CFB Games of the Week – Week 4: Wisconsin-Ohio State, Clemson-Wake, Arkansas-Texas A&M and more

Before we begin, there’s something that needs to be said about some of the traditional ‘blue blood’ college basketball powerhouses and their football programs. For the sake of this, we’ll bring up Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, UCLA, and Syracuse.

These schools have not been known much for their gridiron dominance. Of the seven listed above, they have a combined 40 college basketball titles. Yet, only the 1954 UCLA Bruins and the 1959 Syracuse Orange have been recognized as consensus national champions in football. Kentucky claims the 1950 title, but Oklahoma was consensus champion that year.

Of these schools only Syracuse running back Ernie Davis has won the Heisman Trophy as the best college football player in America.

All this is to say, they all have provided more for college athletics on the court than the football field.

Yet, for the first time in history (as pointed out by CBS’s Matt Norlander), all seven are 3-0 going into week 4. While Kansas-Duke will prevent one of those seven from being perfect, Syracuse takes on Virginia, Kentucky plays Northern Illinois, Indiana visits Cincinnati, UNC hosts Notre Dame, and UCLA travels to Colorado.

With that little quirk in the matrix out of the way, our Game of the Week pick for last week was spot on, with Miami and Texas A&M producing a close, hard fought contest that led to the Aggies making the home crowd happy. 

Elsewhere among our picks, Washington upset Michigan State at home, Penn State may prevent Auburn from ever inviting a Big Ten team to the Plains again, NC State silenced a threat from Texas Tech, and Oregon put away a pesky BYU team with ease.

In our honorable mentions, Notre Dame finally got their first win of the Marcus Freeman era, Florida State won a Friday night thriller in Louisville and Oklahoma further embarrassed Nebraska.

This Saturday has some tantalizing matchups. We finally open the keg on big-time rivalries with two top-25 contests in the SEC, an ACC clash in the Carolinas, and a possible preview of the Big Ten Championship game.

Welcome to Week 4 of the college football season. Here are the Dailymail.com picks for games to keep an eye on…

Honorable Mentions

• Minnesota Golden Gophers (3-0) @ Michigan State Spartans (2-1) (Saturday @ 3:30 ET / Big Ten Network/ Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI) I’ve been dying to talk about Minnesota for weeks now. They have the 2nd best offense in the country by yards-per-game-average AND the 2nd best defense in the country by the same metric. They also are 4th in points-allowed-per game and 8th in points-scored-per-game. While the three games they’ve played were against weaker opponents, a win over Sparty should put them into the top-25.
• Stanford Cardinal (1-1) @ No. 18 Washington Huskies (3-0) (Saturday @ 10:30 pm ET / FS1/ Husky Stadium, Seattle, WA)  Following last week’s big upset over Michigan State, Michael Penix Jr. and company welcome a relatively easier team to Seattle. Stanford’s only blemish is a loss to a top-10 USC team, which could provide trouble for the Huskies. Both teams want to prove they’re legitimate and Stanford could do that with an upset. For Washington, this is resume building territory as they try to sneak into the playoffs.
• No. 17 Baylor Bears (2-1) @ Iowa State Cyclones (3-0) (Saturday @ Noon ET / ESPN2 / Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IA)  This could be a trap game for the Bears, who suffered a home loss to BYU a few weeks ago. Baylor has a slightly better offense than Iowa State, but the Cyclones have the top defense in the Big 12 and a top-10 defense in the country in yards allowed. One matchup to keep an eye on is Baylor’s running game vs. Iowa State’s run defense. Baylor averages 235 rushing yards per game, while Iowa State has allowed an average of only 60 rushing yards per game.

Game 1: No.22 Texas Longhorns (2-1) @ Texas Tech Red Raiders (2-1)

• Saturday at 3:30 (ESPN) / Jones AT&T Stadium, Lubbock, TX 

Allow me, if you will, to travel back to the most important game between these two teams – and the last time the Red Raiders beat Texas at home in the rivalry known as the Battle for the Chancellor’s Spurs.

Both teams were 8-0 coming into the matchup on November 1, 2008. The No. 1 ranked Texas seemed destined for the BCS title game in a few weeks. But Tech was ranked No. 7 in the country and determined to win its first game over the Longhorns since 2002. 

With Texas up 33-32 with eight seconds remaining, the ball was in the hands of Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell after leading a drive to the Texas 28 yard-line. Harrell snapped the ball and looked toward sophomore Michael Crabtree. 

