Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 8

We talked going into last week about college football upsets sneaking up on you. That, very emphatically, did not entirely happen last week. Sure, few people had Arizona blowing out then-No. 19 Washington State, or Oklahoma State clipping then-No. 23 Kansas. However, Notre Dame was favored as they blew out USC, Missouri was favored over Kentucky, so those are not upsets. But perhaps upset alert will be a bit more active in Week 8.

There are, admittedly, a lot of bye weeks in Week 8 of the 2023 college football season. Having said that, several of the games on the slate have legitimate College Football Playoff implications, not the least of which is No. 7 Penn State on the road in Columbus to face No. 3 Ohio State. But let's not also forget Utah and USC clashing again, the Third Saturday in October rivalry with Alabama and Tennessee, and much more, all of which are ripe for college football upsets.

But where are the Red Flags waving the most fervently?

Looking at the overall limited slate, we still found the ever-important Red Flags, and we're making our college football upset picks for Week 8 by putting these five teams on upset alert.

2023 Upset Picks Record: 10-25

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

5. USC Trojans

Opponent: 14 Utah | Time: Saturday, Oct. 21, 8 p.m. ET (FOX) | Spread: USC -7.0

Everyone who had pegged the USC Trojans as frauds in the 2023 season undoubtedly feels vindicated after what transpired in South Bend a week ago, a 48-20 thrashing doled out by Notre Dame.

The irony of the loss for USC was that it wasn't Alex Grinch's defense at fault -- that unit actually played arguably its best game of the 2023 campaign. However, the offensive line put Caleb Williams under constant and immense pressure from the Fighting Irish defensive front and the reigning Heisman winner crumbled by playing one of the worst games of his college career, throwing for under 200 yards and for three interceptions.

Now this team is back at the LA Coliseum and welcoming last year's boogeyman for the Trojans, the Utah Utes, to town. Kyle Whittingham's team still holds just one loss on the year despite Cam Rising having still not taken the field for this team, which fans are beginning to wonder if it will happen this year with the way things have trended.

Having said that, Utah's defense hasn't taken much of a step back from last year, even if the offense has. I'm unsure of how well the Utes will move the rock with the backup QBs and a depleted group of skill position players, but the defense should be able to cause at least similar problems to what Notre Dame did for this USC offense.

Make no mistake, there's a world where Williams and the Trojans go back home, get back into the offensive groove, and go off on the Utes to clear some frustrations. There's also a world, though, where last week was foreshadowing to the toughest stretch for USC this season. Should it be the latter case, Utah has the ability to upset their Pac-12 rivals for the final time in conference play.