CFB Weekend Preview: Yawn

by Suckatsports

College football weekend preview will run weekly, and will take a quick gander at some of the upcoming games. Quick breakdowns and predictions will be included, but don't quote it on SportsBook, they'll still take your money.

This week has to be one of the most boring college football weeks in recent memory. In fact, ESPN is probably having such a difficult time finding where Gameday should go, that they should do one of those things where they sit in the big leather chairs. It's like they're waiting for their attorneys. I'm watching you baby arm. But really, this rivals the first weekend of the season, when most teams are playing 1AA opponents. I feel bad even writing about it.

If you could watch one game this weekend, you'll probably end up watching baseball. Yes people, that slow. There is a halfway decent matchup, most likely to be repeated in the Big 12 championship game: Missouri at Oklahoma. To be fair, even though seven weeks or so, I really don't know how good Missouri is, maybe it has to do with the fact that they aren't a historical football program. I just don't know, in fact, it seems that I may not know much about college football this year. Oklahoma is a sizable favorite, and even though Missouri was impressive in dispatching overrated Nebraska 41-6 last week, it still looks like a lot of people don't believe they can really compete. What do I see? I see a great offensive set with Chase Daniel finding the open man, almost always. I also see an offense that is created to compensate for the lack of actual physical talent (save for a few players). Oklahoma lost at Colorado (looking ahead), but Texas hung around more than it should have been allowed. I like Oklahoma big in this game, I think they're too athletic, and I'm still in love with local Ohio Boy Bob Stoops as a coach. Oklahoma 48, Missouri 21.

Other games that need your attention :

1. LSU at Kentucky. Wait, shouldn't this be the game of the week? No, I don't think so, even though I was on the Kentucky bandwagon. I still like Andre Woodson a lot, but this is a terrible matchup for the Wildcats. LSU is just too good on both sides of the ball with their consistency and power on both offense and defense. This is specifically bad for Kentucky because LSU plays defense, and they do not. I'm not a huge fan of the transitive property but it works pretty good here. LSU beat South Carolina's brains in, even though it was in Death Valley. South Carolina and the OBC pretty much kept Kentucky under wraps, with a far less vaunted defense. This almost never works for football. I'd love to see Kentucky win, because it would tab LSU with a loss, but like many people I not only think they'll win, but they'll cover the nearly 10 points they're giving. Home crowd isn't enough to throw LSU off its game. LSU 37, Kentucky 17.
2. Illinois at Iowa. That's not really fair, because almost no Big 10 game this season ever deserves your attention. Watch out for Illinois though they are really talented, and not just with relation to the Big 10, but with relation to the entire country. SEC fans can start with their taunts, that Zook can turn around a program in two years, but couldn't sniff an SEC title game. That being said, this has to be looked at as a trap game. Illinois is coming off two consecutive wins against ranked teams for the first time since Red Grange has been there. But, both of these wins were at home, and against, overrated teams. If they're too high on themselves, a good defensive unit like Iowa can really cause issues. This is something you'll want to keep an eye on. Illinois 20, Iowa 17.
3. Louisville at Cincinnati. As mentioned earlier, this week is really a snoozer. However, this is a real game, and Cincinnati is a real team. ESPN is talking about taking Gameday to the USF/Cincinnati game if both teams are undefeated. Well, guess what, both of these won't be. This is an upset alert, and I'm giving the note to Brian Kelly early. First of all, taking Louisville because they're getting 10.5 is an easy call, but I like them for the straight up win. Cincinnati is really flying high, they just beat Rutgers for the second time in two years, they're undefeated, and their offense looks like the best show on turf. ESPN is talking about going to their games, and they're playing at home. They're confident, they're excited, and they're undefeated. This is a perfect storm for the Bearcats to get a dose of reality. Louisville 41, Cincinnati 40.

Heisman Lookout. So, who's this Matt Ryan fellow? We haven't spoken about him at all, and Todd McShay likes him as the clear favorite to win the bronze trophy. I'm not so sure anyone is a clear favorite at this point because all the pre-season guys are on teams that may really start to struggle in the next couple of weeks. Surely we can't continue to give it to the quarterback on the best team: Matt Flynn isn't one, and Booty just lost to Stanford. So, how about Matt Ryan going to ND and really puts his name on the list. As those pompous ND fans say, you get the Heisman Trophy by either play well for the Irish, or against the Irish.

Notes. Tony Joiner ended up playing for Florida in their loss to LSU, which is great. Nothing says that the program is in complete control of their athletes when the boosters can quickly pay off a guy about to press charges. This is an embarrassment. At least all other schools actually suspend the players that get in trouble, and Joiner got nothing but Captain removed from his name. What a deterrent.

This went under the radar, but Michigan also held out Marrio Manngingham in the win against Eastern Michigan for unspecified rule breakage. I'm going to go on a limb here and say that this convinient unspecified rule breaking happened several weeks before, and it just so happens that this is the week they could live without him. Notorious for reinstating without explanation, Lloyd Carr did a similar thing with Adrian Arrington this summer, when he realized their receiving core was going to be thin. He and Meyer went to the same school for winning.

Price of parity [SI.com: Stewart Mandel]

UM's Carr confirms: Manningham out vs. EMU [Detroit Free Press]

This post is cross-published from We Suck at Sports.