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Week 9 Featured Games
Thursday
Kentucky at Mississippi State, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN
Spread: Mississippi State -10.5
Announcers: Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack
All-Time Series: Mississippi State leads 20-19
Last Meeting: 10/6/12 Mississippi State 27, Kentucky 14
Reason to Watch: Now I know Thursday night doesn’t always bring the highest quality of teams but who thought subjecting the nation to a Kentucky game was a good idea going into the season? Surprisingly despite being the worst team in the SEC and not finishing a season ranked in the AP Top 25 in nearly 30 years, they have a dynamite recruiting class coming in 2014 (currently ranked #7 by Rivals). Obviously they are either committing major recruiting violations or they told all of their recruits they are actually going to play for the basketball team. Mississippi State it seems peeked under Dan Mullen with their nine win season in 2010. They are going to have to pull off an upset somewhere in order to become bowl eligible this year. Mullen’s seat is only warm at the moment but it will become blistering hot if he loses to Kentucky.
Back Up Game: Marshall at Middle Tennessee, 7:30/4:30 PM, FOXS1
Friday
Boise State at BYU, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN
Spread: BYU -7.5
Announcers: Carter Blackman, Danny Kannell
All-Time Series: Boise State leads 3-0
Last Meeting: 9/20/12 Boise State 7, BYU 6
Reason to Watch: Although they’re 5-2 this is pretty much a lost season for Boise State given their usual standards. The season got worse last week as quarterback Joe Southwick broke his ankle. They could very well pick up their third loss of the season here, something that hasn’t happened to them in the regular season since 2005. Their defense isn’t particularly good and their playing a BYU team that’s averaging almost 40 points a game over the past month. It’s a safe bet we’ll clear the 13 total points of last year’s game.
Early Saturday
#24 Nebraska at Minnesota, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN
Spread: Nebraska -10.5
Announcers: Dave Pasch, Brian Griese
All-Time Series: Minnesota leads 29-22-2
Last Meeting: 11/17/12 Nebraska 38, Minnesota 14
Reason to Watch: Nebraska so far this year has beaten Wyoming, Southern Miss, South Dakota State, Illinois, and Purdue. This week they start the “tough” part of their schedule against Minnesota who is probably the quietest five win team in the country. The strength of the Gophers schedule picked up last week when they beat an overrated but still decent Northwestern team. They are probably going to be underdogs in all of their remaining games so bowl eligibility is not a given even though they need to just one more win. They also need one more win to assure they finish the season with more wins than Jerry Kill seizures.
Back Up Game: Pittsburgh at Navy, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, CBSSN
Mid-day Saturday
#10 Texas Tech at #15 Oklahoma, 3:30/12:30 PM, FOX
Spread: Oklahoma -7
Announcers: GUS JOHNSON, Charles Davis
All-Time Series: Oklahoma leads 14-6
Last Meeting: 10/6/12 Oklahoma 41, Texas Tech 20
Reason to Watch: Going from a quiet five win team to the quietest undefeated team. Absolutely no one is paying attention to Texas Tech but here they are 7-0 and ranked #10 in the BCS despite starting two freshman quarterbacks. Oklahoma is 6-1 but impressing nobody. Still stinging from their humiliation in the Red River Shootout they sleepwalked through the first half against lowly Kansas last week and didn’t really put the game away until late in the 4th quarter. These two teams having been trading victories each of the last eight years and based on the current trend it would be Tech’s turn to win.
Back Up Game: Tennessee at #1 Alabama, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBS
Primetime Saturday
#12 UCLA at #3 Oregon, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN – ***GAME OF THE WEEK***
Spread: Oregon -22.5
Announcers: Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit
All-Time Series: UCLA leads 39-26
Last Meeting: 12/2/11 Oregon 49, UCLA 31
Reason to Watch: While this technically is the Game of the Week this has the chance to get out of hand very quickly although I suppose you could say that for almost any Oregon game. UCLA’s troublesome offensive line was exposed badly last week by Stanford. The Bruins at this point just need to hope to survive the Stanford/Oregon back-to-back as Washington’s season has seemed to go off the rails after they had to go through the same trial. Oregon pulled off the rare feat last week of being a team who blew out their opponent and was pissed that the other team didn’t pull their starters as Wazzu “ran up” the score to make it look closer than it really was. Ducks may be cute but they really are assholes.
Back Up Game: #21 South Carolina at #5 Missouri, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2
Late Night Saturday
#6 Stanford at #25 Oregon State, 10:30/7:30 PM, ESPN
Spread: Stanford -3.5
Announcers: Mark Jones, Brock Huard
All-Time Series: Stanford leads 51-25-3
Last Meeting: 11/10/12 Stanford 27, Oregon State 23
Reason to Watch: Stanford’s BCS title hopes went from none to slim after a season’s worth of upsets happened last week to allow them to jump in at #6 in the first BCS standings of the year. Although their win over UCLA wasn’t quite as exhausting as their win over Washington they need to be careful of another road letdown here like they had against Utah. Oregon State has the most bizarre record in the country as they are undefeated in FBS but 0-1 versus FCS. If they run the table maybe we could have a rematch of them against Eastern Washington in the BCS title game.
Back Up Game: California at Washington, 11:00/8:00 PM, FOXS1
Week 9 Game Rankings
1. UCLA at Oregon
2. South Carolina at Missouri
3. Texas Tech at Oklahoma
4. Stanford at Oregon State
5. Texas at TCU
6. Boise State at BYU (Fri.)
7. Vanderbilt at Texas A&M
8. Utah at USC
9. Tennessee at Alabama
10. Penn State at Ohio State
11. Northwestern at Iowa
12. West Virginia at Kansas State
13. Nebraska at Minnesota
14. Clemson at Maryland
15. Michigan State at Illinois
16. Duke at Virginia Tech
17. Boston College at North Carolina
18. Houston at Rutgers
19. Pittsburgh at Navy
20. Toledo at Bowling Green
21. Wake Forest at Miami
22. Oklahoma State at Iowa State
23. Arizona at Colorado
24. Georgia Tech at Virginia
25. Kentucky at Mississippi State (Thur.)
26. N.C. State at Florida State
27. Baylor at Kansas
28. California at Washington
29. Tulsa at Tulane
30. Fresno State at San Diego State
31. Marshall at Middle Tennessee (Thur.)
32. Florida Atlantic at Auburn
33. Louisville at South Florida
34. UNLV at Nevada
35. Buffalo at Kent State
36. Wyoming at San Jose State
37. South Alabama at Texas State
38. Troy at Western Kentucky
39. Notre Dame at Air Force
40. Temple at SMU
41. UAB at UTSA
42. Connecticut at UCF
43. UTEP at Rice
44. Ball State at Akron
45. Louisiana Tech at FIU
46. Idaho at Mississippi
47. North Texas at Southern Miss
48. Western Michigan at Massachusetts
49. Eastern Michigan at Northern Illinois
50. Miami (OH) at Ohio
51. Georgia State at Louisiana-Monroe
Featured Image Credit: Kirby Lee/USA Today
