Here’s a look at what college football fans can expect during the third week of the 2016 season, including predictions for the Top 25 teams in action.
For the first week of the 2016 college football season, we had more great games than you could shake a stick at, with contests featuring ranked teams against each other everywhere you looked. Week 2 of the season — well, that was a different story.
Everywhere you turned was a game between a ranked team and someone from the FCS level. Really, the only decent game of the weekend turned out to be Arkansas and TCU, as the Fightin’ Pumbas were able to get the double overtime win over their former friends from the old Southwest Conference (if you don’t get either reference in that sentence, you’re too young).
This week, we go back to having decent contests that will have a big say in the four-team playoff system come December. The ACC Atlantic and SEC West will have clear frontrunners once the weekend is over, while several teams that already have one loss on their record will be looking to avoid official playoff elimination while facing other ranked teams. Don’t worry, college football fans — everything has been returned back to order.
Game of the Week – Florida State at Louisville
At the start of the season, this game would have been fifth on the depth chart, at least, behind such games as Ohio State-Oklahoma, Alabama-Ole Miss and Michigan State-Notre Dame, to name a few. Why, you may ask, is it the game of the week now?
A few reasons. For starters, it’s the only game this week featuring teams ranked in the Top 10. Secondly, Florida State could be in some serious trouble now that safety Derwin James isn’t able to go following an knee injury in last week’s win over Charleston Southern.
Third, this is the game where we are finally going to see what Louisville star quarterback Lamar Jackson is made of. Through the first two games, he has been a man amongst boys when it comes to throwing the ball and running with it. At the same point, those games have been against Charlotte and Syracuse, much lower competition than the Seminoles.
At the same time, we’ll get to see if FSU’s young quarterback, redshirt freshman Deondre Francois, can continue his progress in one of just three games the Seminoles will play all regular season outside of the state of Florida.
Next: Top 25 Schedule and Predictions