It’s bye week for Notre Dame and your boy will be attending a cousin’s wedding this weekend in Charlotte. Great timing from the family! Except, at this point I find myself secretly wanting to be distracted during an Irish game so the suffering isn’t so intense. Come to think of it the last game I straight up missed live I was also in North Carolina. Alas, there will be no game for Notre Dame this weekend.
Enemy Watch
THURSDAY
Miami (+6.5) at Virginia Tech
Our next opponent plays tonight and gets to rest up for their trip to South Bend. It’s been a quick fall from grace for both teams, too. The Hokies are coming off a really embarrassing loss at Syracuse while the Canes have lost two straight. Obviously, scout the Hokies too, we play them in a few weeks.
SATURDAY
North Texas (+18.5) at Army
NC State (+19.5) at #7 Louisville
Texas (+2.5) at Kansas State
Syracuse (+4.5) at Boston College
Colorado (+2.5) at Stanford
Memphis (-2.5) at #24 Navy
Michigan State (-2.5) at Maryland
Wyoming (-4.5) at Nevada
How do you explain the NC State line–one of many enormous spreads this week? The Wolfpack nearly knocked off Clemson while Louisville struggled quite a bit with Duke. Something is fishy here.
Again, how can Syracuse upset Virginia Tech and be decent underdogs against a Boston College program that has lost its last 11 ACC games?
Stanford is likely out their divisional race but Colorado is currently still in the mix down in the South division. That makes this game pretty intriguing.
Memphis will be looking for some revenge on Navy last year. The Middies had one of their best efforts in the past years with a 45-20 win on the road no less.
Michigan State is in a funk, you guys. They haven’t won a game since our terrible football team fell to them in week 3. That’s 4 straight losses for Dantonio & Co. We could be living in a world Saturday evening where both Notre Dame and Michigan State are 4-10. Isn’t 2016 awesome?
Raised Eyebrow Game
Oregon (+3) at California
Speaking of losing streaks Oregon is right there too with 4 straight defeats. The line continues that the Ducks won’t fire Mark Helfrich any time soon because it’s not in their DNA. I’d assume losing 5 in a row will push Phil Knight and the powers-that-be in Eugene a lot closer to doing the unthinkable.
Double Raised Eyebrow Game
#19 Utah (+7) at UCLA
This is one to watch because who wouldn’t want to watch Jim Mora and UCLA burn? With all the talk of Texas, USC, and others possibly opening up head coaching positions don’t sleep on the Bruins sending Mora into space to try and get one great year out of Josh Rosen.
National Spotlight
BYU (+7) at #14 Boise State
TCU (+6) at #12 West Virginia
#17 Arkansas (+9.5) at #21 Auburn
#6 Texas A&M (+18.5) at #1 Alabama
#2 Ohio State (-19.5) at Penn State
#23 Ole Miss (+5.5) at #25 LSU
The first two games on here feature sneaky undefeated teams, so that’s always something to watch. I still haven’t watched West Virginia yet (I say this every year) and may not have even peeped a highlight yet. Can anyone speak more about the Mountaineers?
A combined spread of 38 points to cover for Alabama and Ohio State! I’m not sure which one is more intense. Last time Ohio State visited Happy Valley is was a really, really tight game. Now, Penn State looks a lot more competent on offense without Christian Hackenberg (what’s he doing these days, by the way?) and it’s a little bit of a surprise that the Nittany Lions are ranked 27th in F/+.
Then you have the Alabama machine, which of course I get it. Still, this is a game between the No. 1 and No. 7 teams by F/+ and this spread from a 10,000 foot view is so crazy. There’s no way the Tide can over that, right? Right??
Why do we have UCLA? Because they poisoned that poor boy’s grandmother?
Not well versed in the history of UCLA and it’s formation.
After watching Miami lose to VaTech last night, we should be able to beat them if we can get any pressure on Kaaya. He’s very accurate when he can plant, but not so good when hurried. He’s not very mobile and got sacked 6-8 times last night.
That’s a big “if” these days though.
What does that mean for when we play VA Tech, though?
Doomsday with our Oline blocking maybe.
NOT SO FAST, MY FRIEND!!
I’m not quite ready to predict a 55-7 Irish turkey shoot, but I’m also not ready to chalk that game as a loss.
Was that the sound of the Herman balloon bursting?
kinda, but not really…he just got that big contract extension before the season!
Yeah, but his glitter is starting to flake off for the big job openings.
Nah, but his sticker price is coming down a bit. $5 mil instead of $6 mil.
Stanford scored 5 pts on Colorado. How did we lose to them?
Poor pitching.