Week 5 Football: What to Watch

If you hadn’t heard, there’s a rather big game going on this weekend. Yes, NC State will be playing the biggest game of the weekend with ESPN’s College Gameday featuring the Wolfpack vs Tigers in Clemson, SC. The collective blood pressure of the Wolfpack fanbase has cranked up a few notches this week, but this is exactly the situations that we want to be in, so take the stress and all that comes with it and just enjoy the week!

Oh, and In case football wasn’t enough excitement for you, there’s a freaking hurricane making a mess of the state of Florida right now. Thanks, Ian. Now get out of here!

There are two games Thursday night, with one of those (South Carolina State @ South Carolina) being moved up thanks to the aforementioned hurricane. Neither Thursday game looks particularly intriguing and, honestly, so far the Thursday games put on the slate have been pretty underwhelming.

A couple games have also been moved to Sunday afternoon thanks to the hurricane, including an SMU-UCF game that should be super entertaining, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Friday features five games and, overall, should be much much better. Houston has underperformed while Tulane has been better than expected, making for an interesting AAC matchup. Middle Tennessee just kicked the mess out of Miami, but will probably lose to UTSA because that’s exactly what happens in these things. San Diego State has dropped off a cliff this year, but Boise State’s not exactly looking like what you’re used to, and then there’s UCLA hosting a Washington team that has looked really really good so far.

The Saturday noon slate of games looks really good. Kentucky-Ole Miss will be fantastic, as should be the Oklahoma-TCU and Texas Tech vs Kansas State games. Iowa and their anti-offense offense may not record a first down all game against Michigan. If you like offense, do not watch that game. If you love a defensive struggle, then that game is for you.

Also at noon, I fully expect Malik Cunningham to throw and run for 200+ each against Boston College.

For all we know, that Oregon State at Utah game is just going to be simulated on an old version of NCAA ‘14. With the game being “broadcast” on the PAC12 Network, it might as well be.

ECU had a perfect opportunity to start off 2-0 in AAC play and make State’s season-opening victory in Greenville look better, but the Pirates had to go and piss that away against Navy last week. Either way, and sticking with the Hurricane Ian theme, their game against USF this week will still be played in the state of Florida, but instead of being in Tampa will now be played in Boca Raton at FAU’s stadium.

Arkansas was getting a lot of love earlier in the year, but the pigs look like they’re about to drop a second straight this week as they host Alabama after grasping defeat from the jaws of victory last week against Texas A&M.

Aside from NC State @ Clemson, I’m most excited this week for that Oklahoma State vs Baylor game. OK State averages over 500 yards per game while Baylor gives up just over 300 yards per game. Phenomenal matchup!

By the way, the Big XII is strong this year. All ten teams are ranked in the Top 50 of Sagarin, and only Kansas (52nd) is ranked lower than 40th in SP+.

Speaking of the Jayhawks, can they, along with the QB you probably still haven’t seen, Jalon Daniels, keep the good times rolling this year against Iowa State?

So is Florida State legit? The offense should continue to look the part this week against Wake Forest, but can the Seminoles defense shut down - or at least slow down - Sam Hartman and the Deacons? We’re about to learn a lot about the ACC Atlantic this weekend.

Go Hokies!

If Texas A&M hadn’t looked so awful this year that game against Mississippi State would be getting more hype. Instead, it’s stuck on the SEC Network. Way to go, Jimbo.

Cal @ Washington State should be a close game, but the quality of that game completely depends on whether you’re listening to SP+ or Sagarin. It’s also on the PAC12 Network, though, so at the end of the day I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Bryan Harsin might be coaching his final game at Auburn this weekend. The Auburn faithful have been trying to run him out of town for about a year now and he supposedly only still has his job because Eli Drinkwitz’s team apparently wants him fired more (not true, but man did Missouri throw that one away last week). If a home loss to LSU doesn’t push the AD across the line to fire him, getting slayed by Georgia and Ole Miss over the next two weeks definitely will.

But we’re talking Saturday night primetime and it’s all about the Wolfpack and the Tigers in upstate South Carolina. Not a single State fan is going to care what goes on in the rest of the college football world as soon as the sun starts setting that evening. Damn, I’m excited!

Yeah, there are some other games going on that night, but whatever...

Go State!

Rankings for SP+ Ratings and Sagarin Ratings listed, respectively, ahead of each team’s name.

Thursday

FCS/203 South Carolina State @ 56/62 South Carolina - 7:00pm - SECN

108/121 Utah State @ 34/33 BYU - 8:00pm - ESPN

Friday

50/63 Tulane @ 60/70 Houston - 7:00pm - ESPN

71/90 UTSA @ 87/85 Middle Tennessee State - 7:30pm - CBSSN

90/95 San Diego State @ 78/65 Boise State - 8:00pm - FS1

24/11 Washington @ 19/42 UCLA - 10:30pm - ESPN

121/119 New Mexico @ 91/83 UNLV - 11:00pm - CBSSN

Saturday

16/27 Kentucky @ 6/13 Ole Miss - 12:00pm - ESPN

49/41 Louisville @ 93/110 Boston College - 12:00pm - ACCN

5/4 Oklahoma @ 32/28 TCU - 12:00pm - ABC

4/5 Michigan @ 27/31 Iowa - 12:00pm - FOX

46/46 Texas Tech @ 23/18 Kansas State - 12:00pm - ESPN+

47/44 Illinois @ 29/22 Wisconsin - 12:00pm - BTN

43/25 Oregon State @ 9/6 Utah - 2:00pm - PAC12N

61/73 East Carolina vs 109/135 South Florida - 2:30pm - ESPN+

1/1 Alabama @ 28/32 Arkansas - 3:30pm - CBS

15/19 Oklahoma State @ 18/14 Baylor - 3:30pm - FOX

42/45 Wake Forest @ 33/29 Florida State - 3:30pm - ABC

31/26 Iowa State @ 52/49 Kansas - 3:30pm - ESPN2

79/98 Virginia Tech @ 67/60 North Carolina - 3:30pm - ACCN

70/71 Fresno State @ 127/170 UConn - 3:30pm - CBSSN

22/21 Texas A&M @ 17/24 Mississippi State - 4:00pm - SECN

FCS/255 Wagner @ 59/51 Syracuse - 5:00pm - ESPN+/ACCNX

63/36 California @ 55/37 Washington State - 5:30pm - PAC12N

12/8 LSU @ 38/56 Auburn - 7:00pm - ESPN

20/30 NC State @ 13/12 Clemson - 7:30pm - ABC

81/75 Virginia @ 85/68 Duke - 7:30pm - ESPN3

103/109 Georgia Tech @ 37/39 Pittsburgh - 8:00pm - ACCN

65/69 Arizona State @ 25/7 USC - 10:30pm - ESPN

80/54 Stanford @ 21/15 Oregon - 11:00pm - FS1

Sunday

FCS/159 Eastern Washington @ 44/34 Florida - 12:00pm - ESPN+

41/57 SMU @ 39/40 UCF - 1:00pm - ESPN8