Week 3 starts tonight with Cincinnati at North Carolina State. Cincinnati ran out of gas against Fresno State in a late night west coast game but bounced back against cupcake Indiana State. NC State looked impressive in their first week win over Western Carolina but struggled against UCF. Cincinnati is not the same without Brian Kelly and I think both of these teams won't matter in November. But I am interested to see how the passing attacks do against each other.
Friday night has Cal at Nevada. Both teams have QBs in the top 20 in passing efficiency. Cal's Kevin Riley has thrown for 455 yards and 7 touchdowns with no interceptions, while Nevada's Colin Kaepernick has thrown for 547 yards and 4 touchdowns and added 4 more touchdowns on the ground. There should be some fireworks in this game, but both defenses had strong showings last week against weaker Colorado and Colorado State. Nevada's defense struggled in the opener against Eastern Washington, so that may be something to watch for.
There is only one game between two AP ranked teams this weekend: #9 Iowa at #24 Arizona. That game should be an interesting one. I'm still trying to figure out why I failed to rank Arizona this week. It should be a battle of two defenses who seem to be playing good football right now. Both teams are in the top ten in total defense and scoring defense. Arizona's defense has not yet let up a touchdown. I think Arizona QB Nick Foles will have a big day in a game more high scoring than people might think.
#12 Arkansas at Georgia will be a game to watch. Arkansas QB Ryan Mallet has been putting up some impressive numbers (49/67 701 yards, 6 touchdowns) and is the 4th quarterback in the nation in passing yards. Georgia will want to bounce back after losing their conference opener to South Carolina last week.
#23 Houston at UCLA could be fun to watch. UCLA is 0-2 and could start 0-3 for the first time since 1977 when they went 0-11 (they also started 0-2-1 in 1983). Houston only plays two BCS teams this year, UCLA and Texas Tech, so they need a win here if they're going to try to make a run at a BCS game (which unfortunately won't happen because of Boise State and TCU). Kickoff is at 9:30 PM local Houston time, so that could also be a factor in the second half.
I am interested to see how Mark Ingram does in his first game this season. #1 Alabama plays at Duke on Saturday. Fresno State plays at Utah State on Saturday night, and that game could actually determine who finishes third in the WAC behind Boise State and Nevada. Wake Forest plays at Stanford and kickoff is at 11:15 PM local North Carolina time, so any small chance Wake Forest may have had at an upset is gone. Florida State should get right back on track at home against BYU this week. That game could get ugly in the second quarter. Florida and Tennessee play their annual game, but both teams have been pretty underwhelming so far this year.
Here are the games I plan on watching at least some of (times are MDT):
Thursday 5:30 - Cincinnati at NC State (ESPN)
Friday 8:00 - Cal at Nevada (ESPN2)
10:00 - #12 Arkansas at Georgia (ESPN)
10:00 - Massachusetts at #20 Michigan (Big 10)
1:30 - #1 Alabama at Duke (ABC/ESPN2) - I assume I won't get this game
1:30 - #8 Nebraska at Washington (ABC/ESPN2)
1:30 - BYU at Florida State (ESPNU)
2:30 - Baylor at #4 TCU (Versus)
5:00 - Clemson at #16 Auburn (ESPN)
6:00 - #3 Boise State at Wyoming (CBS College Sports)
6:00 - #14 Utah at New Mexico (The Mountain)
8:30 - #9 Iowa at #24 Arizona (ESPN)
8:30 - #23 Houston at UCLA (FSN Rocky Mountain)
9:15 - Wake Forest at #19 Stanford (ESPN2)
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