North of the Border: Weekend at Urban’s

I spent the weekend back in Columbus. The Capital City is always good to me (though not always good to my bank account.) There are a few things I love about visiting Columbus, but one of the best parts about the about 4 hour drive from my office in Michigan is stopping at Chickfila in Toledo for dinner; the closest one to me is in Oakland University’s student union, and that’s just an “express” version. I’ve been to that express Chickfila once, and it was good. I was able to get my fix of delicious fried chicken. This weekend’s schedule is a college football fix. There’s more than just a few good match ups this weekend, and it’s a good taste of what college football season will be. But first, let’s look at last week’s games.

Oregon 28 at Michigan State 31

Hey I was kinda right on one! Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Oklahoma 31 at Tennessee 24 2OT

Hey I was kinda right again! Tennessee went up 17-0 and proceeded to blow their biggest lead at home in program history in double overtime. There was a lot of hype around Butch Jones when he was hired, but I’m starting to think the honeymoon is about over in Knoxville.

LSU 21 at Mississippi State 19

Two words. Leonard Fournette. This kid is going to be a problem all season long for opposing teams.

Week 3

14 Georgia Tech at 8 Notre Dame

The Golden Domers lost Malik Zaire to injury at Virginia last weekend, but backup QB DeShone Kizer threw for two TDs in an exciting victory. Georgia Tech and the triple option are the season’s leading rushing team (no shocker there, really). Notre Dame had some issues against Virginia on defense, and the triple option is always an interesting matchup, despite Notre Dame’s issues mainly coming from Virginia’s pass game. However, Notre Dame also plays Navy this season, so it’s likely that the Notre Dame coaching staff has been creating a scheme for the triple option for a while. Georgia Tech has played two pretty weak teams so far, so I’m not totally sure what to make of them this season after ending 2014 with a win against Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl. Despite the new QB, I’d take Notre Dame here.

15 Ole Miss at 2 Alabama

There are two match ups of ranked SEC teams this week, but this one is more interesting to me. Ole Miss is the leading offense in the nation, averaging 74.5 points in the first two games against, to quote Dr. Gee, Little Sisters of the Poor. Yet, Ole Miss ranks 61st in the nation in rushing defense. Alabama rushes for 229 yards a game, and Derrick Henry is a bionic wildebeest who may be from another planet. Can the Ole Miss offense continue to score at a torrid pace? I don’t expect 75 points, but more than 40 against Alabama can be considered pretty good. Expect to see the Derrick Henry show early and often from Kiffin (if he doesn’t forget about him). I’ll take Alabama.

19 BYU at 10 UCLA

BYU won at Nebraska on a miraculous Hail Mary, and a similar deep ball late in the game sealed their victory against Boise State last week. I’m interested in this game because BYU plays at Michigan next weekend, and they could be ranked in the high teens if they beat UCLA this weekend. UCLA is lead by freshman stud QB Josh Rosen. HOT TAKE TRIGGER WARNING: Rosen might be the best QB to attend a school in Los Angeles since *insert overrated USC QB here*. This one’s a late kickoff (10:30 PM for those of us in the Eastern time zone), so it’ll be the final kicker in the long day of college football. UCLA is at home here, so I give them the edge.

Everyone go get some Chickfila this weekend, and overnight me some too. Oh, and if anyone has an extra ticket to the Michigan State game, let me know. I’m willing to pay a decent amount of money to get into the Shoe for that game.