Texas-Texas Tech, Oklahoma-Air Force, and Six Other Games We Can't Wait To See
Coming into the third week of the 2010 college gridiron campaign, there is much excitement in the air.
The anticipation leading up to the first two weeks of college ball has died down and slowly, week by week, teams will begin to play conference games and the unofficial “preseason” will come to a welcome end.
Week 3 will feature 111 FBS teams in action, 58 total games, and only five games where a FBS team will face a FCS team. As competition stiffens, we will begin to be able to gauge which teams are “for real” and which have just looked good against a weaker set of foes.
The college football season is a lot like the beginning of a relationship, sooner or later, the truth will come out.
The storylines are limitless: Will the ACC continue to implode? Will the national powerhouses that have struggled through the first weeks of the season improve into contenders? Will the teams that have seemed to turn the corner towards success suddenly show their true colors and tank?
The following slideshow features some of the matchups that will answer these questions and more upon the field of play. These are the games that the throng of college football enthusiasts, loyalists, indeed gridiron patriots look forward to most among the 58 games scheduled for Week 3.
Texas at Texas Tech
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The Big 12 opener for both teams (and the first ever for Coach Tommy Tuberville), the Longhorns and Red Raiders will meet for the 58th time this Saturday evening in Lubbock.
The Longhorns lead the series by a daunting 43-15 margin and are an impressive 16-10 in Lubbock. The Red Raiders' memorable victory in 2008 represented the first time Texas Tech managed a victory over Texas since 2002 when the Red Raiders won 42-38 in Lubbock.
Texas comes into the game 2-0 with underwhelming victories over Rice and Wyoming while Tech (also 2-0) thus far fills its 2010 resume with a nail-biter victory over SMU and a “better on paper” win vs. New Mexico.
Texas has struggled with its passing game and Texas Tech has struggled defending the pass. Texas has only allowed 476 yards total offense over two games while Texas Tech has allowed a substantial 754 yards of total offense in Weeks 1 and 2.
Regardless, when the lights come on at Jones Stadium, an amped-up Red Raider nation will be hungry for a win vs. the rival Longhorns. Whether playing the more athletic No. 5 Longhorns earlier in the season will be an advantage for Texas Tech or not remains to be seen.
What is certain is that the Texas Tech faithful would like nothing more than to leave Mack Brown with a blank look of shock on his face as he exits Jones Stadium late Saturday evening.
Air Force at Oklahoma
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Oklahoma fans were worried after the lackluster performance in the 2010 opener vs. Utah State (31-24).
Most of these concerns would seem to have been soothed by the Sooners week 2 47-17 manhandling of No. 17 Florida State in Norman.
The next test for Oklahoma are the Air Force Falcons, who are also 2-0 after an opening 65-21 win over the Northwestern State Demons and then their impressive 35-14 win last week vs. BYU in Colorado Springs.
The Falcons lead the nation in rushing yards with 423 yards per game while the Sooners have allowed just 203 total yards of rushing over the first two weeks of play.
Interestingly, Florida State and Utah State combined for seven turnovers in their meetings with the Sooners.
The Falcons and Sooners have only met once before in 2001 when the Sooners dismantled Air Force 44-3 in Colorado Springs.
All of a sudden, what seemed to be just the week between the Florida State and Cincinnati games for Oklahoma has turned into a provocative matchup between two teams who are looking to continue their early season success.
Arkansas at Georgia
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Regardless of the fact that AJ Green didn’t play last Saturday in Columbia, or the reality that South Carolina was favored, Georgia dropping a game to the Gamecocks 17-6 in week 2 seemed to be (at least to some folks) shocking.
The Razorbacks, on the other hand, are basically an unknown (though touted as a longshot to crash the BCS party) after convincing wins over Tennessee Tech and Louisiana-Monroe.
Georgia leads the series 9-3 and also has the edge in Athens with a 2-1 mark. The last time the Razorbacks beat the Bulldogs was way back in 1993 when Arkansas upended Georgia 20-10 in between the hedges.
A matchup between two SEC programs who were expected to vie for a shot at a SEC crown is appealing enough, but Georgia hosting the unproven but eager and talented Razorbacks in shrubbery-ensconced Athens for a game that the Bulldogs need to win (or wind up 0-2 in the SEC going into Week 4) is downright exciting.
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East Carolina at Virginia Tech
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Virginia Tech rode into the 2010 season with high hopes and plenty of questions that seemed easy enough to answer.
The reality of the first two weeks of play has been nothing less than utterly disappointing for the Hokie faithful. The 33-30 emotional loss to Boise State on Monday night was one thing, but last week's 21-16 loss to James Madison was entirely another.
Virginia Tech’s week 3 matchup with East Carolina will more than likely not only say a lot about what kind of team the Hokies are (i.e. their character) but what they can make out of what remains of their 2010 campaign.
Considering the slew of losses suffered by other ACC frontrunners, the Hokies may be down, but they are certainly not out.
