FootballScoop College Football Lookahead and Podcast: Discussing this weekend's key games
We could begin many places for this weekend's slate of games, though the Southeastern Conference has about half the league playing paycheck contests against a host of Football Championship Subdivision teams.
So let's begin in the FCS and with that great level of football's greatest current rivalry: Montana at Montana State.
The Griz-Cat Bowl or the Cat-Griz Bowl, pending your preference for the Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats, is one of the singular best things about college football.
This time, it pits the high-flying, explosive offense of MSU coordinator Taylor Housewright against Montana's staunch defense. The Bobcats are the FCS's No. 4 scoring team at 40.9 points per game; the Griz defense No. 4 in fewest points allowed at 15.78.
What gives? We can't wait to find out.
Elsewhere, one of the sport's most visually stimulating rivalries has its most prominent seat on the national stage in more than a decade. It's UCLA against USC in a meeting that is both splendid and terrifying for the PAC-12.
After all, the Trojans and Bruins are on their ways out of the league, joining the Big Ten, and with Oregon's stunning loss last weekend at home to Washington, only USC has a shot to give the PAC-12 its first College Football Playoff participant in a half-dozen years.
There aren't great games in the SEC, but could Georgia be in a trap-game situation at Kentucky? Might Tennessee be positioned to overlook South Carolina and the throaty call of the Gamecocks in a night game at Williams-Brice Stadium?
Hint: NO. No one thinks these absurdities. Listen to the pod and hear it yourself.
It's all these games plus myriad more, as well as a passionate CFP debate, where our resident K Street lobbyist Scott Roussel tries (not very successfully) to make the case for a potential two-loss inclusion in the official CFP field next month.
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