College Football Weekend: Week Five Preview and Predictions

(Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

So, college football coaches, what’s a national title worth to you?

We know it’s worth a whole lot of offseason work, countless hours staring at film and long weeks away from home on the recruiting trail.

We know it’s worth the pressure of making tough decisions, even some that will be highly unpopular with players, fans and school administration.

We also know that it’s worth sometimes taking risks, doing something you perhaps normally wouldn’t do, all in hopes of winning that elusive crystal football.

But, with all of the glory and (potential) big bucks that can come with it, is winning a BCS title worth risking the health of your star player?

In the next two weeks, two coaches, Bob Stoops of Oklahoma and Florida’s Urban Meyer, will be faced with difficult decisions: let their injured quarterbacks play (and risk further, possibly more serious injury), or bench them (and risk losing games that could derail any hopes of a national title)?

And this is why most of us are not college football coaches. I, for one, would not want to have to make the call between risking a player’s future and playing to win a game that could determine not just the fate of your season, but your coaching career, too.

Some would say it’s a simple choice: you never risk the long-term health (or career) of a young football player just for the sake of winning a game. It’s only a game, after all.

But what makes Stoops’ and Meyer’s decisions more difficult is that the players themselves – OU’s Sam Bradford and Florida’s Tim Tebow – desperately want to play. And their teammates want them on the field, too, for huge upcoming matchups.

Oklahoma, which lost its opener to BYU (the night Bradford was injured) gets a road test Saturday at Miami. If the Sooners lose this, they’re likely out of the national title discussion.

And Florida (who is off this week), travels to No. 4 LSU next weekend in a game that has produced the last three national champions. It’s been simple math lately: whoever wins the LSU-Florida game, wins the BCS title.

Even if the coaching staffs (and medical consultants) agree that Bradford and Tebow shouldn’t play in their respective big games, that’s not going to stop the players themselves from doing everything they can to get on the field.

For the first time in a while, it appears injuries may just help determine college football’s national champion.

So, coach Stoops and coach Meyer, what will it be?

To week five we go...

Looking back (how my picks fared last week)

Overall: 10/18, 41/63 (65%) on the season

Top Five: 3/5, 12/20 (60%) on the season

Upset Special (Stanford over Washington): 1/1, 3/4 (75%) on the season

Top five games you can’t miss this weekend

5. Washington at Notre Dame (Sat. 3:30 EST, NBC)

A week after shocking USC in Seattle, Washington laid an egg at Stanford, falling 34-14 to the Cardinal. So, that whole top-25 ranking thing was fun while it lasted. But Washington still looks like a good team, and you can’t pretend like the win over the Trojans never happened.

Notre Dame, on the other hand, is coming off another “squeaker” victory against Purdue last week. The Irish have not looked pretty since an opening week win over Nevada, but they’re finding ways to win.

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