College Football Week 7 Predictions

Last Week: 3-2 (Overall 19-20-1) On Upset Alert: USC beats Washington State 30-14

Another week above .500 in the predictions and we feel good going into what on paper could be one of the best weeks of the season. Before that though let's recap what happened last week first.

James Maddison is the first ever first year team to crack the top 25 polls and yet they are unable to win their conference or even compete in a bowl game. This brings to light one of the dumbest rules that the NCAA has in place, the rule that states a team must wait 2 years after transitioning to the FBS to be bowl eligible. Imagine any other league telling a team "You can compete in a league but you are not allowed to win in it." It is a ridiculous rule that not only handcuffs the program for a couple of season but also denies the school what would be a nice revenue haul from competing in a bowl game (and in the case of JMU, a potentially big bowl game). It's all elitist FBS bullshit and it needs to be done away with, sure JMU hasn't had the hardest schedule to date but App State beat Texas A&M and took UNC to the limit so that is an impressive scalp earned by a debutant in the division. Do the right thing for once in your existence NCAA and fix this stupid rule so that James Maddison can get the end to this historic season that they deserve ... Texas A&M certainly gave Alabama a scare but I'll largely chalk that up to the lack of Bryce Young for the Tide, James Milroe played fine in his absence but he's no Bryce Young, you can get away with that against A&M but if he's not back this week that could be trouble ... Don't let the scoreline fool you USC and Washington State was very competitive but ultimately USC D'd up and shut down the Cougars to get a much needed win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Pac 12 football may not always be the prettiest football at times but this conference has some dogs this season and every game is going to be a fight ... LSU are frauds, I said it, we all thought it, they are not nearly a good enough team to justify top 25 ranking and Tennessee proved that. Hendon Hooker picked them apart and LSU had no way of responding. LSU's tough next 3 weeks should confirm that last week will be their last time ranked in 2022 ... UCLA are the threat to USC's dominance in the Pac 12. My worries about their strength of schedule have faded and Dorian Thompson-Robinson has transformed this UCLA offense into a legitimate threat against any team. If UCLA can get past Oregon next week, the USC/UCLA game at the end of November could have a lot on the line ... Kansas lost to TCU but more than proved it belongs with the big boys of the Big 12. Losing Jalon Daniels to injury hurts this team a great deal but they seem to have the make up of a winner and their firefight with TCU proved that they belong. Good for Kansas, it's got to be nice for the Jayhawks to have something to do until basketball season starts ... Washington losing to Arizona State really sucks for the rest of the Pac 12. For the USCs and UCLAs of the division they were relying on Washington to stay relevant to be a high profile win on their schedules for the Playoff picture. If one of them remains undefeated it should be fine but if both take a loss, it's hard to picture a 1 loss Pac 12 team beating out a 1 loss Big 10 or SEC team. With that look back on last week out of the way, its picking time.

Stanford vs Notre Dame (-16.5): Oof Marone that line. I mean Notre Dame should win this game, they have been on a real upswing as of late thanks to the emergence of QB Drew Pyne and honestly if you take out the Marshall loss their season as a whole has been pretty good. Their loss against Ohio State could have really gone either way and with some slightly better QB play (maybe if Pyne had started ahead of Buchner) they might have pulled off a massive week 1 upset, that being said they haven't necessarily blown out teams this season. The wins against Cal and BYU were both 1 score games and their biggest win of the season was a 13 point win against UNC. I know that Stanford have been really not good this season but they do have strong QB play with Tanner McKee leading the charge. McKee has thrown 10 TDs with 5 INTs but it is worth noting that he is not being helped at all with a rushing attack (the Cardinal rank 90th in the nation in rushing) or a defense (110th in the nation in scoring defense). The Cardinal are not good and will allow points however I expect McKee to put up enough points to keep this to a 2 score defeat for the Cardinal PICK: Stanford (+16.5)

