Previewing the biggest games on the college football schedule: On the Line

Never before has a team moved from the back of the rafters to center stage as quickly and as dramatically as these Kansas Jayhawks. On Saturday, College GameDay heads on the road for the 433rd time, to its 79th college campus, and its first to Kansas. KU was beaten by schools such as Amherst College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Williams College. GameDay went to Times Square, Augusta National, and the USS San Diego before it went to Lawrence.

But now it's here. A team that hadn't won more than three games for 12 straight seasons has won five in a row, vaulting to No. 19 in the AP poll. Even after a game in which it gained just 213 yards and scored 14 points, KU ranks sixth nationally in yards per play (7.29) and 12th in points per game (41.6). What Lance Leipold, Jalon Daniels and the rest of the Jayhawks have accomplished in such a short amount of time is nothing short of remarkable.

And yet, this stat from Brian Fremeau of Football Outsiders floored me.

At 5-0 and ranked within the top 20, Kansas has a 1-in-5 chance of not winning another game. That's a statement that, as good as KU has been, the depth issues the program has been fighting for more than a decade now are likely to exact a toll as the climb gets steeper. It's a statement on the unprecedented depth of the 10-team Big 12, which has seven teams in the top 25 of Fremeau's FEI -- five of them still ahead of KU. (FEI ranks Kansas at No. 62.)

That includes TCU, which brings a No. 17 AP ranking to Lawrence on Saturday (noon ET, FS1). Following a 668-yard, 55-point outburst against Oklahoma, the Frogs lead the nation in yards per play (8.33), quarterback Max Duggan leads the nation in passing efficiency (74.5 percent completions, 10.6 yards per attempt, 11 touchdowns against no interceptions), and the offense is a hair behind Ohio State for the national lead in scoring. Kansas is 82nd in pass efficiency defense.

It's a great thing that GameDay is finally going to Lawrence, and it's an especially great thing that GameDay is finally going now.

Master v. Pupil on a Wednesday in Orlando. What a week and a half it's been for Rhett Lashlee, who faced off against his former boss in Sonny Dykes, and now gets his coaching mentor tonight.

Lashlee and Gus Malzahn's relationship dates back to 1996, when Lashlee was in seventh grade. Malzahn coached Lashlee to a record-breaking career at Shiloh Christian School, then lifted him up the ladder in coaching. The pair were together at Springdale High School, at Arkansas, at Auburn, at Arkansas State, and then at Auburn again. The only reason they didn't work together for 13 straight seasons from 2004 to '16 was because Lashlee left coaching for two years while Gus was at Tulsa. 

Malzahn was new to Shiloh Christian, a small private school in Springdale, Ark., after serving a five-year stint at Hughes High in the northeast corner of the state. The first-year coach took an interest in Lashlee and started coaching him in seventh grade football in the mornings. From AL.com in 2013:

Malzahn was new to Shiloh Christian, a small private school in Springdale, Ark., after serving a five-year stint at Hughes High in the northeast corner of the state. The first-year coach took an interest in Lashlee and started coaching him in seventh grade football in the mornings.

From AL.com before the 2013 BCS title game:

"It’s honestly like a married couple fighting sometimes."

That's how Auburn tight end C.J. Uzomah describes the Lashlee-Malzahn relationship, according to Kevin Scarbinsky of AL.com. Their bickering, yin-and-yang dynamic plays out like a "Good Cop-Bad Cop" interrogation.

"Coach Malzahn will freak out," Uzomah said about how each handles mistakes on the field. "Coach Lashlee’s like...'We got you.'"

And now here they are. If we can accept the destiny of Malzahn rocketing from small-school Arkansas high school football to the SEC, it was only a matter of time before Lashlee landed his own head coaching job and met Malzahn (7 p.m. ET Wednesday, ESPN2). Neither coach said much of anything, but you can bet Lashlee's internal motor will be churning to beat his old master, while Malzahn's will be working overtime not to lose to his protege. 

