Week 9 Friday Tailgate
The Great Lakes State takes center stage as Michigan and Michigan State meet in a Top 10 clash.
Happy Halloween, and Happy Week 9! The season, as is always the case, is flying by and kicked off Thursday night with Troy meeting No. 24 Coastal Carolina and South Florida taking on East Carolina.
Chanticleers head coach Jamey Chadwell called a successful fake punt on fourth-and-4 to allow his team to hold the football until the final 25 seconds as the Chanticleers overcame a slow start to win their 12th straight at home, 35-28. In the other matchup, Holton Ahlers threw for 220 yards and sparked a second-half comeback to give the Pirates a 29-14 win over the Bulls in wet conditions.
Let’s take a look at what’s on tap tonight:
Navy-Tulsa: The Golden Hurricane have won three of four and two in a row, while the Midshipmen have just one win but pushed unbeaten Cincinnati last week. Neither defense offers much resistance, and Tulsa is also prone to penalties. Can Navy steal this one with more discipline on both sides of the ball?
UNLV-Nevada: The Battle of the Fremont Cannon will be up for grabs as the winless Rebels head to Reno to take on the Wolf Pack. UNLV was very competitive in its loss last week to San Jose State, but Carson Strong and Nevada have the advantage on both sides of the ball as it strives for a Mountain West West division title.
Okay, onto the action taking place on Halloween Eve.
Big spot for Harbaugh
The Big Ten will be in the spotlight during the Noon ET window when No. 6 Michigan travels to East Lansing to take on “little brother” No. 8 Michigan State. Forget about Ohio State for a minute. This matchup offers an opportunity for Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh to show why he was brought into Ann Arbor. Simply put, this is a game he has to win—a Paul Bunyan Trophy that Michigan needs to capture as these teams meet for the first time as occupants of the AP Top 10 since 1964.
Michigan’s two-headed monster at RB featuring Blake Corum and Hassan Haskins has been outstanding, producing the fifth-best rushing attack in FBS and a combined 1,331 rushing yards and 20 TDs. While the Spartans will look to limit the effectiveness of the Wolverines ground game, Michigan’s defense will try to contain MSU’s Heisman Trophy candidate Kenneth Walker III on the ground. Walker is second in the nation in rushing yards and has completely transformed this offense, which has helped get Sparty off to its best start since 2015.
This will be old-school Big Ten football, and it should be spectacular. The feeling here is that Aidan Hutchinson and the Mike Macdonald-coordinated Wolverines defense will have the edge. This unit has allowed 17 points or fewer in six games this fall. But can the Wolverines get a little bit more from their passing game? Cade McNamara is completing 63 percent of his throws, but he has not shown he can consistently get the ball downfield. While he hasn’t needed to up to this point, what if Sparty gets a big return from Jayden Reed or an explosive play or two from Walker or its receiving corps and Michigan has to play from behind? McNamara has really only needed to throw short passes. That could change Saturday. Can he deliver? It’ll also be interesting to see how much 5-star backup J.J. McCarthy is used.
That other Big Ten game
The second Top-25 Big Ten East division game this weekend had some luster taken off it last week. No. 20 Penn State will travel to Columbus for a date with No. 5 Ohio State, and it’ll be looking to put behind its ugly 9-OT loss to Illinois. James Franklin’s squad still has one of the best defenses in the country, fielding the sixth-best scoring defense, but the Buckeyes have the nation’s top-ranked scoring offense and have looked machine-like in recent weeks, scoring 40-plus points in every game since their Week 2 home loss to Oregon. QB C.J. Stroud is surrounded by a wide array of top talent, from receivers Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba to tailbacks TreVeyon Henderson and Master Teague III.
Franklin looked distracted at a presser this week—did it have anything to do with USC and LSU rumors? He noted that he expects QB Sean Clifford to be 100 percent on Saturday night, but did you see him last week in the loss to the Illini? It’s hard to believe he will be fully healthy for this one. Seems like a bad spot for the Nittany Lions, though remember that PSU is a rare B1G team that matches up fairly well with OSU from a straight athleticism standpoint. As well as PSU has prevented big plays and touchdowns in the red zone, can its offense keep pace with Ryan Day’s squad?
