College Football's Top Teams Have A Few Dangerous Roads To Travel This Weekend
Six of the Top 10 teams in the current BCS Rankings will take their show on the road this Saturday. And judging from what we’ve seen the previous three weekends, that’s probably the last place they all want to be.
For three straight weeks, we’ve watched the top ranked team in the nation get cut down in foreign territory. First Alabama, then Ohio State and finally Oklahoma this past weekend.
Now it's Auburn, led by quarterback Cameron Newton, who sits in the driver’s seat as the No. 1 team in the BCS Rankings, but whether or not they can hold steady and stay there for the rest of the season still remains a big mystery.
Assuming that TCU finds a way to come up with a victory when they visit 1-6 UNLV (Even the boys in the Rebels’ hometown think they’ll get trampled by at least five touchdowns), that leaves five other top ten teams with major road hurdles to get by this weekend.
With the way things are going this season, it doesn’t seem likely that all five will survive unscathed.
No. 1 Auburn Heads to Mississippi
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Auburn quarterback Cam Newton has been sensational in the first eight weeks of play, guiding the Tigers to an undefeated record and in the process garnering some much deserved attention for the Heisman Trophy.
Remember though that Auburn has only played two road games so far this year, an early season tussle with Mississippi State and a shootout with Kentucky two weeks ago. They ended up winning both contests by just a field goal.
Now as they had back on the road for just the third time this season, they’ll have to regroup after an emotional triumph over LSU while also trying to downplay the pressure attached to their brand new No. 1 ranking.
This 3-4 Ole Miss team may have had their fair share of struggles early on, but they aren’t short on talent.
Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was one of the stars of the 2009 season and running back Brandon Bolden is one of the most underrated runners in the country.
To top it off, the Rebels have one of the best rush defenses in the SEC led by big defensive tackle Jerrell Powe and heady linebacker Jonathan Cornell.
No. 2 Oregon Heads to USC
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Everyone loves to talk about this vaunted, explosive Oregon offense but remember that the Ducks haven’t exactly been rolling up these kinds of points on the ‘85 Chicago Bears.
New Mexico, Washington State, Portland State, Tennessee, Arizona State—there’s not a lot to love about Oregon's early schedule.
Yes, they turned on the heat against a strong Stanford team but outside of that, they haven’t proven much against quality competition.
Let’s see the type of tempo the Ducks offense plays with at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a place where they’ve been outscored 79-20 in their last two trips.
Sure, the USC defense hasn’t exactly had much to brag about this season. But you can bet a lot of those players are still stinging from the 47 points and 600 yards they gave up to Oregon in last year’s embarrassment.
Lane Kiffin is still searching for his signature win as USC Head Coach, and you can bet that taking down the Ducks in front of the home crowd would go a long way towards scoring him some credibility points with the Trojan faithful.
No. 5 Michigan State Heads to Iowa
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It took at least a half a football before Michigan State finally woke up (those early road start times are killers, aren’t they?) in Evanston last weekend, but the Spartans were able to prevail in the end over a game Northwestern team.
The win leaves Michigan State standing at 8-0 with four Big Ten battles remaining on their slate. The most difficult of those games looks to be this weekend’s matchup with the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City.
The meetings between these two schools have been close recently with the last three games being decided by a total of 12 points.
The Hawkeyes are sure to be disgruntled about their loss to Wisconsin last week, and this isn’t the type of defense you want to face when they’re mad.
This is just the third road game of the season for Michigan State. Remember that Coach Mark Dantonio only has a 12-21 career record when coaching away from home.
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No. 6 Missouri Heads to Nebraska
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Any college football coach in America will tell you that one of most difficult tasks a coach can face is trying to get his team focused and prepared following a major win.
We see let down performances almost every weekend in college football, and this looks to be the type of situation that would breed just that.
Missouri finally got the Oklahoma monkey off their back last weekend, and I’m sure the town of Columbia celebrated a win over a No. 1 ranked team to the fullest extent.
Well, guess what? Party's over.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers aren’t the type of team that’s going to be running scared just because the Tigers got the upset last weekend.
Nebraska still has a chip on their shoulder after failing to get the job done against Texas, and this is the type of team that could go into “we’re mad and now we’re on a mission” mode throughout the rest of the season.
Could this one get ugly?
Yeah.
No. 8 Utah Heads to Air Force
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This one just has the look of a classic look ahead game doesn’t it?
Utah is all pumped up for their undefeated showdown with TCU next weekend for the Mountain West Crown. And it’s safe to say that the last thing the Utes want to do right now is head to Colorado and try and contain that frustrating flexbone offense that Air Force is going to run at them.
Falcon running backs Asher Clark and Jared Tew are a dangerous duo, but it remains to be seen how effective they can be against a Utah defense that ranks No. 1 in the Mountain West against the run.
You never know though.
Las Vegas has the spread for this one set at seven, and something about that smells a little fishy to me.
Hmmm
So Who Falls?
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If I had to pick the team I think is most likely to stumble, I would say it's the Missouri Tigers.
Going up against quarterback Taylor Martinez and that merciless Nebraska defense isn't something that will be easy, following such an emotional win over Oklahoma just a week ago.
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