College Football Viewer's Guide: Week 5

The Oklahoma Sooners travel to South Bend this week looking to pay Notre Dame back for an Irish victory in Norman last fall. The Sooners also happen to be 1-9 against the Fighting Irish all time. For an added layer of intrigue Brian Kelly has asked fans to support a "Green Out" sponsored by the Leprechaun Legion and the Kelly Cares Foundation. So, will the Irish take the field wearing green jerseys?

In addition to the big game in South Bend there are a handful of other good games to try and keep an eye on this weekend as well. This is a significant improvement over last week.

If any of you are looking for full TV schedules I suggest the link below.

mattsarzsports.com

*All times listed are EST.

Rankings are per the USA Today Coaches Poll

Thursday 26 September

Virginia Tech (3-1) at Georgia Tech (3-0) 7:30 ESPN

The Hokie offense is pedestrian at best and the Hokies barely squeaked out a victory in 3OT against Marshall last weekend. Will Beamer's seat get warm. Down in Atlanta Paul Johnson's Yellow Jackets have been playing pretty good football so far. If the Virginia Tech defense plays well this game might be decent for a 2-3 quarters but I'm thinking that Georgia Tech will run away with this one in the end. By the way, have you all seen the helmets that the Hokies are going to wear Thursday night? Oh my.

Friday 27 September

Utah State (2-2) at San Jose State (1-2) 9:00 ESPN

This game has potential. Utah State has dropped two games to Utah and USC by a combined total of 7 points. San Jose State also looked pseudo decent in a loss to Stanford before flopping against Minnesota last week. I'll takeChuckie Keeton and the Aggies in a fun one.

Middle Tennessee (3-1) at BYU (1-2) 9:00 ESPNU

This game really isn't interesting at all but it is another chance to get eyes on BYU.

Saturday 28 September

#13 South Carolina (2-1) at UCF (3-0) 12:00 ABC

UCF has a pretty decent football team that managed to knock off Penn State a couple of weeks ago. South Carolina isn't Penn State though...

#11 Oklahoma State (3-0) at West Virginia (2-2) 12:00 ESPN

West Virginia is not good. Not good at all. Holgo is likely to get run ruled by his former boss in this one.

Northern Illinois (3-0) at Purdue (1-3) 12:00 ESPN2

I can't believe that this game is actually on the deuce. This is B1G Network material all the way. Northern Illinois beat Iowa in their opener and might beat Purdue as well.

#15 Miami FL (3-0) at USF (0-3) 12:00 ESPNU

Miami has a pretty good football team. USF does not. This won't be pretty.

SMU (1-2) at TCU (1-2) 12:00 Fox Sports 1

Mustangs vs. Frogs in the battle for the Iron Skillet. SMU hooked themselves up and fenced off the month of September to take beatings from their old Southwest Conference foes. By the time Saturday afternoon rolls around the Mustangs will be 1-3 with losses to Texas Tech, Texas A&M and TCU. TCU needs a win here to get back on track after already dropping games to LSU and Texas Tech. Does anybody need a good T-shirt?

#12 Oklahoma (3-0) at #22 Notre Dame (3-1) 3:30 NBC

Full previews from the staff are around the corner. The Sooner Schooner. Bring it.

#6 LSU (4-0) at #10 Georgia (2-1) 3:30 CBS

This should be a really good football game. Of course it is in the 3:30 time slot where it will get zero of my attention while I focus on Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma. Oh well. I will be hoping that this is where the SEC starts knocking each other off. Go Dawgs!

Iowa (3-1) at Minnesota (4-0) 3:30 ABC/ ESPN2

These teams are poster children for everything that is wrong with bowl eligibility. They are a combined 7-1 with wins against Missouri State, Iowa State, Western Michigan, UNLV, New Mexico State, Western Illinois and San Jose State. The one loss was Iowa falling to Northern Illinois. Frankly neither of these teams are any good and the fans might fall asleep in the stands.

#8 Florida State (3-0) at Boston College (1-2) 3:30 ABC/ESPN2

Jameis Winston. He's good. Boston College is in for a lopsided beat down in this game.

#21 Ole Miss (3-0) at #1 Alabama (3-0) 6:30 ESPN

Any chance that Hugh Freeze and the Rebels can pull off an upset here? Bama looks a little bit vulnerable thus far but I don't think the Rebels have quite enough horsepower to pull this off.

#9 Texas A&M (3-1) at Arkansas (3-1) 7:00 ESPN2

The Hogs lost to Rutgers last week and Bret Bielema will get to follow that up with a front seat for the Johnny Football show. Bielema seems like the kind of guy that will really appreciate Manziel's on field antics while he is beating his boys by 4 touchdowns. Keep an eye out for an in game Twitter fight between Bielema's wife and Manziel's sister. It could happen. Sooooooeeeeee!

#19 Florida (2-1) at Kentucky (1-2) 7:00 ESPNU

I have a handful of Florida buddies and all of them are relieved that Gator QB Jeff Driskel is out for the season. Not joking. That said watch Kentucky make this a game.

#24 Wisconsin (3-1) at #3 Ohio State (4-0) 8:00 ABC

It's the B1G Leaders Championship Game! Who set this up for September? Wiscy has looked pretty strong thus far with the obvious exception of that bizarre finish against Arizona State. This game will be Ohio State's first tussle with a quality opponent. If the Bucks win this game they will likely head into Ann Arbor with an 11-0 record on November 30th.

Air Force (1-3) at Nevada (2-2) 8:00 CBS Sports Network

Both of these teams have been terrible on defense which might actually make this game somewhat entertaining. Do you like how I'm trying to talk myself into that? Okay, I can't even convince myself that this is going to be anything other than a bad football game. It is another chance to get eyes on Air Force though

#5 Stanford (3-0) at Washington State (3-1) 10:00 ESPN

Wazzu is much improved this year and thus far Leach's Coogs have taken Auburn to the wire at Jordan-Hare and have also upset USC at the Coliseum. Stanford still has a legitimate Top 5 football team that will likely have a renewed sense of purpose after almost letting Arizona State sneak back into the game this past weekend. This probably won't work out so well for Wazzu.

USC (3-1) at Arizona State (2-1) 10:30 ESPN2

As a Notre Dame fan this game is pretty much mandatory viewing. Since it is in the late PAC-12 time slot I will likely end up DVRing it and watching the majority of it on Sunday morning. Regardless it is getting watched. This game should tell us a lot about both of these teams.

Cal (1-2) at #2 Oregon (3-0) 10:30 PAC-12 Network

Does anyone actually get the PAC-12 network? Oregon has outscored their opponents 183-27 thus far. That is completely ridiculous. And scary.

What else should we be trying to keep an eye on? See you in the open thread on Saturday.