College Football Rankings 2014: Updated Outlook Before Week 3 Saturday Games
After two weeks filled with an eclectic mix of elite Top 25 matchups and cupcake mashings, the third Saturday of the 2014 college football season lands decidedly on the latter.
There are—by my rough assessment and assuming there are no catastrophic upsets—a handful of games worth giving a good damn about: Georgia at South Carolina, UCLA at Texas, East Carolina at Virginia Tech, UCF at Missouri and Louisville at Virginia.
Those are the only five games involving Top 25 teams wherein the spread is 10 points or fewer as of publication, per Odds Shark. None of those games have a spread of fewer than seven points, and some are only separated by the relatively thin margin due to the better team (UCLA, Georgia, Louisville) being away from home.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
The other 12 remaining games? Prepare for stink bomb nation. Including Friday's game between Baylor and Buffalo, those contests average a spread of 30.3 points. There are as many games expected to be decided by more than six touchdowns as there are contests projected to be decided by one (two).
The point being: If there is any week in which you would like to spend time with family during the weekend of football season, this Saturday is for you. Conference play starts ramping up a week from Saturday, and with that comes a deluge of matchups featuring the elite of the elite.
Next week, college football becomes a rightful obsession; this week, it might be better to go to Pottery Barn or take a jazz step class or go on a date or, you know, step outside and enjoy the last few nice days of the year before the frigidity of winter engulfs you into a hermetic lifestyle. Winter, my friends, is (unfortunately) coming.
For those still satisfied with spending one of those precious last few days indoors—or those of you like myself who live in an area where it'll be 60 degrees, rainy and dreary all Saturday—there will nonetheless still be enough college football on to get you through the day.
| 1 | Florida State (38) | 1,463 | 1 | Florida State (51) | 1529 | |
| 2 | Oregon (16) | 1,415 | 2 | Alabama (1) | 1435 | |
| 3 | Alabama (1) | 1,334 | 3 | Oklahoma (3) | 1408 | |
| 4 | Oklahoma (2) | 1,303 | 4 | Oregon (6) | 1407 | |
| 5 | Auburn | 1,236 | 5 | Auburn | 1312 | |
| 6 | Georgia (1) | 1,201 | 6 | Georgia (1) | 1209 | |
| 7 | Texas A&M (2) | 1,101 | 7 | Baylor | 1135 | |
| 8 | Baylor | 1,043 | 8 | Texas A&M | 1090 | |
| 9 | Southern California | 1,039 | 9 | LSU | 1034 | |
| 10 | LSU | 1,029 | 10 | USC | 999 | |
| 11 | Notre Dame | 815 | 11 | Notre Dame | 858 | |
| 12 | UCLA | 779 | 12 | UCLA | 812 | |
| 13 | Michigan State | 751 | 13 | Michigan State | 716 | |
| 14 | Mississippi | 703 | 14 | Arizona State | 646 | |
| 15 | Stanford | 592 | 15 | Ole Miss | 609 | |
| 16 | Arizona State | 570 | 16 | Stanford | 585 | |
| 17 | Virginia Tech | 532 | 17 | Wisconsin | 409 | |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 391 | 18 | Ohio State | 402 | |
| 19 | Kansas State | 285 | 19 | Virginia Tech | 349 | |
| 20 | Missouri | 237 | 20 | Kansas State | 333 | |
| 21 | Louisville | 234 | 21 | Nebraska | 310 | |
| 22 | Ohio State | 222 | 22 | Missouri | 281 | |
| 23 | Clemson | 206 | 23 | South Carolina | 232 | |
| 24 | South Carolina | 199 | 24 | Clemson | 212 | |
| 25 | BYU | 179 | 25 | North Carolina | 129 |
Beginning our pentagon of relevance is a trio of semi-interesting games beginning on or around the noon hour.
Undefeated but still with healthy doses of skepticism, Virginia Tech and Missouri will look to alleviate concerns with blowout victories.
The 17th-ranked Hokies host East Carolina on Saturday seven days removed from their shocking defeat of then-No. 8 Ohio State. Michael Brewer threw for 199 yards and two touchdowns, but the real star of the show was the defense. Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett tossed three interceptions in the second half, including a 63-yard touchdown return by Donovan Riley that capped off the 35-21 upset.
“When you watch TV and stuff, everybody is like, ‘You know Bud’s going to come up with something crazy for this,’ and you get to see it first,” senior linebacker Derek DiNardo told Mark Giannotto of The Washington Post. “It’s like Christmas coming in on Tuesdays.”
Frank Beamer's program has gone back-to-back seasons without finishing in the Top 25 for the first time in two decades. Saturday's win vaulted the Hokies from also-ran status in the ACC to right within the national conversation—a conversation East Carolina would like to abruptly end.
The Pirates nearly went on the road and upset South Carolina last week behind 321 yards passing from Shane Carden, but they sputtered down the stretch. With a more shaky offense to face this week, their plans of an upset aren't entirely out of the question.
In the meantime, the Gamecocks will go about exacting an upset of their own when they host Georgia. The first two weeks of 2014 have been nothing short of an unmitigated mess for Steve Spurrier's team, descending from a possible playoff contender to nearly out of the Top 25.
At the root of the problem has been the Gamecocks' typically brilliant defense. Kenny "Trill" Hill was born on the opening Saturday of the season with a 52-point explosion in Columbia, South Carolina, and East Carolina may have pulled off an upset if it weren't for turnovers.
Georgia, for what it's worth, has proved itself something of a pretty decent offensive football team. Todd Gurley looked like God in shoulder pads in the team's Week 1 thumping of Clemson. The verdict is still out on whether quarterback Hutson Mason can lead an elite college offense, but we'll find out Saturday. Look for South Carolina to load the box and dare Mason to beat it over the top.
Missouri will be going head-to-head with a UCF team without much in terms of known quantities. The Knights lost their opening game two weeks ago to Penn State, but it's hard to discern much from a game played halfway around the world. Sophomore Justin Holman will also be making his first career start Saturday after being leaps and bounds better than Pete DiNovo against the Nittany Lions.
Missouri has had no such positional issues, but it is getting its first real test of 2014. The Tigers basically had walkover wins their first two weeks, defeating South Dakota State and Toledo a combined 87-42. Maty Mauk should have success against a UCF secondary that allowed Penn State's Christian Hackenberg to throw for more than 300 yards.
The day's other two notable games are special for entirely different reasons. At 12:30 p.m. ET, Louisville will be in Charlottesville to take on Virginia. For Louisville, though, this will mark the dawning of a new era—its first road game as a member of the ACC. The Cardinals have opened with wins over Miami and Murray State to kick off the post-Charlie Strong era.
Virginia is 1-1 on the season, but its loss came in a surprisingly close game against UCLA.
Capping off the night is a matchup of two teams inherently linked to the aforementioned Cavaliers and Cardinals. Strong's new team, Texas, will host the same Bruins team that escaped a Virginia upset. The Longhor—wait, am I really trying to hype up a game featuring a team that lost 41-7 last week to BYU?
Please, for the love of your family and friends, go outside this week. Next week's rankings are probably just going to be a copy-and-paste anyway.
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
