Week 11 Football: What to Watch

First off, apologies for getting this out a day late. Hopefully you all tuned in for the Tuesday night MACtion as all three MAC games were one-score affairs late in their respective 4th quarters. Excellent start to the week on the field. Wednesday features more MACtion, although unlikely to be as exciting. Still worth the watch because bad football is better than no football.

On Thursday night, a Virginia squad that saw a nice little five-game run come to a thunderous fart of a stop this past week heads to Louisville to take on a Cardinals squad that has looked incredible since their loss at Pitt three weeks back. Wolfpack fans will be pulling hard for the Cavaliers as the one remaining hope to get NC State into the ACC Championship Game is for NC State to win out and Louisville to lose their final two conference games. The Cards hold tiebreakers over five of the six 2-loss ACC teams, so even splitting their final two ACC games will put them in the title game since they’d win the tiebreaker scenario that sixth 2-loss ACC team (North Carolina) should that end up being the final scenario.

Either way, go Cavs. Keep the hope alive in Raleigh.

Both Friday games are late, and unless you want to get a good look at future ACC member SMU beat down on North Texas, I’d tune in to that Wyoming-UNLV game. It’s going to be better than the names lead you to believe.

Saturday’s headline game is Michigan’s trip to Penn State. The Wolverines, already mired in a sign stealing scandal, have a brutal finishing kick facing the Nittany Lions and Ohio State over the final three weeks. Michigan has looked like the best team in the country, but they haven’t exactly played anyone. I mean, their best win is Rutgers. OooOooOoOoohHhh!

Like their commonwealth brethren, Virginia Tech had a nice run come to a screeching halt last week in their 34-3 loss at Louisville. With three games remaining, including a season-ender against their hated rival, the Hokies will need two wins to reach bowl eligibility. Boston College doesn’t have to worry about that thanks to their current five-game winning streak. Granted, only one of those five wins is over a team with a winning record, which happens to be a 5-4 Georgia Tech squad.

And speaking of, the winner of GT-Clemson will be bowl eligible. If the Yellow Jackets win, they’ll still be in the hunt for the ACC title game. Funny to think that had they not faded in the second half of their season opening loss to Louisville, they’d be in control right now. I guess the same thing can be said for NC State, though.

Speaking of the Wolfpack, they head to Winston-Salem at 2:00pm to take on Wake Forest. Brennan Armstrong will be back under center and looking to keep State’s winning ways going now that M.J. Morris has opted to sit out the rest of the season so he can redshirt. Fun times.

The team NC State beat last week, Miami, is reeling with a 2-3 record over their last five games. Now they get archrival Florida State this week and Louisville after that before finishing off against Boston College. This is clearly not the year the Hurricanes thought they had when October started.

Also in that 3:30pm Saturday slot, Utah-Washington and Tennessee-Missouri are going to be great games. I wouldn’t be shocked if Utah pulled the upset over undefeated Washington. The Utes have one of the country’s best defenses and the Huskies have looked vulnerable of late. I’m happy, even if shocked, that Eli Drinkwitz has turned the Missouri program into a Top 25 one. Their only losses this year are to LSU and Georgia.

The rest of the day gets a lot less exciting, with the big ticket Saturday night game being Ole Miss at Georgia. This isn’t the Bulldogs team of the last couple years, but it’s still the best in the SEC. The Rebels’ only loss was at Alabama, but I’m just not sure I see them winning this one. Then again, it would be on brand for Lane Kiffin to do so.

Please, Duke. I know the Blue Devils will all but certainly be without Riley Leonard, but they have the dogs to stick to a heavy run game and beat UNC. That would make me very happy.

In the nightcap, catch that USC-Oregon game. The Ducks are playing as well as anyone in the country while USC has lost three of four thanks to a defense that’s given up 40+ points in five of their last six games. That could be a really fun shootout.

Go Wolfpack!

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

Wednesday

131/173 Akron @ 67/82 Miami (OH) - 7:00pm - ESPNU

107/115 Bowling Green @ 133/181 Kent State - 7:00pm - CBSSN

114/128 Eastern Michigan @ 48/62 Toledo - 7:30pm - ESPN2

Thursday

93/91 Virginia @ 20/18 Louisville - 7:30pm - ESPN

111/139 Southern Miss @ 76/97 Louisiana-Lafayette - 7:30pm - ESPNU

Friday

96/105 North Texas @ 34/31 SMU - 9:00pm - ESPN2

90/85 Wyoming @ 73/80 UNLV - 10:45pm - FS1

Saturday

1/1 Michigan @ 5/5 Penn State - 12:00pm - FOX

7/3 Alabama @ 25/38 Kentucky - 12:00pm - ESPN

66/61 Virginia Tech @ 78/78 Boston College - 12:00pm - ACCN

62/64 Georgia Tech @ 23/22 Clemson - 12:00pm - ABC

47/45 NC State @ 64/68 Wake Forest - 2:00pm - CW

26/40 Miami @ 8/9 Florida State - 3:30pm - ABC

24/17 Utah @ 9/14 Washington - 3:30pm - FOX

11/12 Tennessee @ 21/25 Missouri - 3:30pm - CBS

53/48 Rutgers @ 33/29 Iowa - 3:30pm - BTN

81/117 New Mexico State @ 83/88 Western Kentucky - 3:30pm - ESPN+

68/70 Pittsburgh @ 65/83 Syracuse - 3:30pm - ACCN

82/109 Texas State @ 61/71 Coastal Carolina - 3:30pm - ESPN+

15/15 Ole Miss @ 2/6 Georgia - 7:00pm - ESPN

49/33 West Virginia @ 12/11 Oklahoma - 7:00pm - FOX

86/89 Georgia Southern @ 94/99 Marshall - 7:00pm - NFLN

6/7 Texas @ 29/28 TCU - 7:30pm - ABC

36/41 Florida @ 13/10 LSU - 7:30pm - SECN

32/39 Duke @ 19/23 North Carolina - 8:00pm - ACCN

42/32 Iowa State @ 70/58 BYU - 10:15pm - ESPN

17/21 USC @ 4/4 Oregon - 10:30pm - FOX

46/53 Fresno State @ 84/73 San Jose State - 10:30pm - CBSSN