Crabtree pulled away from Longhorns CB Curtis Brown and waltzed into the end zone to give the Red Raiders their first – and so far only – win over a No. 1 ranked team. The win dashed Texas’s hopes of going to the BCS Championship game that season – one they almost certainly would have made if not for the loss. Instead, they settled for the title game next year, where a loss to Alabama kicked off their dynasty.

Outside of the greater context, the Longhorns got revenge over Texas Tech with a six-game win streak in their next few meetings. 

Since 2008’s win, Texas Tech has only beaten the Longhorns twice, with both games being close affairs. This season, Tech has shown an aptitude for an upset, with a week 2 win over No. 25 Houston in double OT. Last week, they lost by about two touchdowns to No. 16 NC state.

On the other hand, Texas took a then-No. 1 ranked Alabama team to the wire in Austin, losing a 20-19 nail biter. There’s one major piece missing from that squad which almost stopped the Crimson Tide. Texas QB Quinn Ewers suffered a joint sprain projected to miss as much as six weeks. 

Backup Hudson Card won last week’s match against UTSA, but a win over Texas Tech might be too much to ask from him. Ewers is back in practice with the Horns and will travel with the team, but it’s not likely he plays in Lubbock. 

Game 2: Wisconsin Badgers (2-1) @ No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes (3-0)

• Saturday @ 7:30 ET (ABC) / ‘The Horseshoe’ Ohio Stadium, Columbus, OH 

We haven’t discussed these two teams all that much, but as things stand right now, we could see them play each other again in the Big Ten Championship game.

Ohio State fell back from No. 2 to No. 3 in the rankings after their close, yet unconvincing win over then 5th ranked Notre Dame in their season opener. Since then, dominations over Arkansas State and Toledo haven’t inspired enough eyeballs to tune in.

That’s not to say they haven’t tried. QB C.J. Stroud threw for 367 yards and five TDs against Toledo – then let backup Kyle McCord grab 115 yards and a TD of his own through the air. Three different players – Emeka Egbuka, Jayden Ballard, and Marvin Harrison Jr. – all caught for over 100 yards and each got at least one TD catch.

The Buckeyes have used the last two games to recover from injuries before getting into Big Ten play. Last game, top wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba saw limited looks and starting OL Luke Wypler returned from being hurt as well.

For Wisconsin, they’ve also dealt with an injury bug hitting top CB Alexander Smith, LB Aaron Witt, and S Hunter Wohler – keeping all three out this game.

The Badgers are still recovering from a shocking week 2 loss to Washington State, which saw them knocked out of the top-25 and falling behind rival Minnesota in the Big Ten West race.  

QB Graham Mertz has yet to throw for over 255 yards this season, but has six passing TDs to his credit. Look for offensive production from rusher Braelon Allen – who’s a top-20 rusher by yards and is T-6th nationally for the most rushing touchdowns with five.

Ohio State is still projected to win this game, but with Minnesota gaining strength in their division, Wisconsin enters Columbus knowing a win could help push them in the right direction by the end of the year.  

Game 3: No. 5 Clemson Tigers (3-0) @ No. 21 Wake Forest Demon Deacons (3-0)

• Saturday at Noon (ABC) / Truist Field, Winston-Salem, NC

The last time these teams were both ranked going into this matchup, Wake Forest University was still in Wake Forest, North Carolina. The Tigers were ranked 16th and the Demon Deacons were ranked 17th on October 28th, 1950. The final score was 13-12 in favor of the Tigers. Wake Forest wouldn’t beat Clemson again until 1961 – with the school having moved to Winston-Salem by that point.

That’s mostly been the way things have gone between these two teams. Clemson, owns a 69-1-17 record against the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest wins have come sparingly, mostly interrupting double digit win streaks for Clemson.

That’s the case this time around, with Clemson carrying a 13-game win streak into Winston-Salem. Wake Forest has not beaten the Tigers since 2008. Unbeknownst to fans of either side, that was the most important loss in school history for Clemson, who was under the direction of head coach Tommy Bowden at the time.

Clemson was ranked No. 9 in the country in the preseason and the Tigers were expected to win their first ACC title with Bowden at the helm. Instead, the 12-7 loss to Wake dropped the Tigers to 3-3 on the season. Bowden resigned after the humiliation and never coached football again.

