College Football Week 8 Games to Watch

Ken — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:02:12 +0000

Sorry, I know I'm late with this week's installment. Michigan is idle this week; N.C. State plays Virginia.

Games to Watch on Saturday

At noon, your best bet looks to be UNC vs. #7 Clemson on ESPN. #23 Illinois plays Purdue on ESPN2, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see an upset here. The rest of the early games are kind of yawners.

At 3:30 PM, the N.C. State game against Virginia is on ESPNU. #1 LSU plays #20 Auburn in a big SEC game on CBS, though Auburn is struggling a bit and LSU has looked dominant. #22 Georgia Tech plays Miami (FL) on ESPN.

At 7:00, #21 Penn State plays Northwestern on BTN in an intriguing matchup... Penn State's defense has looked very good but the offense has looked terrible, and with NWU it's largely the other way around. At 7:30 USC plays Notre Dame on NBC; that game is always entertaining.

At 8:00 this week's Game of the Week is on ESPN with #6 Wisconsin taking on #16 Unnecessary Roughness University... er, Michigan State, that is. MSU's defensive end William Gholston is suspended for this game due to his dirty play against Michigan, so Wisconsin benefits from Michigan's misfortune, whee. #25 Washington is having a surprisingly good year; they play #8 Stanford on ABC.

N.C. State Game Prediction: Virginia's a hard team to figure out; they've squeaked by with narrow wins against awful teams (overtime against 1-6 Idaho? WTF?) but then last week they found a way to beat Georgia Tech. They've racked up plenty of yards on opponents only to squander the scoring opportunities. Will those mistakes continue against N.C. State? Signs point to yes. I like the Wolfpack in a mild upset and a high-scoring game: N.C. State 42, Virginia 37.