National College Football Preview – Week 4

Image: Miami Herald

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

After a few weeks of college football played by the ACC, Big 12, AAC and a few G5 conferences, the SEC joins the party this weekend! That will go a long way towards making this feel like a more legitimate and authentic season. While the slate still leaves a bit to be desired and we are still without the Big Ten and PAC-12, this will feel much more like a college football Saturday than we’ve experienced thus far.

I’m changing up the format a bit and this article will be more of a walk through the day. What is worth watching and why is it worth your time?

Games Starting at Noon

Not a bad start to the day here with several games worth checking out. Big 12 conference play begins as Kansas State visits #3 Oklahoma (-28) on FOX. My two favorite games in the window are #5 Florida (-14.5) taking on Ole Miss in Oxford to start the Lane Kiffin era. This one is on ESPN and the Gators are a team with SEC East title aspirations and College Football Playoff hopes. The second one is #23 Kentucky traveling to #8 Auburn (-7.5) on the SEC Network. The Wildcats are one of the more physical and versatile teams in the country under Mike Stoops and I don’t love Auburn this season. UK is getting some respect as only 7.5 point underdogs. The ACC has a few contests but the only one worth paying attention to is Louisville at Pittsburgh (-3). The Cardinals defense was abject last week against Miami and I like the Panthers to win this one and cover. UCF should be hammering East Carolina on ABC and Iowa State will battle TCU on 1:30 on FS1.

Games Starting at 3:30

Mississippi State at LSU (-16.5) on CBS as the national champs kick-off their season and Georgia (-26) travels to Arkansas at 4:00 on SEC Network to get the first glimpse at the Dawgs. The Big 12 has Texas (-18.5) playing at Texas Tech on Fox and West Virginia is at Oklahoma State (-7.5) on ABC. My favorite game of the window just might be Army playing at Cincinnati (-13.5) on ESPN. This is one of the best teams in the AAC taking on one of my favorite squads to watch. Unfortunately, Army was unable to play against BYU last weekend so this is really the best test for two teams that have realistic dreams of going unbeaten. The Bearcats are the heavy favorites but I like Army to cover here.

Primetime Games

Alabama (-28) at Missouri gets the Crimson Tide’s season underway at 7:00 on ESPN. The Tide are heavy favorites against an outgunned Missouri squad. Vanderbilt is at Texas A&M at 7:30 on the SEC Network, Tennessee is at South Carolina and Kansas travels to Baylor. The game I’ll be most tuned into will be Miami taking on Florida State. I was thoroughly impressed with the Miami offense last weekend. Rhett Lashlee and D’Eriq King are a terrific pairing and the Hurricanes have some outstanding skill position players. Florida State has been a mess and I don’t think they have the firepower to keep up with Miami. I like UM to win this one by at least two touchdowns.