Week 3 Football: What to watch

The big news, obviously, is that NC State is finally playing this week! In primetime, no less! Be sure to set up the coffee maker before you go to bed after the game.

Interestingly, based on the advanced ratings, I’m pretty sure Wake Forest is the only team ranked lower in the abbreviated SP+ rankings than in the full Sagarin ones. Hopefully that holds to be true.

In the Friday night game, Campbell takes on Coastal Carolina. Last week, Campbell scored a TD with just a few seconds left to pull within 1 (they had missed an XP earlier in the game), but rather than go for the tie against Georgia Southern, they went for 2 and the win, only to miss on the pass. Coastal, meanwhile, beat Kansas on the road for the 2nd straight year. This one could be interesting.

I’m also intrigued by the BC-Duke game, as we get our first look at what BC will be like under Jeff Hafley, who takes over the program after being the Ohio State co-DC for one year after spending the previous eight in the NFL.

Go 49ers!

It’s listed on here because Clemson is in the ACC, but please don’t watch them murder The Citadel on TV. That’s just inhumane.

Miami @ Louisville is going to be a fun one to watch. It’s just too bad it almost entirely overlaps with the State game. I wasn’t overly impressed with Miami in their opener, but looking back the offense put up almost 500 yards of offense on UAB while the defense didn’t even allow 300. Maybe they’re better than I thought. This is an interesting match-up for them with Scott Satterfield’s offense led by Micale Cunningham.

The only Thursday game this week is an NFL tilt, so that stinks... especially since it’s the Browns. Also throwing the MNF game up here because why not.

Happy Footballing, folks!

Rankings for SP+ Ratings and Sagarin Ratings listed, respectively, ahead of each team’s name. [Note: SP+ is only ranking the 77 teams that are playing whereas Sagarin is ranking all 257 FBS and FCS teams, so there are going to be some significant discrepancies between the two.]

Thursday

NFL Bengals @ Browns - 8:20pm - NFL Network

Friday

FCS/211 Campbell @ 54/107 Coastal Carolina- 7:30pm - ESPN

Saturday

52/89 Tulsa @ 17/15 Oklahoma State - 12:00pm - ESPN

30/49 Louisiana @ 63/125 Georgia State - 12:00pm - ESPN2

59/83 Syracuse @ 15/40 Pittsburgh - 12:00pm - ACCN

38/68 Houston @ 19/23 Baylor - 12:00pm - FOX

69/121 Liberty @ 46/108 Western Kentucky - 12:00pm - ESPNU

42/84 Boston College @ 43/60 Duke - 12:00pm - ESPN3

50/99 South Florida @ 10/13 Notre Dame - 2:30pm - USA (whatever that is)

65/142 Charlotte @ 11/33 North Carolina - 3:30pm - ESPN3

14/21 UCF @ 26/58 Georgia Tech - 3:30pm - ABC

29/48 Appalachian State @ 36/73 Marshall - 3:30pm - CBS

FCS/166 The Citadel @ 2/3 Clemson - 4:00pm - ACCN

37/66 SMU @ 61/91 North Texas - 6:00pm - CBSSN

12/41 Miami @ 18/32 Louisville - 7:30pm - ABC

57/53 Wake Forest @ 40/63 NC State - 8:00pm - ACCN

Monday

NFL Saints @ Raiders - 8:15pm - ESPN/ABC