A different kind of Master v. Pupil game in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night. Saturday night marks the first time in college football history that a coach who called a press conference specifically to rip another coach* squares off against that coach.

* Some highlights: "Go look into how God did his deal." "Maybe somebody should've slapped him." "When you walk on water I guess it doesn't matter."

In May, this shaped up to be the most anticipated regular season game in years: A&M entered the season ranked sixth, Alabama first, with "best team ever" hype building. CBS used its one primetime selection for the season on this game, for the second year in a row.

In October, it shapes up to be a blowout. Alabama is once again No. 1, while A&M is unranked and a shaky 3-2. Neither side will likely play the quarterback they planned on.

A fact both coaches are sure to remind their sides of, for wildly different reasons: Last October, Alabama was No. 1, A&M was unranked, playing a backup QB, coming off a loss to Mississippi State, a 20-point underdog, and won anyway.

How good is UCLA really? Since the start of the 2021 season, three teams are tied for the best win-loss record in the Pac-12. Utah and Oregon are both 14-5, but percentage points ahead of the Utes and Ducks are Chip Kelly's UCLA Bruins, at 13-4.

Two of those four Bruins losses came to Utah and Oregon, and so it's No. 18 UCLA that hosts No. 11 Utah (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox) with something to prove.

Utah has torn through its four opponents since losing at Florida (average margin of victory: 35 points), while UCLA looked shaky as all get out in surviving 32-31 against South Alabama, but dominant against then-No. 15 Washington last Friday.

UCLA's Dorian Thompson-Robinson is the Pac-12's most efficient passer thus far (171.45), while Utah's Cameron Rising is percentage points out of second place. Both guys are fifth-year seniors, so expect a game with high execution that remains in the balance until late in the fourth quarter.

The intrigue in Red River is the lack of intrigue. For the first time since 2009, Texas will take the Cotton Bowl field expected by bettors to defeat Oklahoma (noon ET, ABC). For the first time since 1998, both teams will take the field unranked.

Counting only conference games, Oklahoma is 108th in the nation in yards per play defense (7.45), 114th of 116 in rushing defense, and 82nd in passing efficiency defense. Either quarterback Dillon Gabriel returns to action a week after suffering a concussion and without going through a full practice, or the Sooners play backup quarterback Davis Beville (7-of-16 for 50 yards against TCU), or they play a third quarterback with no major college experience. On the other side, Texas is expected to get Quinn Ewers back, last season torching Alabama's defense (9-of-12 for 134 yards before leaving with an injured shoulder.)

In terms of #vibes, the closest game the 2022 edition of Red River resembles is 2015, when Oklahoma was in the top 10, Texas was fresh off a 50-7 loss to TCU, and Texas led the entire game en route to a 24-17 win.

Additional Games: 

-- Nebraska at Rutgers (7 p.m. ET Friday, FS1): Two things that are simultaneously true: Nebraska is tied for first in the Big Ten West, and Nebraska, a 35-21 winner over Indiana, hasn't won back-to-back Big Ten games since Nov. 10-17, 2018. 

-- Colorado State at Nevada (10:30 p.m. ET Friday, FS1): Jay Norvell went 33-26 over five seasons at Nevada, and now returns to Reno with one of the worst teams in FBS. The locals will be ready.

-- UNLV at San Jose State (10:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network): A battle for first place in the MW West Division. 

-- No. 4 Michigan at Indiana (noon ET, Fox): On Nov. 7, 2020, Indiana snapped a 24-game losing streak to Michigan, winning 38-21. Ranked 13th at the time, IU improved to 3-0 en route to a 6-2 season. Michigan would finish 2-4. In the past season and a half, Michigan is 17-2 while IU is 5-12, so things have returned to normal.

-- No. 8 Tennessee at No. 25 LSU (noon ET, ESPN): We could talk about LSU's 68th-ranked passing offense squaring off with Tennessee's 128th-ranked passing defense, but that's boring football stuff. Let's have some fun. Let's look back at how Tennessee's last trip to Tiger Stadium ended. 

