Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 7

The beautiful, wacky world of college football upsets is coming into full bloom at the midway point of the 2023 season. Last week, fans were treated (or if you're a fan of one of the ranked teams to lose, mistreated) to virtually one upset in every window. Whether that was Oklahoma stunning Texas in Red River, UCLA manhandling Washington State, Louisville embarrassing Notre Dame, or Miami embarrassing itself against Georgia Tech, there were upsets abound.

And that doesn't even include one of the near-monumental college football upsets that happened as Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans needed three overtimes and a heroic play from the reigning Heisman Trophy winner to escape a loss to Arizona.

If that doesn't feel like an appetizer to more chaos coming in Week 7, you're just not paying attention to the Red Flags that college football is giving us.

With four ranked-on-ranked matchups and four Top 25 teams playing on the road on Saturday, these are our college football upset picks for Week 7 -- but we have a bonus pick before that!

We like to limit ourselves to five official picks, but Oregon State could very much be in trouble as they welcome No. 18 UCLA to town. The Beavers defense has taken a step back this season while the Bruins might be the best defense in the Pac-12, capable of shutting down Damian Martinez and the OSU offense. Corvallis could protect the Beavs, but the upset potential is undeniable.

Now, onto the rest of the college football teams on upset alert this week.

2023 Upset Picks Record: 9-21

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

5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Opponent: 10 USC | Time: Saturday, Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m. ET (NBC) | Spread: ND -3.0

Even after losing badly at Louisville last week, it's wholly understandable why Notre Dame is favored on Saturday in the marquee matchup against USC. Alex Grinch's defense for the Trojans has actually improved from last season -- largely because it would've been near-impossible not to -- but remains a legitimate problem. We saw that against Arizona in the near upset last week.

As such, the expectation is that Notre Dame should be able to move the ball much more effectively than they've been able to the past two weeks against Duke and Louisville. And even in an upset, that's likely going to be the case simply based on the overall ineffectiveness of the USC defense. Moreover, Irish fans are certainly hoping they can see better from the likes of Sam Hartman and Audric Estime.

Having said that, when Tommy Rees left for Alabama, there were many who were critical of hiring Gerad Parker as his replacement for offensive coordinator in South Bend. Those people are looking quite prescient right now too. Parker's offense has been milquetoast at best this season, which could create an issue in this matchup, even against the aforementioned Trojans D.

The fact of the matter is that Caleb Williams and the USC offense are going to light up the scoreboard. For as good as Notre Dame's defense is, that's just what Lincoln Riley's offense does. On the flip side, though, what we've seen from Parker's offense suggests a possibility that they try to slow things down and grind it out. Against this explosive and dynamic Trojans offense, that can ultimately lead to trouble.

All told, this game could go a number of different ways. One of those ways it ends, however, is with Notre Dame simply not being able to keep pace with the USC offense, ultimately leading to an upset in South Bend.