Week 6 of the college football season is here and the Miami Hurricanes are looking to end the misery against the Florida State Seminoles.
It’s going by too fast for our liking, but the reality is that Week 6 of the college football season has arrived as we inch toward eventually crowning a national champion for this season. With conference schedules in full swing now, the contenders and pretenders are beginning to be separated from one another, and we’ll see more of that on Saturday.
So what are some of the notable stories we’re watching for in Week 6? Well, for starters, we’re going to see if Miami can exorcise their Florida State demon.
Miami looks to end the nightmare against Florida State
Traditionally, the Miami-Florida State rivalry on the football field is one of the fiercest in the history of the game. However, the battle in recent years has been pretty lopsided, to say the least. The Seminoles have come away victorious in the last seven meetings between the two, sending frustration throughout the loyal Hurricanes fanbase.
But if there was ever a time the Canes could be optimistic about changing their fortunes against the Noles, it’s this year.
Miami, under the direction of second-year head coach Mark Richt, is rolling heading into Saturday’s matchup, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The Hurricanes are averaging just over 41 points per game and 517 yards. Richt is bringing a pretty balanced offensive attack into Tallahassee on Saturday, with the team averaging 278 yards passing per game and 238 yards rushing. This team is 3-0 and coming off a huge 31-6 blowout victory over Duke last Friday, so confidence is not an issue here either.
Meanwhile, Jimbo Fisher and Florida State have had a front row seat on the struggle bus to start the year. After losing the opener to Alabama — and losing starting quarterback Deondre Francois as well — Florida State was then defeated by NC State, handing them their first 0-2 start since 1989. The preseason ACC favorite did earn their first win last week, but they needed every fiber of their being to take down Wake Forest, with a James Blackman touchdown pass to Auden Tate helping the Noles avoid a disastrous 0-3 start.
Looking to end the drought, Miami enters this game as a 3-point favorite according to Sportsbook Review, but given what we’ve seen from both in the three games each of them have played, the Hurricanes could end up walking out of Tallahassee comfortably covering that spread.
If they can do that, then we can all enjoy the conversations of: Is Miami back?!
Penn State better not be looking ahead
Through their first five games of the season, the Penn State Nittany Lions have definitely shown themselves to be one of the best teams in the country, and most would say they’re definitively the best team in the Big Ten Conference. Well, they have back-to-back games coming up against Michigan and Ohio State — which is in Columbus — so we’ll know soon enough whether or not head coach James Franklin’s group, led by Heisman favorite running back Saquon Barkley, is indeed the undisputed class of the conference.
But prior to Penn State facing off with the other two beasts of the East Division, the Nittany Lions have to travel to Evanston this weekend to take on the Northwestern Wildcats. Northwestern is 2-2 on the year, so most might not be taking them seriously in this one, and maybe to an extent that includes Penn State who is gearing up for the Michigan and Ohio State contests.
Make no mistake about it, though, it wouldn’t be wise for Penn State to be looking too far ahead. This Northwestern team can be dangerous, as we saw first-hand last week when they nearly shocked Big Ten West favorite Wisconsin on the road in Camp Randall. They gave the Badgers all they could handle last Saturday, and this team will be more fired up to try and take down the team many call the best in the Big Ten.
Penn State is well on its way to an undefeated season and possible berth in the College Football Playoff down the road, but if they’re napping in Evanston on Saturday, those aspirations take one of the few hits they can afford.
TCU seeks to further separate themselves in the Big 12
Coming into the season, the consensus was that this race was between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and everyone else was just onlookers. Through the first few weeks of the year, it certainly seemed as if that was the case as both the Sooners and Cowboys looked miles above everyone else for the most part.
Then, two weeks ago, the Big 12 world was flipped upside down when TCU went to Stillwater and laid a beatdown on the Pokes, announcing their arrival not just as a contender in the Big 12 race, but potentially a threat to make the College Football Playoff as well.
Through a stifling defense — a Gary Patterson special — and a pretty efficient offense, the Horned Frogs are hungry for a Big 12 title and they can take another step toward that goal on Saturday as they welcome in the 3-1 West Virginia Mountaineers to Fort Worth. Shaking off an opening week loss to a good Virginia Tech team, Dana Holgorsen’s team has blown through their last three contests, scoring over 50 points in each win — but those wins were over East Carolina, Delaware State and Kansas.
West Virginia is second in the nation in total offense, but they’re running into Patterson and the Horned Frogs defense Saturday on the road, and the longtime TCU head coach will have something up his sleeve for Holgorsen’s offense. If this does turn out to be the case, then the Frogs will further separate themselves from the rest of the pack as a date with Oklahoma in Norman looms in early November.
Can Kevin Sumlin improve his job status and cool his seat down even slightly?
The Texas A&M Aggies are 4-1 on the year, but don’t let the record fool you, Kevin Sumlin’s seat is scorching hot. Following the debacle that was the opening week choke against the UCLA Bruins, the Aggies have rattled off four consecutive wins, but none of them really being all that impressive, leading to calls once again for Sumlin to be ousted from the program.
Things don’t particularly look promising for Sumlin and the Aggies this weekend, as they are playing host to none other than the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide in College Station, and Alabama team that has just been on a rampage to open the season. Realistically, the Aggies look to be the next victim of the Tide on Saturday.
But look, as far as Sumlin goes, he does have a chance to somewhat get back in favor of the Texas A&M fanbase and his superiors if he can’t get embarrassed at home. If he can find a way to at least be competitive with Alabama, then that could go a long way in determining his future. Of course, their performance the rest of the way is a huge factor as well, but not getting trucked by Nick Saban and Alabama is one hell of a starting off point there.
Will it happen? The chances are pretty slim, but we’ve seen crazier things in the game of college football so we’ll just have to wait until Saturday night to find out.