#14 Notre Dame @ #17 Michigan, 8pm ET,
ESPN
Instant Analysis
This game
has been pretty electrifying the past few years and I don’t see the 2013
version being any different. Both teams
come in with high hopes for the season and a win here will propel Notre Dame or
Michigan into the national spotlight and potentially, the BCS
conversation. I see Notre Dame with a
slight edge on the field in this matchup with a senior quarterback in Tommy
Rees and one of the best defensive fronts in the country, led by Louis Nix
III. The Wolverines are talented but I
think the inexperience of quarterback Devin Gardner will show up here,
especially going up against this Irish front seven.
Keys to victory
Notre Dame
Avoid turnovers. Notre Dame has a deeper, more talented football team and as long as Rees can avoid some of the turnovers that have plagued him in the past the Irish should be okay. Rees just needs to be efficient and get the football to his playmakers. Defensively, the more pressure Notre Dame can put on Gardner the better. Hit him early and often.
Michigan
Run the
football and hit the play-action.
Michigan doesn’t have to run for a ton of yards, they just need to keep
the Irish honest and challenge Notre Dames secondary in the play-action passing
game. Gardener is a talented kid and if
they can keep him upright and keep the pressure off, Michigan will have a
chance at hitting some big plays.
Defensively, Michigan needs to pressure Rees and force him to throw
early and into coverage and capitalize when Rees makes an errant throw.
Fun Facts
The 2011
game at Michigan was played in front of the largest crowd in NCAA history
(114,804) and was the first ever night game at Michigan Stadium. Michigan came back from a 24-7 fourth quarter
deficit and finally won 35-31.
Michigan
leads the series 23-16-1
Our Picks
Jeremy- Notre Dame, 31-30Nick- Notre Dame, 21-17
#6 South Carolina @ #11 Georgia, 4:30
p.m. ESPN
Instant analysis
This game
has some interesting story lines...will the Dawgs get back on track after a
close loss at Clemson? Will Jadaveon Clowney and the Gamecock defense live up
to their billing as one of the best defenses in the country? Will Georgia be
knocked out of the national title picture in week two? Will the Gamecocks knock
off the Dawgs for the fourth-straight time? All of those questions should be
answered in this game. Let’s start breaking this one down. I have to give Georgia the edge in this one;
it is coming off an emotionally tough loss to Clemson and has lost
three-straight times to the Gamecocks. I think Georgia will win a close game on
the back of Todd Gurley, with a few touchdown passes from Aaron Murray.
Keys to victory:
Georgia
The Dawgs
are going to have to slow the quick and formidable Gamecock defense by running
the ball to open up the passing game. The good thing for Georgia is they have
arguably the best running back in the country in Gurley and if they give him
the ball in steady doses he should be able to have another 100-plus yard game.
Gurley can put this team on his back, but he is going to need help from Murray.
Murray cannot have another game without tossing a touchdown. He is going to
have to have a great game and stay off his back to help win this one. On
defense Georgia needs to get to USC quarterback Connor Shaw early and often. If
the UGA defense can get Shaw uncomfortable and slow the running tandem of Mike
Davis and Brandon Wilds, Georgia will have its chance to win.
South Carolina
The
Gamecocks keys in this game go directly to Clowney and their defense. The USC
defense is going to need to shut Gurley down early and force Murray to start
throwing early. That being said they cannot rely on totally shutting down
Murray because he is due for a big game. If the Gamecock defense can get hot
early it could shut down the Dawgs and make it tough to move the ball. On
offense the Gamecocks are going to have to get Shaw comfortable early with some
short throws leading to some big plays. They are also going to have to get the
running game established early with Davis and Wilds. USC has to establish the
run game early because Shaw and Dylan Thompson only combined for 178 passing
yards against North Carolina. If the Gamecocks can run the ball effectively and
shut down the high-powered Georgia offense they will come away with its
fourth-straight victory over the Dawgs.
