After a week in which three top-10 teams lost, ever college football team should feel the heat, but these five are getting put on upset alert in Week 8.
Imagine a scene where a great army is set up at camp, looking in complete control of everything around them. Now imagine that there are several of these armies and, if you had to project what was about to happen, these armies were on their way to prosperity. Then think about a group of guerilla soldiers then attacking these armies with no warning and causing them all to suffer substantial blows to their forces and chances at success. Those attacks were basically what Week 7 of the 2018 college football season amounted to.
Last week, the college football world saw seven top 25 teams suffer upset losses, but that doesn’t do the chaos of the week true justice. Of those seven top-25 teams that lost, three of them were undefeated heading into last week. What’s more, three of the seven teams that were upset were also ranked inside the top 10 before getting beaten.
If nothing else, what we’ve seen in the 2018 college football season is that there is a ton of parity throughout the country. There are few great teams, but there are a substantial amount of high quality teams that, on any given week, can beat one another and force the landscape to even out. That’s been evident for most of the season, but even more so in the heart of conference play.
While most of the SEC is going to be on a break in Week 8 of the 2018 college football season, there are still going to be several big-time programs in action. Thus, there are going to be several chances for more upsets to occur. And because of that, we need to put these five ranked teams on upset alert on Saturday.
5. Michigan Wolverines
Rank: 6 | Opponent: 24 Michigan State Spartans | Start Time: Noon ET
Many times throughout the 2018 college football season and throughout many other years, I’ve talked about the notion that anything can happen when it comes to a rivalry game. When you have the bad blood between two programs able to play out on the field or court, records and levels of success go out the window for that game. It’s all about which team is better and wants it more on that night.
That could indeed be the case on Saturday afternoon in East Lansing as the Michigan Wolverines travel to face their in-state rivals, the Michigan State Spartans. Both teams are coming off of big wins last week as Jim Harbaugh’s group toppled Wisconsin in impressive fashion while Sparty pulled off one of many upsets from last week in their triumph over Penn State via a late score.
To this point in the season, however, Michigan State has not been the picture of consistency and, much to the shock of many, the Wolverines have. Since losing to Notre Dame in the season-opener, Michigan has looked like one of the better teams in the country overall, boasting one of the best top-to-bottom defenses in the nation while their offense has gotten to new heights with Shea Patterson and Karan Higdon leading the way.
While that may be so, this is a rivalry game and, despite their up-and-down play, this Michigan State team does have talent throughout the roster to compete with a team like Michigan. And, let’s be real — does anyone fully trust Harbaugh in big games just yet? I didn’t think so.