On USC, Florida, and Yet Another ACC Game

Two weeks into the college football season, we’re starting to get a picture of how the season is going. The Pac 10 is dominating, the Big East really is that good after all, the SEC (duh) goes five or six deep, Michigan-Notre Dame is completely irrelevant, and the ACC still doesn’t have a marquee team.

In last week’s three games, some of the top teams created some separation between them and the pack. LSU deserves to be ranked #1 for now, and Texas-Oklahoma set themselves ahead of the pack in the Big 12, again. Also, like I said, Kyle Wright is now back in for Miami. Teams should play second-rate QBs against Oklahoma more often, so I can keep looking like I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, this week’s top 3 games:

1. #22 Tennessee at #5 Florida. I have a friend who loves Tennessee football, and for some reason, she hates Casey Clausen. I found this confusing because I always thought he did really well at UT. But here’s the thing: although I think it wasn’t his fault, the feeling probably comes from the fact that his teams failed to make the BCS while the window was open. When Clausen was an upperclassman, Spurrier was out and Zook was in. We didn’t yet know how good Mark Richt was—in retrospect, we can see that Georgia’s rise is almost perfectly invertible with Florida State’s decline, but that’s a whole different column. Now we can see Georgia is here to stay, Spurrier’s back around, Urban Meyer is bringing in enough talent to start USC East, and every SEC West team outside of Mississippi is better than they were five years ago. Tennessee’s window of opportunity has been closing ever since Casey’s days. It isn’t much of a stretch to imagine that a decisive Florida victory this week could shut it on Phil Fulmer permanently.

For their part, Florida will be looking to keep pace with LSU and keep themselves in the national title picture.

2. #21 Boston College at #15 Georgia Tech. ACC teams, if you’re keeping track, have now showed up on five of my nine big games so far. This is partly because they schedule early conference games, but mostly it is attributable to their status as the weakest BCS conference. Since no one has any clue who the best team in this conference might be, we have to keep watching to find out. Boston College, as noted before, is the most experienced team in the league, and boasts the best quarterback. They’ve been solid but unspectacular against Wake Forest and NC State. GT looked fabulous at Notre Dame and against Samford, but who knows what that’s worth? If they take care of BC, they could challenge for the top 10 next week. If BC wins, they will be 6-0 and Matt Ryan will be on the fringe of the Heisman race by mid-October.

3. #1 USC at #16 Nebraska. The Pac-10 has oozed quality so far, with Cal, Oregon, Arizona State, UCLA and Washington all posting solid wins and cruising to 2-0. Meanwhile, with LSU, Florida and Oklahoma all impressing, it has been easy to forget that USC is still the odds-on favorite in the conference and the country. They will be out to remind people.

They’ll be up against pretty much the entire city of Lincoln. Nebraska is a good team, and QB Sam Keller played the 2005 Trojans tough when he was at Arizona State. If Nebraska can win, or even stay close, it will establish them not only as the early Big 12 North favorite, but a legitimate concern to the Oklahoma/Texas winner in the championship game.

As a side note, I put the ACC game ahead of this because as a conference game, I felt it has slightly more importance. This game is the best of the week in terms of combined team ranking, and the result is important to both programs and their conferences, but it does not impact either team's ability to win said conferences. So it drops to 3rd.

Predictions: I just don’t see Fulmer having the defense to get it done in the Swamp. Even with Caldwell missing, the Gators have weapons everywhere, and keep in mind this is the first team EVER in the third straight year of Urban Meyer’s offense. Nebraska doesn’t have the talent to hang around with USC, but few teams do. In the ACC, I’m taking BC in a slight upset. GT hasn’t seen a defense that could slow down Tashard Choice, and I think Taylor Bennett will have a tough time if he needs to pass to be successful. BC is more balanced and should get the win.

Picks: Florida, BC, USC