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Hey all, welcome back to my weekly CLE's College Football Corner column.
Lets look back a bit at Week 7 before breaking down the weekend ahead:
- Just a great game up in Eugene, Oregon. Sometimes top 5 matchups don’t live up to the billing, but this one did. Truthfully I don’t think Oregon could of played a better game, Gabriel played like the Heisman hopeful that we thought he was at the start of the season. The wide receivers for Oregon looked fast, and I thought their o-line also did a great job. Defensively, they did enough of a job of slowing down that great offense of Ohio St, really making them work for everything/eliminating, for the most part, OSUs ability for explosive plays. As for the Buckeyes, I thought maybe they played a B- game out there at best.
They just had a lot of unforced errors, false starts, dropping snaps, and a lot of uncharacteristic plays. That said, it was not their best performance yet in that environment. They still only lost by 1, and if Will Howard slides 1 second sooner, they are lining up for a possible game-winning 45-yard field goal. I do have a small concern with Jim Knowles’ defense with the number of big plays given up, especially in the 1st half. There was a lack of pass rush (some credit, as said before, to a phenomenal job by the Oregon o-line).
Denzel Burke probably had his worst game in a Buckeye uniform, and the linebackers did not make enough plays. Simply put, the OSU defense just has to be better. In the end, it was a hell of a game. Both these teams, in my opinion, are among the top three in the country. As long as OSU handles business in Happy Valley in three weeks (which I think they will), we should see this matchup again in Indy, and then who knows what happens.
As I said in my column two weeks ago, I am really interested to see who ends up coming out of the Big 12. Kansas St. got a massive come-from-behind win late Saturday night in Boulder, BYU is still undefeated and getting better by the week, and maybe the team no one is talking about, Iowa St., keeps rolling along without a loss, dominating WVU Saturday evening in Morgantown.
- The last spot in the CFB Playoff will be incredible to follow these last two months of the year. Right now, Boise St is probably the favorite to get it, but dare I say, watch out for both Army and Navy for it. Now, the road there for both is a bit tougher because both have to play Notre Dame, but if one does upset the Irish, watch out. We also have the potential of having back-to-back Army Navy games this year. Both are undefeated in the AAC, so we could get Army Navy for the AAC title, then the traditional matchup we all love to watch the following week. Now I know they lost to Syracuse in week 6, but UNLV still has an outside chance at it as well. They would, of course, have to beat Boise St in back-to-back weeks as well, the 2nd being for the Mountain West championship, but yes, the non-Power four spot in the playoff is really fun to watch right now.
Now, my thoughts on Week 8:
- Just another huge weekend in the SEC, possible home field in the playoff eliminator with Alabama and Tennessee, Georgia is in the same boat as they travel to #1 Texas.
- Notre Dame travels to Atlanta in a must-win game versus Georgia Tech. ND is starting to look like the Fighting Irish Team we thought at the start of the season, now another big one for them.
- Going to be a fun scene in Bloomington as the undefeated Hoosiers host Nebraska. Let's see if Indiana can stay undefeated.
- Gambling leans: Louisville v Miami o61 (will take up to 63), Missouri -4.5 (up to 5.5), Bama vs. Tennessee o56 (up to 57.5), Illinois +3.5 (sprinkle ML think the Illini win), New Mexico v Utah St o78 (up to 80), Texas -3.5 (up to 4) and UNLV v Oregon St o61 (up to 62.5)
My updated top 25 for the week:
1. Texas
2. Oregon
3. Ohio St
4. Penn St
5. Georgia
6. Miami
7. Alabama
8. Iowa St
9. LSU
10. Tennessee
11. Notre Dame
12. Clemson
13. BYU
14. Indiana
15. Boise State
16. Texas A&M
17. Pitt
18. Kansas St
19. Ole Miss
20. Mizzou
21. Illinois
22. SMU
23. Army
24. Vanderbilt
25. Navy
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