College Football 2011: Predicting This Weekend's Biggest Games

Week 2 of the college football season doesn't quite have the marquee matchups that the first week had, but it doesn't mean that there aren't some quality contests this weekend.

In the top game of the week, Alabama travels to Penn State to continue their road to redemption as the No. 3-ranked team in the nation, but they'll have to do it without their top quarterback.

In another interesting matchup, two SEC East teams meet up when South Carolina travels to Georgia. Will Stephen Garcia have a better game against a legit opponent and continue the Gamecocks' road to the SEC Championship?

Utah travels to the Coliseum to face USC. USC won their first game of the season as a Top 25 team, but because of their underwhelming performance against a lowly opponent in Minnesota, they quickly dropped out of the AP Poll. Will USC re-enter the poll with a victory over the Utes, or will the Utes prove their worthiness as a Top 25 team by knocking off the Trojans at their home stadium?

Notre Dame travels to the Big House after the Irish lost a heartbreaking upset to the South Florida Bulls in South Bend. Will they take their frustration out on the Wolverines in their home stadium in hopes of returning to the poll as a ranked team?

This article answers those very questions.

Notre Dame vs. Michigan

The big news surrounding this game is all about Notre Dame.

Sophomore Tommy Rees will start at the "Big House," replacing Dayne Crist in the lineup.

Notre Dame entered the season ranked in the Top 25, with expectations rising thanks to Brian Kelly's successful first season in South Bend.

Those inflated expectations were quickly popped when Notre Dame lost at home to South Florida.

A game that would have had a lot of luster, had it been played in Week 1, now loses a little bit of shine due to Notre Dame's performance last week, as well as Michigan's "mediocre" play of the last few seasons.

Expect Notre Dame to win this game in a close matchup. Rees performed as well as he could have in his freshman season. He'll keep the mistakes to a minimum and rely upon the running of Cierre Wood to negate the effect of Michigan's boisterous fans.

Notre Dame simply has too many playmakers for Michigan to handle and will come out motivated after last week's big upset.

Result: Notre Dame over Michigan

Utah vs. USC

This is an inter-conference match-up now that Utah plays in the Pac 12.

Both teams are upper-tier teams in the Pac 12, and overall Top 25-caliber teams.

USC was ranked in the Top 25 entering week one, but after a game in which they struggled against a Minnesota team that won only three games last year—and who had a true-freshman QB nearly lead the Gophers to a double-digit deficit victory—the Trojans have fallen out of favor with voters.

Utah received votes in the AP Poll entering the season.

This game will come down to USC's offense and Utah's defense.

Utah's defense is vulnerable, with only five starters returning from last season. Utah had a great defense last season, ranking 27th overall in 2010. It will definitely be tested against one of the top QB-WR duos in all of college football.

Matt Barkley is a pro prospect, and is arguably one of the top-five QBs in the college ranks today. Robert Woods had a program-record 17 catches last weekend for the Trojans.

With the return of senior RB Marc Tyler, USC should prevail with assistance from the Coliseum fans.

After Lane Kiffin called out his offense last week, expect a high-scoring shootout with Jordan Wynn and the Utes.

Result: USC over Utah

South Carolina vs. Georgia

South Carolina is currently the No. 12 team in the nation. The Gamecocks are expected to run through the SEC East en route to an SEC championship game berth vs. LSU or Alabama.

Georgia was ranked in the Top 25 entering their season-opening match-up vs. Boise State, and although they didn't get blown out, they proved why they were prematurely ranked.

The Gamecocks are simply too strong for the Bulldogs to handle.

With a trio featuring the likes of Stephen Garcia, Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery, expect the Gamecocks to blow Georgia out and expose the Bulldogs' lack of offensive firepower.

Result: South Carolina over Georgia

Alabama vs. Penn State

This is by far the biggest game of the weekend, as this is the only game that features two Top 25 teams.

This match-up features two teams who are both playing with a QB rotation: Penn State with Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin, and Alabama with AJ McCarron and Philip Sims.

Expect a low-scoring game featuring a myriad of mistakes by all four QBs. Neither Penn State nor Alabama should go over the 30-point mark.

The key to this game is turnovers. Which team's QBs will screw up more?

Considering their lack of experience, common sense points to McCarron and Sims. Penn State's McGloin is a junior who finished 2010 as the starter after Bolden had started the year as the man under center.

That's not what will happen in this game, however. With the game at Penn State, Trent Richardson and the defense will be the catalysts that lift Alabama over Penn State.

Alabama's defense is your prototypical SEC defense, having given up 13.5 PPG in 2010.

Trent Richardson will certainly put himself on the Heisman map with this game.

Penn State's QBs will throw one too many interceptions, so look for Alabama to prevail in a relatively low-scoring game.

Result: Alabama over Penn State