WEEK TEN - Preview

With two top ten matchups (Texas at Texas Tech & Florida vs Georgia), one of the best traditional rivalries (Nebraska at Oklahoma), and perhaps the final Spurrier/Fulmer meeting on the docket this weekend it would be easy to overlook the rest of the schedule. But here are three games flying under the radar you should know about. One will be a good old fashioned smashmouth football game with a spotlight on running the football and playing defense; another features a future potential Faulk Trophy winner; and the other is going to be a shootout in which 40 points probably won’t be enough to get the win.

Temple (3-5) @ Navy (5-3)
(Saturday, 2:30 pm, CBS College Sports)
If you’re looking for a good old fashioned smashmouth football game this weekend, you should probably tune in to CBS College Sports at about 2:30 this weekend. Navy will roll out their triple option attack and try to penetrate the solid Temple defense. To give you an idea of how old fashioned this game could be, consider this: Navy didn’t thorw a single pass in their win over SMU a week ago. With quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada back in the fold, they’ll have at least the threat of a play action pass, but you can still bet on the ball staying on the ground more often than not. That is a direct challenge to a surprisingly stout Temple defense. The veteran Owls, led by Junior Galette, have been terrorizing MAC foes of late. In their five conference games they have limited opponents to 66 rushing yards (2.0 yards per carry!), and 16.2 points per game – not too shabby. But I don’t think Temple has enough offense to pull out a victory.
J.Pike’s Pick: Navy 17, Temple 10

UAB (2-6) @ Southern Miss (2-6)
(Saturday, 7 pm)
Sure, these two teams only have four wins between them this year. But there will be enough young talent on the field that you should pay attention anyway because both of these programs are capable of taking a big step forward in Conference USA next year. New Southern Miss head coach Larry Fedora has a good offensive mind, and he’s got some weapons at his disposal. Junior running back headlines the attack with 969 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns. But freshman wide receiver DeAndre Brown is the player that has Golden Eagle fans excited. At 6-foot-5, Brown is piling up touchdowns at an alarming rate (9 so far) thanks to the mismatches he creates in the red zone. But the Blazers possess possibly the most exciting player you’ve never heard of in junior quarterback Joe Webb. Webb is an excellent athlete that is improving his passing every week. He has the numbers (1,726 yards, 8 td passing; 723 yards 7 td rushing) that will put him in the running for the Faulk Trophy next season if he gets a little more help around him. Look for this game to be close at halftime, but Southern Miss will pull away in the second half as UAB has consistently played poorly after halftime this season.
J.Pike’s Pick: Southern Miss 31, UAB 20

Rice (5-3) @ UTEP (3-4)
(Saturday, 8:05 pm)
I’m not sure why this game isn’t on television because it should be the highest scoring game of the weekend hands down. Rice won last year’s meeting despite giving up 48 points. This year both teams will be without top defensive players this week due to injury, so the Owls might need to score more than 56 this time around to secure the W. Oh yeah, I should also mention that Rice is allowing 36.5 points per game, and last week UTEP gave up 77 points and 791 yards to Tulsa! Each quarterback should have a field day Saturday night. Euless Trinity alum Trevor Vittatoe paces the Miners with his excellent 16-4 TD/INT ratio. Chase Clement is like a mini-Colt McCoy (2,360 yards, 24 td passing; 402 yards, 7 td rushing) and has positioned himself as a serious underdog candidate for the Faulk Trophy. I’ll give the slight edge to Rice here because although they don’t have as much talent as UTEP does on paper, they have played more consistently up to this point.
J.Pike’s Pick: Rice 63, UTEP 51

WEEK SEVEN - Preview

Now it’s time for our weekly look at the games that are flying under the national radar. TCU is on upset alert this weekend as they travel to Colorado Springs to face a new coach and a team that appears to be improving every week. And two matchups in the MAC should have a direct impact on the conference title game in that conference.

