colorado (7-0, 5-0) hosts New Mexico Highlands (2-5, 1-4)
CSU Pueblo (4-3, 3-2) is at Chadron State (3-4, 2-3)
And Fort Lewis (0-7, 0-5) who only lost by 48 last week is at South Dakota Mines (3-4, 2-3)
Useless trivia, Fort Lewis has had 17 head coaches since they started playing football as a four-year school in 1963. Only one of those coaches has a winning record, Bill Cooke who was there 1984-1987 and went 20-16-1. They have now lost 34 straight games.
