How quickly the season has crashed and burned its way to week 11. The playoff picture is opaquely clear for now, but everything will shake itself out over the next few weeks. There are booby traps set for all the contenders this week. Let’s dive in.
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GAME OF THE WEEK: ALABAMA at MISSISSIPPI STATE
All Alabama needs to do is the very Alabama thing: win out to make the playoff. State is mired in the middle of the SEC West and has lost both games it’s played against top-25 competition. Dak Prescott is one of the best in the business, but the Alabama defense is THE best in the business. Mississippi State is a program in a perpetual state of having to prove itself in these big games… and falling short. Alabama is a program in a perpetual state of winning titles and having the biggest seat at the national table. The game may be in Starkville, but there’s no reason to think this won’t be business as usual for the Tide.
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UPSET SPECIAL: WASHINGTON STATE at UCLA
Mike Leach might finally be putting it together in Pullman. His Cougars sit at 6-3, already equaling his highest single-season win total at Wazzu, Yes, Washington State has beaten only one team with a winning record, but the wins are coming like they haven’t before. Having the nation’s best passing offense, at 417 yards a game, doesn’t hurt either.
Add in a UCLA team that is frustratingly inconsistent, and you have a ripe upset in the making in Pasadena. If the version of the Bruins which barely squeezed by Colorado or laid an egg at Stanford shows up, you can expect the high-octane Cougars to attack and pick up the W.
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NERDOUT OF THE WEEK: MEMPHIS at HOUSTON
If Memphis hadn’t lost last weekend to Navy, this might have been the week’s GameDay game. Regardless, the Tigers and Cougars are locked in a battle, with Navy, atop The American’s West Division for the right to play Temple in the league title game. A win by Houston basically turns the UH-Navy game the day after Thanksgiving into a de facto division title game. A win by Memphis dirties everything up a bit. Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch is playing for a potential invite to New York as a Heisman finalist. Both coaches — Justin Fuente of UM and Tom Herman of UH — are coaching for a potential chance to move to greener pastures in the offseason. A lot of forces will cross at TDECU stadium this weekend. Expect a game north of 80 points to light up the Texas night.
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UNIMPORTANT GAME OF IMPORTANCE: BYU vs. MISSOURI (IN KANSAS CITY)
This game should not be called unimportant by any stretch of the imagination; it’s just the name of this part of the column every week… because this game is important. After the events of this semester at Mizzou boiled over this week, including the resignations of president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, this game now plays a significant role at the university, but the role is still undefined.
Will it unify the campus? Will players silently protest or come together in a moment of solidarity? Will this simply turn out to be a run-of-the-mill non-conference football game? Will things get worse in Columbia? Nobody knows, but this will be the Mizzou football team’s first game since some of its players hung up their cleats in protest of the events on campus for two days this week. Either way, what was an average-looking football game a few weeks ago takes on added meaning after the events that have transpired in Columbia.
That this game is off campus, at Arrowhead Stadium, throws another element of uncertainty into the mix.
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ODDITY OF THE WEEK: MINNESOTA at IOWA
It’s that time of the year when Big Ten teams play for weird trophies. The Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig, will be on the line when Minnesota travels to Iowa Saturday night. More than that, Iowa is playing to keep itself in the playoff race as well as overcome its own history.
The Hawkeyes enter this game at 9-0 for the season and on a 13-game winning streak dating back to last year. Only one other time in its history has Iowa won at least 13 games in row, and that came at the turn of the 20th century. The Hawkeyes, led by coach Alden Knipe, went unbeaten over 23 games between 1898 and 1901. The only blemishes were three 5-5 ties, all on the road, at Grinnell, Chicago, and Northwestern. The streak came to an end on Oct. 26, 1901, when the Hawkeyes were shut out 16-0. What school beat them? Minnesota.
