College football preview: Week 5

Thursday night ACC play, week five, and my picks for game of the week.

September 26, 2013; 10:05 AM • by Ross Catrow

Highlights & Recaps

• Virginia Tech over Marshall, 29-21. If you’re a Hokie fan, you probably had four or five stress-induced heart attacks during their 3OT win over Marshall. If you’re not a Hokie, you probably had a great time watching a really entertaining game. Make no mistake about it, while the name “Marshall” does not strike fear into the hearts of opponents, Thundering Herd QB Rakeem Cato is the real deal.
• There were no top-25 upsets last week. Booooooring.

Also, four teams last week scored over 70 points, albeit against inferior competition. But still, 70 points is a lot of points!

• OSU scored 76 against Florida A&M
• Louisville scored 72 against FIU
• Miami scored 77 against Savannah State
• Baylor scored 70 against Louisiana-Monroe

And because who doesn’t love an (almost) fat guy touchdown!

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Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech

ESPN • Thursday, 7:30 PM • GT -7.0

This week the Hokies travel back down to Atlanta–just a couple of minutes from where they lost to #1 Alabama back in August–to take on Paul Johnson and his absolutely infuriating triple option offense. This has become, at least for Hokies, the ACC rivalry match up. Watching the chess match of geniuses between Paul Johnson and Bud Foster would be totally awesome if it didn’t give me an ulcer.

This year the Jackets have a much more competent quarter back in Vad Lee. He’s already got seven passing touchdowns this year–three-year starter Tevin Washington had 21 in his entire career. This newfound passing aptitude will force the Hokies to alter their game plan, which in previous years has been: put nine guys in the box because that guy is terrible at throwing the ball.

If Georgia Tech wins, they’ll be ranked in the top 25 and have a 4-0 record in the ACC, making it very difficult for anyone to unseat them as Coastal Division champions.

Virginia at Pittsburgh

ESPN3 • 12:30 PM • PIT -5.5

Who are these two teams? It’s tough to know anything about either. Both are 2-1, with their losses coming to #2 Oregon and #11 FSU. Both have a win over a bad team (VMI and New Mexico), and both have a close win over a decent team (BYU and Duke).

Virginia QB Watford went 18-of-25 for 206 yards with two TDs and two INTs against VMI. Those are decent numbers, but that’s against VMI. Even though the Pittsburgh defense is one of the worst in the country (#102), you gotta figure they’re better than VMI. The battle between the Wahoo defense, which is currently only allowing 332 yards per game, and the Pittsburgh offense should be fun to watch.

#20 Richmond vs. Maine

Comcast SportsNet • 4:30 PM

The Spiders open their CAA schedule with Maine. The Black Bears are 3-1, with their one loss coming to #18 Northwestern–a game they only lost by 14 points. Their QB, Mar Wasilewski, is completing almost 65% of his passes with only four INTs on the year. Richmond on the other hand is currently riding a 14-game interception streak (that’s 31 INTs, or 2.2 INT/game).

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National game of the week

• #6 LSU at #9 Georgia • 3:30 PM • CBS

ACC game of the week

• Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech • Thursday, 7:30 PM • ESPN

Worth watching

• #1 Alabama at #21 Ole Miss • 6:30 PM • ESPN
• #4 Ohio State vs. #23 Wisconsin • 8:00 PM • ABC
• #14 Oklahoma at #22 Notre Dame • 3:30 PM • NBC

The Theoretical Playoff

A boring week means no changes to the theoretical playoff. 19 of the top 25 teams are undefeated, so there’s still a lot that could change!

1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Clemson
4. Ohio State

September 26, 2013 10:05 AM 1