College football Week 9: 5 best games of the week
By Cephas Evans
With college football heading down the home stretch, Week 9 looks to sort out the contenders and pretenders. Here is everything you need to know about the games of the week.
Week 9 of college football is here and looks to sort out the contenders in some major conferences across the nation.
The Big Ten was the talk of college football last weekend, with Michigan securing a big win over Michigan State and Ohio State suffering a demoralizing loss to Purdue. This conference race is far from over and Iowa will look to take control of the West with a statement victory over Penn State.
The SEC puts on a show every week, but with LSU and Alabama slated for November 3rd, many are looking past the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville this weekend.
Washington State took down Oregon at home last week, but will be tasked with another big test on the road. Whether or not they can stay in the Pac-12 Championship race will be decided this weekend.
Finally, for the first time all season, a Group of 5 game is making the list. South Florida will look to remain undefeated and set the stage for the American Athletic Conference game of the year against UCF.
(2) Clemson at Florida State – 12:00 p.m. ET – ABC
Although Florida State has no hopes of making the ACC title game, don’t think this team doesn’t want to spoil the season for Clemson.
The Seminoles are coming off their best win of the year, which was a 38-17 victory over Wake Forest. Florida State racked up nearly 500 yards of total offense and held the Demon Deacons to 17 points, but Clemson will pose an entirely different challenge this weekend. Head coach Willie Taggart has gotten off to a rough start in Tallahassee, but a win this weekend could give fans some hope for the future. While it is unlikely Florida State will fire their head coach after one season, this game could provide a serious boast in confidence for a team fighting to stay bowl eligible.
Clemson was on upset alert last weekend, but quickly silenced the critics with a blowout victory over NC State. The Tigers dominated all aspects of the game and again look like the sole contender in the ACC. That said, if Clemson were to drop a game down the stretch, it would greatly impact their playoff hopes due to a weak ACC schedule. Not to say Clemson hasn’t played some tough games, but there is no doubt that there will be other one-loss teams that have face superior competition.
Clemson should have no problem beating Florida State in Tallahassee, but don’t expect them to cover the big 17-point spread.