Washington State vs Oregon State (-3.5): A very interesting Pac 12 game between the 2 teams in the Pac 12 mid to lower tier that actually are quite solid football teams. Both of these teams have only lost to teams in the top 25 and are competitive in those matchups so this is really a match up to determine which of these teams will be the "best of the rest" in the Pac 12. The matchup here is between transfer QB Cameron Ward and this great Oregon State secondary. The Beavers secondary has as many INTs (7) as they have allowed offensive passing TDs this season. They are ball hawks and they make it difficult to move the ball through the air, that could be a problem for a Washington State offense that is 119th in the nation in rushing offense. Last Week when USC stiffened up on the Cougars passing attack and forced them to try to win on the ground, Washington State buckled and couldn't find the rhythm to force USC to back off of the WRs and respect the run. If the same thing happens against the Beavers it may be a difficult game. Though Oregon State's offense isn't quite the powerhouse USC's is they still pack a punch ranking 55th in the nation in total offense with a solid running game and good yards gained through the air. The point of concern for the Beavers is their turnovers. They have thrown 10 INTs already this season and rank in the bottom 3rd of the FBS in turnovers lost, if they do not handle the ball well and give the Cougars short fields it is really going to hurt their defense and allow the small gains in the run for the Cougs to look much larger. Ultimately I think the Beavers will end up making 1 too many mistakes and Cameron Ward will be able to do enough to see the Cougars to a much needed road win PICK: Washington State (+3.5)

Miss State (-4) vs Kentucky: This is going to be a barn burner between the 2 best QBs named Will in the nation. That may sound like a backhanded compliment but its really not as both Will Rogers and Will Levis have been great to start the season for their teams. Will Rogers trails only CJ Shroud in the FBS as far as touchdowns thrown with 22 and on top of that he's only thrown 3 INTs to go along with over 2000 yards on the year. Levis' stats aren't quite as impressive (12 TDs, 4 INTs, 1400 yards) but are nothing to sneeze at in their own right. After a weird loss to LSU, Miss State seems to have righted the ship with blowout wins over Bowling Green, Texas A&M and Arkansas and the LSU game is the only game this year that the Bulldogs have failed to score 35+ points in a game. The Bulldogs defense has broken a bit this year however and the secret to beating Miss State may be found in a strong defensive team like Kentucky. The Wildcats have only allowed 10 TDs this season defensively and rank 20th in the FBS in total defense. A stout defensive team with an offense that can cover some blemishes could be the kind of team that gives this Bulldogs team fits. Kentucky is coming off of back to back losses but they were without Levis last week and the most points that this Wildcats defense has allowed this season is 24, if they can duplicate that production this game is ripe for a bit of an upset as the Bulldogs look like they are the hot team right now. Something about the matchup doesn't feel right for Miss State to me PICK: Kentucky (+4)

NC State vs Syracuse (-3.5): NC State has kind of coasted to their 4-1 record this season. Struggled with ECU, Struggled with Texas Tech and last week survived a strange game against Florida State. They feel like a fisherman trying to keep the boat a float during a Typhoon and Syracuse may be here to sink the ship. With the Orange on a roll the football program hasn't seen in years and their first high profile matchup in the conference this season, expectations are high. The Quarterback play of Garrett Shrader has been quite good (10 TDs passing, 5 TDs rushing, 1 INT) and RB Sean Tucker has been a consistent force on the ground. 4 different Orange players have over 150 yards receiving on the season. The offense is strong but it has been the 10th ranked Syracuse defense that has been difference maker. Syracuse is only allowing 271 yards per game and NC State's 90th ranked offense will no doubt struggle to change the narrative in this one. Syracuse is the more complete team and should be able to do enough to win this game and setup a really fun matchup with Clemson next week PICK: Syracuse (-3.5)

