College Football: Week 8

Virginia Tech takes the week off, UVA looks to stop the bleeding, Richmond travels up north, plus a major ACC showdown.

October 16, 2013; 6:00 AM • by Ross Catrow

Highlights & Recaps

• Virginia Tech over Pitt, 19-9. We pretty much know who this Virginia Tech team is: a great defense, an inconsistent offense that struggles to run the ball, and a fantastic punter. If the Hokies play mistake-free football, it’s a hard combination to beat–the margin for error, however, is super thin.
• Maryland over UVA, 27-26. A missed 42-yard field goal with less than ten second remaining dropped the Wahoos to 2-4 (0-2 in the ACC). The Cavs still have three more teams on the schedule ranked in the top 20.
• Penn State over #18 Michigan, 43-40. What an incredible game! Four overtimes, which included two missed field goals, a blocked field goal, and a fumble. Down three, in the fourth overtime, on 4th-and-1, and PSU coach Bill O’Brien elected to go for it. Wild!

Upsets!

• #25 Missouri over #7 Georgia, 41-26
• Texas over #12 Oklahoma, 36-20
• Utah over #5 Stanford, 27-21

— ∮∮∮ —

Virginia Tech vs. Bye Week

—

Virginia vs. Duke

ESPN3 • 3:30 PM • UVA -2.0

Gone are the days of making fun of Duke as ACC bottom dwellers–a title which belongs to either UNC and UVA in 2013. This year, while playing an admittedly easy schedule, the Blue Devils are scoring 35 points per game with the 35th ranked offense in the nation. Duke’s riding a two-game win streak (at home vs. Troy and Navy) and will be looking to both prove themselves on the road and pick up their first ACC win. The Wahoos have lost three straight and are looking for something, anything, to go right.

Richmond vs. Rhode Island

1:00 PM

The Spiders (2-4) hit the road and travel allllllll the way to Kingston, Rhode Island to take on the Rams (2-5). Neither team has found much success this season, but Richmond has been competitive in each game they’ve lost–only losing by an average of 4.5 points. Time to turn things around, Spiders!

— ∮∮∮ —

National (and ACC) game of the week

• #3 Clemson vs. #5 Florida State • 8:00 PM • ABC

Worth watching

• #14 Missouri vs. #22 Florida • 12:21 PM • ESPN3
• #4 Ohio State vs. Iowa • 3:30 PM • ABC
• #7 Texas A&M vs. #24 Auburn • 3:30 PM • CBS
• #9 UCLA at #13 Stanford • 3:30 PM &bull ESPN2
• USC vs. Notre Dame • 7:30 PM • NBC

The Theoretical Playoff

Here we are eight weeks into the 2013 college football season, and we’ve got the same top four we started with. This week, however, presents the best chance–so far–to see a shake up as Clemson takes on Florida State.

The Tigers have a HUGE test this week against the fifth ranked Seminoles, a team of which I would want no part.¹ OSU takes on a much improved Iowa, Oregon faces 4-3 Washington State, and Alabama has Arkansas (a team that’s won exactly zero SEC games thus far).

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

Point of interest: the BCS standings comes out next week.

— ∮∮∮ —

October 16, 2013 6:00 AM 0