My favorite part is LSU center T-Bob Hebert ripping his helmet off twice in a row, for entirely different reasons each time. 

-- Buffalo at Bowling Green (noon ET, ESPN+): Admittedly it's early, but this is a battle for first place in the MAC East. 

-- Eastern Michigan at Western Michigan (noon ET, CBS Sports Network): You know we love our 3-way trophies here. Eastern, Central and Western Michigans play for the Michigan MAC Trophy, won by Central last season after Western had taken six of the previous seven. After WMU won five straight from 2014-18, EMU has won three in a row.

-- Georgia Southern at Georgia State (2 p.m. ET, ESPN3): Another rivalry game, the fantastically-named Modern Day Hate, a reference to the Georgia-Georgia Tech Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate rivalry. State leads 5-3, having won the last two.

-- Auburn at No. 2 Georgia (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): On the same day as Modern Day Hate, we also get the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. Auburn and Georgia met for the first time in 1892, a year before the first UGA-GT and the first Iron Bowl. Georgia leads 62-56-8 and 6-1 since Kirby Smart returned to town.

-- Wisconsin at Northwestern (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN): Considering what happened earlier this week, this may be the most important game in terms of shaping the upcoming coaching carousel. Jim Leonhard makes his debut as Wisconsin's interim head coach, against another alum thrust into his alma mater's head coaching position under (far more) difficult circumstances. 

-- No. 3 Ohio State at Michigan State (4 p.m. ET, ABC): Michigan State enters Saturday 105th in the nation in pass defense, and one of four FBS teams yet to intercept a pass. Now here comes CJ Stroud, who went 32-of-35 for 432 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions against the Spartans last season.

-- Western Kentucky at UTSA (6 p.m. ET, ESPN+): A rematch of the 2021 C-USA Championship, a game that saw 1,124 yards of total offense in a 49-41 UTSA win, which itself was a rematch of a regular season game that saw 1,234 combined yards in a 52-46 UTSA win. This year, both teams average right around 1,000 yards. Take the points.

-- Southern Miss at Troy (7 p.m. ET, ESPN+): At long last, Southern Miss makes its Sun Belt debut.

-- Washington State at No. 6 USC (7:30 p.m. ET, Fox): It's the most impactful transfer QB in the Pac-12, and Caleb Williams. That's a joke, mostly, but Incarnate Word transfer Cam Ward (1,445 yards, 13 touchdowns) has the opportunity to make a national name for himself against a USC secondary that ranks 14th against the pass, but has yet to face an offense as good as Wazzu's. Also, this game marks a reunion between former Texas Tech teammates Lincoln Riley and Eric Morris.

-- No. 16 BYU vs. Notre Dame at Las Vegas (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): There's nothing like putting the nation's most prominent religious school against the nation's most prominently religious school, period, in Sin City. These teams have played just twice since BYU went independent, with ND winning each time. -

-- No. 20 Kansas State at Iowa State (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU): On a day we get Modern Day Hate, Farmaggedon is the best named rivalry. Iowa State, 0-2 in league play, has the Big 12's best statistical defense at 255.4 yards per game, 4.43 per play, 83 rushing yards per game, and 14.4 a game. K-State has the conference's top rushing offense at 267.2 yards a game.

-- Iowa at Illinois (7:30 p.m. ET, BTN): A week after humiliating his former school, Bret Bielema now takes on his alma mater. This is not new, of course; Bielema went 3-2 against Iowa at Wisconsin and stands at 0-1 at Illinois. The Fighting Illini and Hawkeyes are first and third in scoring defense, second and fourth in yards per play allowed. The over/under is 36.5. Take the under. 

-- Florida State at No. 14 NC State (8 p.m. ET, ACC Network): Both teams dropped their first game of the season last week. Who can avoid one loss turning into two?

Enjoy the games, everyone.