TCU @ Colorado State
New head coach Steve Fairchild is doing a good job so far at Colorado State. The Rams are 3-2 and have been steadily improving every week. Wide receiver Rashaun Greer (6th nationally with 570 receiving yards) has been a key component in an offense averaging a respectable 260.8 passing yards per game, and he’ll give TCU’s stout defense something to think about. TCU’s running game is strong this year, averaging 246.7 yards per game, but the passing game isn’t going to scare anybody. There’s also the look-ahead factor for the Frogs as they have nationally ranked BYU on the schedule next week. If Colorado State can load up the box and take away the TCU ground game, they’ll be able to put enough points on the board to give Fairchild his first big win.
J.Pike’s Pick: Colorado State 28, TCU 24

Western Michigan @ Buffalo
Western Michigan is 4-1 and looking like a serious contender in the MAC. Quarterback Tim Hiller leads an offense that is clicking right now, averaging 32.2 points per game. But Hiller doesn’t always play well on the road. Buffalo head coach Turner Gill will make it difficult on Hiller to sit back in the pocket and without being pressured, and that will knock him off his game. Meanwhile, Drew Willy and the offense will produce the knockout punch and climb back into the thick of the MAC race.
J.Pike’s Pick: Buffalo 31, Western Michigan 27

Temple @ Central Michigan
Ever since quarterback Dan LeFevour stepped on campus, the Chippewas have been the big shots in the MAC. LeFevour put up incredible numbers a year ago (compare them to Tim Tebow if you like), and he’s one of the better non-BCS quarterbacks around. Temple though brings a very good, very experienced defense to the table. The Owls are limiting opponents to only 18.5 points per game (3rd in the MAC) and will challenge LeFevour and the offense from start to finish. Unfortunately Temple doesn’t have enough offense to pull the upset though.
J.Pike’s Pick: Central Michigan 21, Temple 14

WEEK FIVE - Preview

Now it’s time for our weekly look at a handful of games that are flying under the national radar. Of the four games listed below, two are MAC matchups that should have a big impact on who makes it to the conference championship game. The other two matchups are in-state rivalry games, each featuring a team on the cusp of the top 25. All four games warrant at least a glance at the ticker because you’ll see the majority of these teams in bowl games at the end of the season.

Western Michigan @ Temple
When Western Michigan’s offense takes the field against Temple’s defense it will be team strength versus team strength. Western quarterback Tim Hiller has above average skills in the passing game, but he has shown that he can be rattled. So that’s exactly what John Haley and the Temple defense will try to do. The Owls’ defense has been decent so far this season, giving up less than 200 passing yards per game. Hiller has been on top of his game lately though, and he’ll get the job done in a tougher than anticipated game in Philadelphia.
J.Pike’s Pick: Western Michigan 28, Temple 20

Marshall @ West Virginia
This in-state rivalry ended up as a blowout a year ago, but Marshall actually led 13-6 at halftime. Mark Snyder finally has the Marshall program back on track after three straight sub-.500 seasons. The Herd sits at 3-1 (the lone loss was a competitive game against #9 Wisconsin) thanks to the play of their experienced defense. Marshall is limiting opponents to 118 rushing yards per game so far. Offensively the passing game is clicking due to the play of wide receiver Darius Passmore (26 receptions for 473 yards, 4 tds). Passmore has given freshman Mark Cann a reliable, playmaking target, which is always nice for a young quarterback. West Virginia on the other hand is 1-2 and struggling with their offensive identity. It seemed like new offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen wanted to make Pat White a pocket passer the first couple weeks, but got back to the running game against Colorado that won them 33 games in the past three seasons. The offense is still way to predictable, but there’s still enough speed between White and Noel Devine to score enough points to win this game.
J.Pike’s Pick: West Virginia 32, Marshall 27

Buffalo @ Central Michigan
It’s time. Turner Gill has slowly built this Buffalo program into one of the elite in the MAC. Central Michigan has been the measuring stick the last couple years thanks to quarterback Dan LeFevour’s Tebow-esque stats, but now is when Buffalo makes their move. Drew Willy has been playing lights out this year and he’ll guide the Bulls on another last minute touchdown drive to seal the biggest win in school history.
J.Pike’s Pick: Buffalo 28, Central Michigan 27

Nevada @ UNLV
UNLV’s upset of Arizona State two weeks ago is just one of the many examples of the quality and depth of the Mountain West conference this year. Led by sophomore quarterback Omar Conner, the Rebels are 3-1 and on the top 25 radar for the first time in a long time. I don’t know if Mike Sanford is chewing on any towels on the sidelines, but he should be. On the other sideline, Chris Ault leads Nevada with his innovative “Pistol” offense. The Pistol is now popping into playbooks at places like Florida and Ohio State, but Ault is the creator. Nevada has already played two top 15 teams this year, so don’t let their poor record fool you. The Wolfpack has beaten UNLV each of the last three years, but it looks like UNLV has finally turned the corner.
J.Pike’s Pick: UNLV 27, Nevada 24