Trent's Touchdown: Six Games to Watch in Week Four

While I am willing to admit that Week Three wasn’t all it could have been, it sure as hell beat out the first two weeks in regards to watchability. I was pretty much in front of the TV for 12 hours straight for college football fun, much to the chagrin of the Duchess. It’s not like we’re getting married in two weeks or anything. Oh, wait a minute...

Anyway, on to the Touchdown.

1) No. 6 LSU at No. 10 Auburn—7:45 PM on ESPN

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: You have to love SEC matchups. This one’s going to be a grudge match.

You can go on and on about Charles Scott at running back, but his yards came against Appalachian State and North Texas. I could average 100 yards a game against those two teams.

In fact, I probably would have picked Auburn except for the stinker they put up against Miss. State. Yeah, the defense was great, but only a field goal from the offense? You can’t pull that crap against LSU.

This will be a close, low-scoring, defensive game. The team who makes the last mistake will lose (probably Auburn).

2) No. 3 Georgia at Arizona State—8:00 PM on ABC

This would have been my number one game if ASU hadn’t pooed the bed against UNLV. I had to look at the score a few times before I realized it wasn’t a joke.

I love this game for Georgia, because they have actually scheduled a tough non-conference opponent. No matter what happened last week, this won’t be a walk for Georgia. The one thing they don’t want is to get into a shootout with ASU—they don’t have the firepower.

ASU learned from their mistake last week, which is don’t run more than you throw—at least not with Rudy Carpenter. ASU will air it out against the Georgia secondary, and the Bulldogs better hope to get some pressure on Carpenter, or it won’t be pretty.

3) No. 4 Florida at Tennessee—3:30 PM on CBS

Normally I would give a bunch of crap to Tennessee about how they suck, but I thought the same thing last year, and they back-doored their way into the SEC Championship Game.

Anyway, Florida has lots of firepower on both sides of the field. Tennessee is going to have to try and keep Percy Harvin contained and hope that Tim Tebow starts making mistakes.

Tennessee needs to get their running game going to help Eric Crompton, because if the game is in his hands, the Vols are in trouble.

4) Boise State at No. 17 Oregon—3:30 PM on local channels

I’m telling you right now, if I were Jeremiah Masoli or Chris Harper, I would have an extra-sturdy knee brace on. God must hate Oregon QBs because if he is not making them like Akili Smith or Joey Harrington—he’s blowing out their knees.

With that said, Oregon will probably stick to the running game to make sure they don’t put too much pressure on their new quarterback. However, the Ducks need to watch out because Boise State can put up points in a hurry. If Oregon can control the tempo, they should be fine.

5) No. 18 Wake Forest at No. 24 Florida State—7:00 PM on ESPN2

I think I would be physically ill if I watched this game, but it is a bit interesting. Here’s a tip for all you teams that fell from glory: Beat up on two weak opponents and get back into the top 25 on name recognition alone. FSU did it.

I would sit here and say things like “FSU has the top offense in the country,” but they did it against Western Carolina and Chattanooga. No, seriously.

On the other side, I like QB Riley Skinner of Wake Forest. He actually led his team back to beat Ole Miss—you know, a real opponent. If Wake doesn’t win this game, and win it big, they only have themselves to blame.

6) No. 13 Ohio State at Troy—12:00 PM on Big Ten Network

Gee, you think Ohio State can handle this one? After the stink job against USC, this Trojan team is more their speed.

Extra Point

7) Did you see that smackdown USC laid on Ohio State? I’m still giddy about it. It finally exposed OSU for the fraud team they are. However, I am here to help OSU with their problem, even if I don’t like them.

The problem lies in recruiting.

Now before all you OSU fans start flipping out, OSU has a very good recruiting system, but they miss one key position each and every time: a quarterback. If you seriously think that Todd Boeckman or Terrelle Pryor are leading your team anywhere but the “also ran” column, you need some serious help.

What I’m saying is man your already good team with a good quarterback, preferably a dropback quarterback with a strong arm and leadership skills. They aren’t that hard to find.

Let’s see, you have Cullen Harper, Mark Sanchez, Curtis Painter, Todd Reesing, Chase Daniel, Matt Stafford, Matt Grothe, Riley Skinner, Colt McCoy, Graham Harrell, and John Parker Wilson. Those are just off the top of my head, and I know I’m missing some.

Put any of those quarterbacks on OSU, and you have a significantly better team that might actually be able to beat a good opponent. Or keep recruiting stiffs like Boeckman and get blown out by teams from the SEC and Pac-10. Whatever works.