The Five Tastiest Cupcake Games of College Football Week 9
This is going to be another great weekend of college football.
Fresh off of last week's shocking slate of upsets, there is a hearty portion of rivalry games on tap, as well as many matchups between ranked opponents.
So, with a bunch of competitive games dotting the schedule, which teams have a bit of a break?
You have to look long and hard, but there are some cupcake games out there. For some teams, they're more than a welcome sight in providing a schedule respite after a difficult stretch. Other games have teams that are simply too powerful to beat.
Regardless, some of the nation's top college teams can go ahead and put it in cruise control because they aren't losing this week.
Let's take a closer look at five of the tastiest cupcake games for Week 9.
North Carolina State at Florida State
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Florida State flexed its muscles with a 51-14 pummeling of Clemson in Death Valley last Saturday night. The Seminoles will be rewarded with a cakewalk this week.
Nobody has forgotten the Wolfpack's shocking upset of No. 3 FSU last season in Raleigh, N.C., when Mike Glennon found Bryan Underwood for a touchdown on fourth down with 16 seconds remaining. The extra point gave N.C. State a 17-16 win.
There won't be a repeat this year.
With Jameis Winston at the helm for Florida State and the second-ranked Seminoles looking like one of Bobby Bowden's old powerhouses, this one will be over by halftime. According to Sportsbook.com, the 'Noles are a 32-point favorite.
It could be even worse than that.
For a Wolfpack team that has had a difficult time scoring in conference play, playing the nation's sixth-ranked defense is not conducive to repeating an upset. This one could get ugly.
Baylor at Kansas
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Art Briles' Amazing Flying Bears Roadshow will be in Lawrence, Kan., this week, and it's going to get very ugly very quickly for the Jayhawks.
It seems that even Vegas can't set the lines high enough for Baylor.
After last week's 71-7 dismantling of Iowa State, in which the Bears easily covered the 33-point spread, oddsmakers have set this week's line at 35.5. While it has dropped a half-point, the bottom line is that nobody expects this one to be close.
Briles' offensive juggernaut is averaging a PlayStation-esque 714 yards per game, which is 71 yards more than No. 2 Oregon.
There's no evidence to suggest that Charlie Weis' Jayhawks are going to be anything more than a tiny speed bump on Baylor's fast track to an undefeated season. Weis told the Topeka Capitol-Journal's Mike Vernon that he'd try to use Kansas State's model to slow the Bears.
K-State tried to take away the run and still lost to Baylor, 35-25.
“Anything that works is a good model,” Weis told Vernon.
Florida Atlantic at Auburn
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One of the nation's biggest surprises resides down on The Plains.
The Auburn Tigers are 6-1 after beating ranked opponents Ole Miss and Texas A&M in two of the past three weeks. Gus Malzahn's team looks like it could be 10-1 heading into the Iron Bowl.
All that really stands in the way of the Tigers are road trips to Arkansas and Tennessee and a home game against injury-decimated Georgia.
This weekend's game against Florida Atlantic won't be a problem. The 2-5 Owls can't score points and they're not going to be able to stop a Tigers offense that leads the SEC with 300.1 rushing yards per game. Shockingly, the Tigers are just 24-point favorites. They'll cover that with ease.
The only key for Auburn in this one is to get through it injury-free.
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Eastern Michigan at Northern Illinois
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This is a magical two-year run for the Northern Illinois Huskies and quarterback Jordan Lynch.
After making it to the school's first Bowl Championship Series game last season before losing, 31-10, to Florida State in the Orange Bowl, the Huskies are 7-0 again this year.
Lynch continues his assault of defenses, breaking a 23-year-old school record and setting a Football Bowl Subdivision single-game record with 316 rushing yards on 32 carries in a 38-17 win over Central Michigan last week, per the Chicago Tribune.
This week, NIU will win by as much as it wants when hapless Eastern Michigan comes to Huskie Stadium.
The 1-6 Eagles are 120th out of 123 FBS teams in points allowed this season at 42.3. Couple that with the fact that they also can't score, and it's going to be a long Saturday for Eastern Michigan.
Furman at LSU
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Ole Miss stunned rival LSU last weekend with a last-second field goal to win, 27-24. That's terrible news for FCS opponent Furman, which visits Tiger Stadium to play under the lights this week.
Oddsmakers have set the line at 45.5 points, and with all that talent all over the field for Les Miles, it could be worse than that.
The Paladins are perennial powerhouses in the Southern Conference, but that isn't the case this year. They're 3-4 and were beaten handily by UT-Chattanooga a couple of weeks ago.
Though they rebounded with a 27-10 win over an Appalachian State team making the jump next year to the FBS, the Mountaineers are a completely different animal than LSU.
The Tigers are angry and they've seen their hopes for an SEC Championship Game appearance all but disappear. They could take out all their aggression on a Furman team that can't do anything to stop it.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