The Pirates under new coach Ruffin McNeil have followed a different but equally unexpected path to Week 3. East Carolina, who lost approximately two dozen starters going into 2010, opened their season with two wins, the first (in one of the most thrilling games thus far this season) in a last second victory over Tulsa (51-49) and the second in a 49-27 win vs. Memphis.
Their meeting with the Hokies will be the first road game of their season and it remains to be seen what the lack of purple smoke and Jimmie Hendrix will do to a team that has found a way to win in Greenville.
Virginia Tech leads the overall series 10-5 and are 6-2 vs. the Pirates in Blacksburg.
Can the Hokies find a way out of the depths of despair and apply the paddles to a season that seems on the brink of cardiac arrest?
Alternatively, how good are the Pirates and can they sustain their winning ways?
You almost have to believe that most fans would be happy not to have their team going to Blacksburg to face the 0-2 Hokies.
Florida at Tennessee
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The Florida Gators certainly showed improvement over their first two games.
The Gators started the season vs. Miami (OH) with an almost bizarre 212 yards total offense. In Week 2, they managed to partially recover vs. South Florida and rack up a more respectable 423 yards of Gator "O."
Still, who are the Florida Gators and what will they do next?
Before the season started, their third game of the season seemed about as interesting as the first two: The powerful, athletic, stacked Gators vs. a Volunteer team with a new leader and more questions than answers.
Yawn...
But the 2-0 Gators still don’t inspire much confidence and have to travel to Tennessee to face a rabid Volunteer fanbase that is desperate for something good to happen to their beloved, still in the throes of therapy, program.
Tennessee opened the season by whipping up on Tennessee-Martin 50-0 but then had the beating stick turned on them during a 48-13 Week 2 thrashing by a very good Oregon team.
This matchup may be way more interesting than it looks on paper.
Florida leads the series 20-19 overall but the Volunteers are 11-9 at home. Tennessee last beat Florida in 2004 by a score of 30-28 in Knoxville.
Florida can't sleep through their visit to the Neyland Stadium.
Nebraska at Washington
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Nebraska is everyone’s favorite to repeat as the Big 12 North representative in the final Big 12 Championship.
The Cornhuskers have to feel good about their two early season victories vs. Western Kentucky and Idaho, but still have to wonder how they will fare against a more evenly matched squad.
Nebraska is No .3 overall in rushing yards per game this season with 324.5 yards per game and has the stifling “Blackshirt” defense to shut down opponents. It’s classic Nebraska football, control the game on the ground and shut the opposing offense down.
Washington, on the other hand, suffered a disappointing week 1 loss to BYU followed by a decisive victory over struggling Syracuse.
The series is tied at 3-3 overall and the teams are an even 2-2 in Seattle. The Huskies and Cornhuskers haven’t played since 1998.
It’s Jake Locker and his 1-1 Huskies trying to get one game closer to bowl eligibility vs. a Cornhusker team ready to prove it belongs in the top 10.
Add the backdrop of the hungry Huskie faithful ready to make a statement and you have the makings of a great college football game.
Notre Dame at Michigan State
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Did you know that Michigan State’s 26 victories over the Fighting Irish is second only to USC’s 34 victories over Notre Dame?
Of course, it took the Trojans 81 games to win 34 while it only took the Spartans 59 games to get their 26 wins over the Irish.
Michigan State tends to get overlooked in its own state, much less nationally, but the 2-0 Spartans have as much to prove as the Irish and are considered by many as a reasonable longshot to capture a Big Ten title.
There is always a lot of talk when the Irish take the field, and some would argue that Notre Dame receives an unfair share of the media pie.
2010 is no different, but with Brian Kelly at the helm and all the questions that swirl around the promise of a revival in South Bend, you almost have to watch, even if you hate to admit it.
Notre Dame is 32-26 overall in its series vs. the Spartans and 16-13 in East Lansing.
Chapter three of Kelly’s Irish vs. old rival Sparty in East Lansing is must-see TV.
Baylor at TCU
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Baylor vs. TCU hardly screams out as "game of the week" material. Indeed, it's hard to picture the boys from "Game Day" picking apart the Bears vs. the Horned Frogs and debating the outcome.
So much attention has been paid to TCU’s clash with Oregon State and their later season meetings with BYU, Air Force, and Utah (and the argument that they belong in the BCS National Championship discussion) that the Baylor Bears may be overlooked as a solid test for the Horned Frogs.
Baylor wants desperately to become bowl eligible in 2010, and led by QB Robert Griffin, they may just be primed to do so. Nevertheless, after two fairly easy games to start the season, the Bears must play TCU and then manage a brutal Big 12 South schedule.
Of all the neighboring Big 12 South teams TCU could have drawn, Baylor seems like the easiest target.
However, Art Briles's Bears aren’t going to just lie over and let TCU run all over them.
Baylor is scary on both sides of the ball and they will knock off someone they shouldn’t this season, possibly more than once.
The Baylor and TCU series began over 100 years ago in 1903. TCU has a marginal 48-44 overall advantage and are 19-18 vs. the Bears at home.
This could be a classic in-state Texas football game where everyone has something to prove.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
