This Saturday is loaded with top 25 college football matchups. Expect a big shakeup in the College Football Playoff picture after this week, which means expect some more surprising results. Here’s a look at the Top 25 teams that should be on upset alert:
1. Georgia (at Kentucky)
Kentucky, it’s true, played terribly last week at Missouri. And that’s the same Missouri team that got shut out at home by Georgia and also lost to Indiana. However, Kentucky did push the No. 1 Mississippi State Bulldogs a few weeks ago. The Wildcats can expect to bounce back and play reasonably well on their home turf, giving themselves a fighting chance against Georgia.
As for the Bulldogs, if they execute and don’t do really stupid things to short-circuit their own effort, they should be able to escape Kentucky’s ballpark with a victory. Yet, Georgia didn’t do very much in the way of executing last Saturday against Florida when giving up more than 400 rushing yards.
If the Bulldogs sulk and any of that lack of effort carries over, they could be in trouble. This team has not handled adversity well and might not feel very inspired to play, especially without its best player in Todd Gurley. Kentucky is waiting to see if Georgia will play below-average football. If so, the Wildcats could produce a shocker this weekend.
2. Georgia Tech (at North Carolina State)
The Yellow Jackets represented one of the more mysterious teams included in the top 25 of the college football rankings. The College Football Playoff committee surely has a tough job. It has to evaluate not just the top teams, but strength of schedule and other factors. The committee might have put Georgia Tech at No. 24 in the rankings only because it couldn’t see or imagine any other alternative. A lack of really strong teams gave Georgia Tech this small gift.
However, gifts can also be attached to curses, and the possible curse here is that with a ranking on its back, Georgia Tech might now become that much more of a target against North Carolina State. The Wolfpack, smelling blood, could throw everything they have at the Yellow Jackets. This could be a bad break for Georgia Tech in that the Jackets might not have received a more vigorous effort from an opponent. Had Georgia Tech not been placed in the top 25, North Carolina State would have been less likely to view this as a central game of its own season.
3. West Virginia (at Texas)
The Mountaineers almost lost in one of their previous trips to the state of Texas this season, a game at Texas Tech. The Mountaineers needed a late rally in that meeting against the Red Raiders. These West Virginia players, who have been through a lot this season, had to realize that the long commute to and from the game site left them tired in the face of Texas Tech’s emphasis on tempo.
The fact that West Virginia did come through in that scenario against Texas Tech earlier this season is what caused a whole lot of fears to melt away for this team. Yet, traveling to Texas to face the Longhorns’ legitimately good defense does not come across as an easy assignment for West Virginia.