In his place, the job of interim head coach was handed to a relatively unknown wide receivers coach named Dabo Swinney. The rest is history. Since that fateful day, Swinney has guided the Tigers to eight ACC title games, winning seven of them. He also brought the school two national titles, their first since 1981.

For Wake Forest to win, things need to click right away. The sudden return of QB Sam Hartman – who was out to start the season with a blood clot – has been a boon to the Demon Deacons offense. They eeked out a one-point win over Liberty last weekend, with Hartman throwing for 325 yards, three touchdowns, and two picks.

‘They’re still the measuring stick,’ Wake head coach Dave Clawson said of the Tigers. ‘They’ve been the class of the ACC and our goal is to be the best program in the ACC.’ 

Time to see if the Deacons can snap that measuring stick in half. 

Game 4 : No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks (3-0) v. No. 23 Texas A&M Aggies (2-1)

• Saturday @ 7:00 ET (ESPN) / AT&T Stadium, Arlington TX (neutral site)

The first of our two big SEC matches starts in the SEC West with a fun-filled day at Jerryworld in a classic rivalry dating back to when both teams were in the Southwest Conference. The owner of the Cowboys invites his alma-mater to Dallas as they’ve been rolling to start the season.

Arkansas is back in the top-10 with wins over a ranked Cincinnati and their first SEC opponent in South Carolina. The success means head coach Sam Pittman has had more than enough Saturdays to indulge in some ol’ cold beer.

He may have needed a lot of it last weekend after the Razorbacks were down 17-0 to Missouri State at one point. They ended up coming back to win 38-27 thanks to great efforts from QB KJ Jefferson and and RB Raheim Sanders. Arkansas went ahead thanks to an 82-yard punt return with 9:16 left in the game.

Offensively, this is a mismatch in favor of Arkansas. Defensively, this is a mismatch in favor of the Aggies. 

Texas A&M QB Haynes King has only 461 passing yards across three games, with 259 of those going to Ainias Smith. Last game, they switched it up at QB – going with LSU transfer Max Johnson – but his numbers weren’t that impressive either. Rushing hasn’t been much better, with Devon Achane only mustering 196 yards.

But the Aggie defense is top-10 in FBS football for least-points-allowed-per-game and least rushing-yards-allowed-per-game. Last weekend, that defense prevented a No. 13 Miami team from scoring any touchdowns. It forced Miami RB Henry Parrish Jr. to have his first sub-100-yard rushing day of the year.

That battle between the Razorbacks offense and the Aggies defense will be the main reason to tune in Saturday night. It will provide insight into which team has the better chance to knock Alabama off its throne in the SEC West.

Game of the Week: No. 20 Florida Gators (2-1) @ No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers (3-0)

• Saturday @ 3:30 ET (CBS) / Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN

It’s an SEC East rivalry game on ol’ Rocky Top that we’re picking as our Game of the Week.

Florida is still in the national conversation despite a loss at home to a highly ranked Kentucky team. They followed that up with a very shaky looking win over South Florida. 

QB Anthony Richardson has shown flashes of brilliance, but has yet to throw for a touchdown. Against USF, he only attempted 18 passes, completing 10 of them for 112 yards and two costly interceptions. He deferred to RB Montrell Johnson Jr. for the offensive spotlight and Johnson delivered – grabbing 103 yards and a touchdown on only six carries.

The Gators defense has given up at least 26 points in each game they’ve played this season. They’ll need to clamp down if they have any hope of containing the 3rd best offense in the country.

The Volunteers average over 550 yards of offense per game. Add to that an average of 52 points per game, and you have a recipe for a firestorm. Sure, most of that came from wins over Ball State and Akron, but their 34-27 win over then-no. 17 Pittsburgh away in the Steel City was no small feat.

QB Hendon Hooker is top-30 in the country in passing yards and leads an offense that’s the fifth best passing team in the land. Look to wide receivers Cedric Tillman and Jalin Hyatt to be main targets – especially Hyatt, as Tillman is listed as day-to-day ahead of Saturday’s game.

The Vols have been tested, but not quite proven. Pittsburgh was an important start for their season and Florida could boost their resume even higher. They’re listed as -10.5 point favorites in the betting world and they need all the help they can get.

It’s not expected for Tennessee to truly challenge Kentucky or Georgia as the top dog in the SEC East, but it’s wins like these that can convince your team that you actually have a fighting chance. With a possible capacity crowd of over 101,000 fans going to Neyland, they’ll want some of that belief too.