Nationally its not a great schedule this week outside of the Auburn/Florida game. In the ACC, we’ll see some key matchups beginning on Thursday night with the BC/VPI game.
This is a strange year in college football. No one outside Columbus seems to be able to handle success. After key victories, USC has struggled, Auburn has stumbled, and Tennessee has disappointed. Will Florida be next on this list? The Gators are good, but are they good enough to go into Auburn against a wounded Tiger team looking for redemption after an embarrassing loss? I don’t think so. Florida doesn’t have the pound it down your throat running game that’s needed to beat Auburn, and the Tiger defense is fast enough to slow down anything else the Gators throw at them. On the other side, Auburn’s passing game should be strong enough against Florida’s secondary to open up the running game for Kenny Irons.
Some interesting things to watch in the ACC…
Despite their solid records, both BC and VPI could use a win here to reestablish some national credibility. Both teams only have one loss and are very much in the conference race, but only Virginia Tech is ranked in both polls.
After some poor showings by the ACC against Big East teams, (1-4) UNC has the opportunity to bring some respect to the conference with a win over (4-2) South Florida. UNC has lost to some pretty good teams, and USF has beat some pretty bad ones; so this game could go either way.
It won’t happen, but if Miami loses to winless FIU, Coker won’t make it out of the locker room with his job. The only thing giving the Golden Panthers any semblance of a chance, only one loss has been by more than 5 points.
Obviously the Pack/Wake game is huge. NC State can strengthen its hold on the Atlantic with a win over a surprising Wake team. The Clemson game is clearly the key game, but lets take it one week at a time.
