With a bye week in Week 7 for the Michigan Wolverines, there is a chance to scope out some of the other talents in college football this weekend. Plenty of teams are in make-or-break positions for their seasons, and there should be plenty of excitement across the country (but not really in the Big Ten) this weekend.
Let’s dig into some of Week 7’s most intriguing battles:
No. 12 Oklahoma State Cowboys vs No. 25 Texas Longhorns
- Date & Time: Saturday, Oct. 16, 12 p.m.
- Channel: Fox
- Location: DKR Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas
- Weather: 78 degrees and sunny
- Betting Line: Texas -5.0, O/U: 60
Right when you think Texas might be turning its season around, its pulls a Texas. Up three touchdowns in the first half against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry last weekend, the Longhorns absolutely collapsed and lost to their biggest rival in the most important game on their schedule.
Still, the Longhorns’ offense was really impressive for a majority of that game, and now they have to respond against the other undefeated team in the state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma State Cowboys come in with consecutive wins against top 25 opponents and seeking a third.
The Cowboys have won ugly all season long, beating Missouri State, Tulsa and Boise State by a combined 13 points. But the last two weeks it seems they have started to figure things out. A win over Texas on the road would only continue to solidify the Cowboys are legit.
Texas leads the all-time series 26-9, but Oklahoma State has won 7 of the last 11 meetings. This should be a fun one!
Other notable games at noon: No. 10 Michigan State vs Indiana Hoosiers, UCF vs No. 3 Cincinnati, Auburn Tigers vs No. 17 Arkansas Razorbacks
No. 11 Kentucky Wildcats vs No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs
- Date & Time: Saturday, Oct. 16, 3:30 p.m.
- Channel: CBS
- Location: Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia
- Weather: 78 degrees and partly cloudy
- Betting Line: Georgia -23.0, O/U: 45
Kentucky has been one of the biggest surprises in college football this season. The Wildcats are 6-0 and are coming off back-to-back really nice wins over LSU and a Florida team that went toe-for-toe with Alabama a few weeks back.
That’s all nice and dandy, but this team also went into the fourth quarter trailing Chatanooga a couple weeks ago and have four wins by a touchdown or less. That and they are running into the best team in the country right now in the juggernaut Georgia Bulldogs.
Georgia may have constructed the best defense in the history of college football. No, I’m not kidding. In this pass-happy college football day and age, Georgia has allowed *checks notes* 201 yards per game this season and *triple checks to make sure it’s right* 5.5 points per game in the first half of this season. The next closest defenses in the country are Clemson and Iowa who allow almost double the points per game.
It’s not like Georgia is playing a bunch of scrubs either. They allowed just three points to Clemson in Week 1, pitched a shutout against an Arkansas team that has run up the score on pretty much everyone, and gave up 10 points last week at Auburn. Expect more of the same this week against Kentucky.
Other notable games in the afternoon: Purdue Boilermakers vs No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes
TCU Horned Frogs vs No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners
- Date & Time: Saturday, Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m.
- Channel: ABC
- Location: Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma
- Weather: 67 degrees and sunny
- Betting Line: Oklahoma -13.5, O/U: 65
What a difference a week can make for the Oklahoma Sooners. At the brink of losing to Texas, Lincoln Riley benched Spencer Rattler and went to five-star freshman Caleb Williams who brought Oklahoma all the way back in the biggest comeback in program history to top their archrivals. Now, 19-year-old student newspaper writers with binoculars are catching him practicing with the first-teamers, and the program shut down media availability ahead of a pretty big game against TCU. To say there is drama would be an understatement.
The Horned Frogs will have their hands full in Norman, but definitely don't count them out. Both their losses have been close against teams currently ranked in the top 25, Texas and SMU, and both were by less than a touchdown. Their quarterback Max Duggan has thrown for more than 1,000 yards this season and they have a strong running game to go with it.
Let’s not pretend like Oklahoma hasn’t struggled against Power 5 teams this season. Even if Caleb Williams is starting, this team still has weaknesses. With that being said, if we see the Sooners we saw in the latter half of the Texas game they should roll through the Horned Frogs on Saturday.
Other notable evening games: No. 5 Alabama Crimson Tide vs Mississippi State, No. 13 Ole Miss vs Tennessee, No. 22 NC State vs Boston College