Monday, September 30, 2013

Under the Radar Games: Week 6

With only three matchups of ranked teams, quite a bit of games could be considered "under the radar" this week.  Still, I'll take this over the mess that was Week 4 and all those 70-point blowouts.  Plus, as Chip mentioned, conference play is under way - leading to a little more "unpredictability" in terms of matchups and results.

My "under the radar" matchups for this week are as follows:

1. Clemson at Syracuse.  Some might not consider this "under the radar" at all, given Clemson's lofty #3 ranking, Syracuse's first ACC conference game, and the Orange's recent upsets of eventual conference champs Louisville and West Virginia.  But with the three ranked matchups (MD-FSU, Washington-Stanford, Ohio State at Northwestern in the "Musburger/Herbstreit Bowl") on ESPN networks, Notre Dame - Arizona State on NBC, TCU-Oklahoma on FOX, and Georgia-Tennessee on CBS, I feel this one could be unwisely overlooked.

2. West Virginia at Baylor.  What a rebound for the Mountaineers, upsetting Oklahoma State just a week after getting massively shut out by Maryland!  It seems their offense and defense have switched places from 2012.  And Baylor certainly has looked the part in the early part of 2013, putting up over 200 points in only 3 games and giving up only a handful!  With 2 bye weeks now behind the Bears, it's up to Art Briles and his crew to get rolling in conference play.  The results of this game will paint a better picture of how the Big 12's contenders really shake out.

3. Fresno State at Idaho.  It seems I always have a Fresno State game in this list, even if the opponent is no good.  And last week's game at Hawaii nearly saw a 30+ point Fresno collapse against the winless Rainbow Warriors!  This game provides a HUGE opportunity to compare this year's last 2 undefeated non-AQ teams.  Northern Illinois played at Idaho a couple weeks ago, but needed a strong comeback effort to pull off the win.  The Bulldogs can help distinguish itself from the Huskies this week by defeating the Vandals in a convincing fashion.  And while Fresno and NIU may both very well be within BCS Range (Top 12, or Top 16 and higher than an AQ Champ) if they go undefeated, only the higher of the two within that range is guaranteed a BCS Bowl.

4. Arkansas at Florida.  This game has implications on a few levels.  Within the game itself, Arkansas and Florida are in great need of this win.  For the Razorbacks, a rebound after two straight losses in respectable efforts against Rutgers and even Texas A&M would surely go far in demonstrating the program's growth.  For the Gators, a win would signify that Florida can indeed compete against just more than the bottom-level SEC teams.  Also of significance is how each team can impact the greater picture; Florida represents Miami's signature win and could help the Hurricanes in a Strength-of-Schedule debate further down the road, while Arkansas represents a solid win for Rutgers and the American Conference (and, by extension, Fresno State and its BCS-Busting aspirations).

5. Texas at Iowa State.  I almost didn't put this one down, thinking "surely Iowa State isn't going to threaten a resilient Longhorns team."  But just how resilient are these Longhorn players?  After the sudden firings at USC and UConn this week, I think we'll get a chance to see just how "in it" Texas is with Mack Brown - especially with Oklahoma right around the corner.  If the Longhorns are truly with their coach, and play focused, then my initial thought should be proven correct with a decisive Texas win that would put them 2-0 in the Big 12.

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