Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 11

Even when it doesn't look like college football upsets are on the menu for a given week, you still have to be on the lookout for the Red Flags. We might not have had to apply that to our college football upset picks last week as looking at Bedlam and Arizona in Tucson were relatively easy to see, but we'll have to apply that in Week 11 to find the teams on upset alert.

Yes, there are couple of clear and obvious trouble spots in Week 11, to be sure. Georgia and Michigan, ranked No. 2 and 3 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, face by far their biggest tests to date on Saturday. That makes complete sense.

However, with teams like Alabama, Texas and even Washington against limping Utah having matchups that don't appear to be too much trouble, we have to dig a bit deeper to find the possible upsets. The good news is that we have a great shovel and some good eyes to do the digging and find the Red Flags.

So which five teams are we putting on upset alert this week? These five Top 25 teams could be in trouble come Saturday as they comprise our college football upset picks for Week 11.

2023 Upset Picks Record: 16-34

Note: All lines are courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook. For more college football odds, picks and predictions, visit BetSided.

5. Oregon Ducks

Opponent: USC | Time: Saturday, Nov. 11, 10:30 p.m. ET (FOX) | Spread: ORE -14.5

Since the loss to Washington at Husky Stadium back on Oct. 14, the Oregon Ducks have been absolutely cruising over the rest of their competition. They struggled immediately with a first-quarter hangover against Washington State, but ended up rolling and have since won 35-6 over Utah in Rice-Eccles and 63-19 over Cal despite some hiccups.

On the flip side, you have the Ducks' opponent for Week 11, the USC Trojans. To say that the wheels have fallen off for Lincoln Riley's team would be vastly underrating the situation at hand. After getting manhandled by Notre Dame, the Trojans have lost to Utah in a heartbreaker, nearly got clipped in a shootout with Cal, and then fell in a shootout with Washington last week, dropping them out of the Top 25 with three losses on the year.

So yeah, it would be completely reasonable to think that USC is going to go into Autzen Stadium and get its head kicked in by a better team.

However, I'm expecting this game to be a real dead-cat-bounce type of affair for the Trojans. After firing defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, I expect a defense that is not devoid of talent to come out and deliver its best effort of the season against an Oregon offense that has been clicking but hasn't been tested all too much. On the flip side, we know what Caleb Williams and the USC offense are capable of.

I'm not remotely saying it's likely. Oregon is a deserving heavy favorite in this contest. But given the circumstances and an otherworldly talent like Williams for USC, I can't rule out the possibility.