Week 8 features Chip Kelly rematch with Oregon
The last three weeks have featured a team ranked in the top three of the AP college football poll losing to an unranked team. That streak will be tough to extend in Week 8. No. 1 Georgia is off. No. 2 Cincinnati is a four-touchdown favorite at Navy and No. 3 Oklahoma is favored by more than five touchdowns against Kansas. The best game of the week is taking place in the Pac12 with No. 10 Oregon visit- ing UCLA and former Ducks coach Chip Kelly. Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickets gets the chance to make a Heisman case against Clemson.
The last three weeks have featured a team ranked in the top three of the AP col- lege football poll losing to an unranked team.
That streak will be tough to extend in Week 8. No. 1 Geor- gia is off, No. 2 Cincinnati is a four-touchdown favorite at Navy and No. 3 Oklahoma is favored by more than five touchdowns against Kansas.
No. 4 Alabama and No. 5
Ohio State are also big favorites so maybe this is the week- end things calm down a bit after 47 ranked teams have lost through the first seven weeks of the season.
Best game: No. 10 Oregon at UCLA
The Ducks have made a solid case as the Pac-12’s best team. No other team in the conference is ranked.
The Bruins were in the rankings for a few weeks after beating LSU early in the season, but losses to Fresno State and Arizona State have tamped down the enthusi- asm for Chip Kelly’s team.
Still, the Bruins (5-2) are in the thick of the South Division race.
Lots of layers here with Kelly facing his old team for the third time, looking for his first victory. A loss for the Bruins raises questions about just how much prog- ress Kelly has made at UCLA in year four.
A loss for Oregon (5-1) gives back most of the credibility the Ducks gained by winning at Ohio State and sets up the Pac-12 for yet another season without a playoff participant.
Heisman watch
Kenny Pickett, burgh
The fifth-year senior is putting up Dan Marino-type numbers with 21 touchdown passes in six games for the No. 23 Panthers (5-1), who face Clemson at home on Saturday.
At a time when the top players rarely get to senior year, having a Heisman con- tender who has been in college long enough to be nearing tenure is weird and also kind of refreshing.
Pickett will have a tough time keeping up with the quarterbacks from the CFP contending teams down the stretch of the season — unless he can turn Pitt into a contender.
Clemson (4-2) is having all sorts of problems scoring, but the Tigers’ defense has been about as good as any outside Athens, Georgia.
If Pickett can deliver in this spot, it’s time to start taking him seriously as a Heisman contender.
QB,
Pitts
Numbers to know
7: Average margin of vic- tory for No. 8 Oklahoma State (6-0). The Cowboys’ larg- est margin is 11 points and they have won four one-pos- session games. Oklahoma State goes to Iowa State for a game that could put the Cowboys in a commanding position for a spot in the Big 12 title game.
7-3: No. 13 Notre Dame’s record against USC in the last 10 meetings. The long- time rivals did not play last season.
14: Points per game allowed by No. 25 Purdue (4-2). Purdue plays its first game as a ranked team since 2007 at home against Wisconsin.
26: Consecutive victories by No. 5 Ohio State against Indiana. The Hoosiers host the Buckeyes tonight.
101: Points scored in last season’s game between Mississippi and LSU. The Tigers won 53-48 in Baton Rouge in the highest scoring game in the history of a series that dates back to 1894. This will be the first game for LSU since it was announced that coach Ed Orgeron is leaving.