Mark Blaudschun
By Mark Blaudschun
FWAA.com
Last Saturday was a wild weekend of college football at its best. Lots of drama and lots of shuffling among teams in contention for
playoff spots. Let's see what this coming Saturday brings.
Ohio State at Indiana: A preview of the Big Ten championship game perhaps? The winner certainly will be the clearcut
front runner, and that looks like Ohio State right now. The Buckeyes have stumbled only once this season, for a few series at Texas.
And now they travel to face the defending national champion Hoosiers. That still sounds strange when you fill in “Indiana.” The Hoosiers haven't stumbled, but they have shown signs of vulnerability against Northwestern and last week against Nebraska. Still, they have found ways to win, and they are playing at home.
Missouri at Ole Miss: A surprisingly pivotal SEC game. Ole Miss was a projected Top-10 team, but was
exposed against a Florida team that has gotten pounded the last two weeks by Missouri and South Carolina.
What does that mean?
Well, we will find out. Mizzou has only one loss, and that was on the road at Mississippi State. The Tigers
followed that with easy home wins against Florida and Texas A&M. Now they are back in Mississippi and
should lose. Right? That's what makes this game intriguing.
Notre Dame at BYU: Finally, a challenge for Notre Dame, which has breezed through the first month of its
season without needing to use its brakes. Traveling to Provo to face BYU is a different story.
The Cougars are virtually an unknown story. They play a nondescript non-conference schedule and play in the
Big 12, which doesn't really have a dominant team this season and has four or even five very good teams.
So call this a coming out party for both BYU and ND, with the winner gaining a foothold on a playoff spot and
the loser sent into scramble mode.
Alabama at Tennessee: Another tasty SEC menu item.
Alabama has to recover from a frustrating home loss to Georgia, while Tennessee is a 5-1 SEC team with
questionable credentials regarding its Top-10 worthiness.
The Vols’ only loss was to Texas at home. Now the Tide rolls into Knoxville in a nasty mood. Alabama looks
like the old Alabama in many ways, but a second consecutive loss will bring out the vultures.
Tennessee can afford to lose the game and still bounce back with a superior season by sweeping through the rest
of its schedule – LSU is its highest-ranked opponent, and that game is in Knoxville.
Florida State at Miami: Once one of those “game of the year” bookmarks. Not anymore, because FSU is struggling for
respectability, much less a ranking. Miami, on the other hand, is clearly focused on life beyond an ACC
championship, which stunningly it has never won since it entered the league in 2004.
This could be bloody because Miami is in no mood to take any survivors against a team that is still its rival in
recruiting wars, if not as much on the field.
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