Fun facts
Georgia: The Dawgs are looking to avoid their second 0-2 start in three years after losing to Boise State and South Carolina in 2011.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks have defeated the Dawgs three-consecutive times including a 35-7 rout last season.
Our Picks
Jeremy’s- South Carolina, 34-31Nick’s- UGA, 35-31
#12 Florida @ Miami, 12pm ET, ESPN
Instant Analysis
This is a
great intrastate rivalry and should be an exciting matchup between Miami’s high
powered, explosive offense against Florida which boasts one of the best
defenses in college football. Though the
game is in Miami, the crowd should prove to be more like 50-50 as the Gators
will surely pack the house. Miami didn’t
blow the doors off FAU last weekend like many people thought and quarterback
Stephen Morris completed just over 50% of his passes for 160 yards. He’ll need the best performance of his career
against this Gator defense. Florida
should control the trenches on both sides of the ball and it’s going to take
some big plays and a little luck for the ‘Canes to get a win.
Keys to Victory
Florida
Florida just
needs to do what they do. Play great
defense and run the football. Jeff
Driskel was efficient last week in the passing game (17-23 for 153 and 1 TD)
and will need to be just good enough this week to keep the Miami defense
honest. Running back Matt Jones will
return for this game and paired with Mack Brown (25 carries for 112 and 2 TD’s)
and the legs of Driskel, Florida will look to run early and often against the
Hurricanes. Defensively, look for
Florida to shut down Duke Johnson and the Miami ground game and focus on
putting hits on Stephen Morris when he drops back to pass.
Miami
Miami has to
hit early against the Gators and play with the lead to keep running lanes open
for Duke Johnson. Jeff Driskel isn’t the
type of quarterback who can throw his team back into a game so getting an early
lead will be paramount for Miami. The
‘Canes best bet is to spread the Gators out, rev up the tempo and pressure the
Gator defense down field to help open lanes for Duke Johnson and the ground
game.
Fun Facts
This game has been played 54 times and the ‘Canes have a slight edge- 28-26. Florida won the last meeting in 2008 by a score of 26-3 and went on to win the BCS Championship.
The winner
of this game, played annually from 1938-1987, was once awarded The Seminole War
Canoe Trophy.
Our Pick
Jeremy- Florida, 27-24Nick’s pick- Florida, 28-24
#5 Stanford vs. San Jose State, 11 a.m.
ET, Pac-12 Network
Instant analysis
The Cardinal
finally gets the chance to get on the field and begin the defense of its Pac-12
title. Stanford comes into this season with a lot of expectation and with lots
of people picking them to make the national title game. There is no doubt this
team has one of the best defensive front seven’s in the country and is playing
behind a vastly improving young quarterback Kevin Hogan. San Jose State was one
of two Mountain West teams to win last week with a 24-0 win over Sac State.
SJSU quarterback David Fales is a stud but he is going to have a major
challenge on his hands in Palo Alto.
Keys to victory
Stanford
Stanford’s
keys to victory in this game are pretty simple…do what you do. Play solid
defense is number one. With one of the best front seven’s in the country the
Cardinal needs to put early and often pressure on Fales and make is very
uncomfortable. Fales did not have a huge game last week and that was against
and FCS team. Now he is playing national
title caliber defense. Stanford should be able to put Fales on his back a lot
and shutdown the SJSU rushing attack pretty easily. Offensively, the Cardinal
needs to keep Hogan comfortable and use the rushing attack to run over the
Spartans. Stanford is breaking in new
receivers, running backs and a tight end, but it is tough on the offensive line
and should be able to run the ball with relative ease.
San Jose State
This is
pretty tough to find a way for the Spartans to win this one. For SJSU to have a
chance Fales is going to have to go off. He is going to need to vastly improve
from his 225 yards, two touchdowns and 50 percent completion percentage. Fales
is going to have to put up at least four touchdowns and 300-plus yards for SJSU
to even have a chance. The Spartan defense is going have to slow Hogan and the
Cardinal rushing attack down to even have a chance. I don’t like the Spartans
chances in this one but stranger things have happened.