SEC showdowns
No. 10 Ole Miss travels to No. 18 Auburn for the lone Top 25 clash in the SEC, which has six teams enjoying an off week. The Rebels are in the Top 10 for the first time since 2015 but will face a Tigers squad that has won four straight meetings. The winner of this one keeps its SEC championship hopes alive. Can Tigers QB Bo Nix build off of his performance in his last outing—arguably the best of his career?
Meanwhile, 3-loss Florida and top-ranked Georgia will clash in Jacksonville in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, but this doesn’t appear to be the same UF squad that pushed Alabama early in the season. The Gators did not see much resistance from this Bulldogs defense last season, but that game seems like eons ago. A 474-yard passing performance like the one UF received from Kyle Trask in 2020 against DL Jordan Davis and the nation’s top defense isn’t very likely this time around. While the Gators are No. 4 in rushing nationally, the Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring and total defense—they have given up just 46 points all season, making this unit the only FBS defense yet to allow 100 points. That’s insane. If the Gators want to make this a four-quarter game, Dan Mullen may have to fully hand the keys over to backup QB Anthony Richardson. UF’s defense is also going to have to put forth its best effort against a UGA rushing attack featuring Zamir White, James Cook and Kendall Milton.
Other notable games to monitor:
No. 9 Iowa-Wisconsin
Texas-No. 16 Baylor
Miami (FL)-No. 17 Pittsburgh
No. 22 Iowa State-West Virginia
Texas Tech-No. 4 Oklahoma
UL Monroe-Appalachian State
No. 12 Kentucky-Mississippi State
No. 19 SMU-Houston
North Carolina-No. 11 Notre Dame
Louisville-NC State
UCLA-Utah
Virginia-No. 25 BYU
Fresno State-No. 21 San Diego State
Best bets
As always, I release my picks via Twitter on Saturday morning. But if I have to lean early, I’d go:
Iowa +3.5
Texas +2.5
Notre Dame -4
Skinny posts
*Marshall is heading to the Sun Belt Conference, per Yahoo! Sports, making the Thundering Herd the third Conference USA program to make the move in the past week. There isn’t a timeline set for Marshall, but Southern Miss and Old Dominion will join their new league no later than July 1, 2023. Meanwhile, FCS powerhouse James Madison is looking to join the Sun Belt as well, with the school’s executive committee seeking to move up to FBS and an invite from the league. Poor C-USA is now left with only five members: Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Florida International, UTEP and Louisiana Tech.
*Something weird is going to happen in the Big 12 this weekend. Texas travels to No. 16 Baylor, West Virginia hosts No. 22 Iowa State and Texas Tech visits No. 4 Oklahoma. You just have the sense that this weekend is going to present even more questions than answers when it comes to the conference race.
*Virginia-No. 25 BYU doesn’t kick off until 10:15 p.m. ET on Saturday night, but this game has a chance to be one of the day’s best.
*The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season will be released on Tuesday evening, so this is the last week for contenders to put their best foot forward ahead of the initial reveal. Of course, selection factors for the committee will include strength of schedule, head-to-head competition and wins over common opponents. Here is my Top 25 heading into this weekend:
Cocktail of the week
It’s Halloween weekend, and you know what that means…This cocktail was consumed A LOT by happy hour guests when I worked at the hotel bar. It really is delicious and perfect for this weekend. Enjoy the pumpkin spice martini!
*Fill large shaker with ice.
*In small shaker, add 1.5 oz (or more!) vanilla vodka, 1 oz pumpkin spice liqueur and .5 oz Bailey’s.
*Combine the shakers and shake vigorously.
*Strain liquid into a martini glass. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
You will not stop at just one, trust me.
I hope you have a great Halloween weekend. Could the Lions get their first win on Sunday? If not, I’m at the point in which I’m down for 0-17.
Follow me on Twitter @Miller_Dave & email me at david.matthew.miller@gmail.com