Oklahoma State vs TCU (-4): I said I felt TCU was the class of the Big 12 last week and this week I think they prove it. Spencer Sanders has led this Cowboys offense well with 1394 yards, 12 TDs and just 2 picks on the year and Dominic Richardson does his job when called upon in the backfield. Richardson's yards don't jump off the screen at you but with an offense like the Cowboys, the 4.1 yards per carry is all they need to force defenses to respect their running attack. Well their offense is great, their defense is bad and that will be a real factor in a matchup like this. The Cowboys have the 105th ranked defense in the FBS allowing over 400 yards per game and Oklahoma State have yet to play a truly top end talented team, that changes with TCU. Max Duggan has been phenomenal this year throwing 14 TDs and just 1 INT and unlike Richardson for Oklahoma State, TCUs Keandre Miller hasn't just been serviceable, he has been scary with a 6.9 yard per carry average. TCU like Oklahoma State don't run the ball a ton but they get huge pop plays out of the run which doesn't just force teams to respect the run, it forces teams to commit to it. A defense like Oklahoma State's which is already getting run off the field could be ripe for some big runs and big passes from this very balanced TCU offense. TCU's defense has also been unimpressive as a whole so expect points a plenty in this matchup but ultimately I think TCU's big play ability in both the run and the pass seem to outweigh the Cowboys by just enough to take the W at home PICK: TCU (-4)

USC vs Utah (-3.5): This is USC first real test of the season and their is reason to have question marks for sure. Though these two teams are similar in scoring offense (14th and 15th respectively) and scoring defense (27th and 29th respectively), USC has yet to play an opponent of significance who can challenge the class of the Pac 12. That changes this week against Utah, who are coming off of a tough loss to UCLA and saw Cam Rising play his worst game of the season so far (23/32 287 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT). They have one common opponent with Utah blowing out Oregon State while USC hung on for a 17-14 victory over the Beavers. This game should be a tight battle and it is really tough to decide which way the game will fall however I think USC's safety duo of R.J Hubert and Cole Bishop cause problems for Cam Rising in this one and ultimately USC comes out of this one with the victory against a top 25 opponent that hopefully silences any questions about their strength of schedule PICK: USC (+3.5)

Penn State vs Michigan (-7): It's the battle for who's loss to Ohio State means more in this one as 2 undefeated teams face off in the Big House. Both of these teams are wildly untested despite strong starts to the season with only Maryland for Michigan and Purdue for Penn State as teams even receiving top 25 votes among their opponents so far this season. The Wolverines offense is still getting its legs under it after their weird 2 QB system they played for the first couple of weeks but J.J McCarthy is their undoubted #1 now and combine that with one of the best RBs in the country in Blake Corum and that offense should surely turn the ship and be a real power. This week may be difficult for them though as Penn State has the 13th ranked Scoring Defense in the nation and are 14th in the nation in turnovers gained with 12. Penn State's secondary and linebacking core get after QBs and the ball and cause real havoc on the field. If Michigan's offense is still out of sync that may be a real concern however Penn State's offense has been a little inconsistent with Sean Clifford under center and after their offensive showing against a very poor Northwestern team, I am not convinced the bye week will be enough to give the Nittany Lions offense enough bite to take down Michigan on the road. This line however feels a bit large for my liking in a game that may come down to a couple of plays PICK: Penn State (+7)

Alabama (-8) vs Tennessee: Bryce Young is a game time decision, that is the key to this game. If Bryce Young plays the Tide should have enough to win and probably win by double digits and cover this spread however if Bryce Young doesn't play or is hampered significantly by his injury, Hendon Hooker and the Vols have a real shot in this one. Tennessee is good, they don't just beat teams, the make statements on them. Dismantling LSU after beating Florida has proved that Tennessee belongs with the top of the SEC, but do they have enough to knock off Alabama and Georgia? That is the question we answer in this game. There are a lot of stats I can give you but all they will show you is that you have 2 elite teams playing each other and that this game should be an absolute barn burner in the afternoon on Saturday. Can Tennessee upset the apple cart in this one? I hope so because having some fresh faces in the SEC would be a breath of fresh air in the College Football landscape ... I'm pulling for them PICK: Tennessee (+8)

On Upset Alert: Listen Clemson, you are better than FSU but they are scrappy. Syracuse next week is a game you didn't think could have such large ACC implications but it does. Do NOT underestimate the Seminoles. Take care of business and give me and college football the game we want to see.