Fun facts
Stanford: David Shaw is 2-0 in season
openers at Stanford and the Cardinal has won five openers in a row.
San Jose State: This is the 67th
meeting in this series the Spartans have won 14 games against Stanford with
their last win coming in 2006. San Jose State’s new headman Ron Caragher takes
his Spartans on the road for the first time in his tenure.
Our picks
Jeremy’s pick- Stanford, 34-10Nick’s pick- Stanford 31-17
#15 Texas @ BYU, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Instant analysis
The
Longhorns look solid in their opener against New Mexico State, but will play a
lot tougher defense this week as they take is trip to Provo to take on BYU. BYU
has one of the toughest defenses in the country and is coming off a tough loss
at Virginia and has an even better offense to deal with this week. Quarterback
David Ash and the running back Jalen Overstreet should be able to lead the
Longhorns to victory. BYU has a pretty average if not below average offense and
the Texas defense is going to prove too fast for the Cougars.
Keys to victory
Texas
The
Longhorns are going to have a lot of chances and keys to winning this game. The
best thing that could happen for them is for Ash to go off for 434 total yards
again and five touchdowns. Also if Overstreet can reach 100 yards in this game the
Longhorns should be able to win pretty easily. Defensively Texas just needs to
slow a pretty weak BYU offense. If the Longhorns hold the Cougars to less than
20 points they will win this game. I am not even sure if BYU can put the ball
in the endzone three times.
BYU
The only
chance the Cougars have in this game is to completely shut down the Longhorn
offense. If BYU can hold Texas to 17 or less points it will have a chance to
win. The problem is this Texas offense looks a lot stronger than that. This
defense is going to have make Ash uncomfortable early and shutdown Overstreet
to win this one. Offensively the Cougars are going to have to hope Jamaal Williams
goes off on the ground for 200-plus yards.
Fun facts
Texas: The Horns are looking for their
seventh-consecutive 2-0 start.
BYU: The Cougars are looking to avoid
their first 0-2 start since the 1995 season.
Our picks
Jeremy’s pick- 31-14Nick’s pick- Texas 31-17
Instant Analysis
Each team is
coming off of week 1 losses but the losses were very different. Wyoming went to Nebraska, put up 34 points
and over 600 yards and was about 30 seconds from pulling out a last second
victory. Idaho, on the other hand, got
drilled, 40-6 by North Texas. It will be
interesting to see if the Cowboys have been able to put the Nebraska game
behind them and are ready to refocus on the task at hand and if they are, they
should have no trouble in their home opener at War Memorial Stadium. I expect Wyoming quarterback, Brett Smith to
have another big game and will likely be in the 400-500 total yard range taking
on a thin, inexperienced secondary.
Keys to Victory
Wyoming
The Cowboys
need to just pick up where they left off last week; keep the tempo up and let
quarterback Brett Smith do his thing.
Smith accounted for 475 yards and four touchdowns last week and is the
key that makes this team go. As
mentioned above, Idaho has a young, inexperienced secondary and it’s important
for Coach Dave Christensen to put the ball in his best players hand and turn
him loose.
Idaho
The Vandals
have to try to slow the pace of the Cowboy offense and get a few three-and-outs
early to keep Wyoming off balance. The
Vandals have a pretty solid defensive line and getting after Brett Smith early
and often will be paramount. Along with
slowing down the Cowboy offense, Idaho must try to control the line of
scrimmage and run the football. An
effective ground game will help keep the Pokes offense off the field and keep
them from getting in rhythm.
Fun Facts
Wyoming won
last year’s game in OT, 40-37. War
Memorial Stadium, the home of Cowboy football sits at 7,220 feet above sea
level, the highest stadium in the FBS.
Dennis
Erickson coached at Idaho from 1982-1985 and again in 2006. In 1986, Erickson left Idaho to coach at…
Wyoming.
Our Pick
Jeremy- Wyoming, 42-27Nick- Wyoming, 42-28
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