College Football’s Best of The Rest Week 7

College football's best of the rest for week 7.  On Thursday, I posted 3 big games for tomorrow, here are a few more games and nuggets.

The last two undefeated Big 12 teams meet in Fort Worth on Saturday as TCU hosts Oklahoma State (3:30 ET on ABC). The winner will have a big leg up on the race to the Big 12 championship game.  Interestingly, this is the first Big 12 conference game involving teams both 5-0 or better since 2015 between TCU and Oklahoma State.  The Cowboys won that game 49-29.

USC has garnered a fair amount of attention this season, given the arrivals of head coach Lincoln Riley,  QB Caleb Williams and a host of other talented transfers. But its crosstown rivals from UCLA have been right there with them. Off to a 6-0 start, the Bruins have won 9 straight dating back to last season. Only Clemson has a longer active win streak among FBS teams (Coastal Carolina also has won 9 straight). Given the pedigree of head coach Chip Kelly, it’s no wonder UCLA has been winning with its offense.  UCLA is off this upcoming week, but USC will have a challenge at Utah.  That game is 8pm on Fox.

Syracuse entered the season with a 39% chance to reach bowl eligibility, the 3rd-lowest in the ACC according to FPI. The Orange have a 59% chance to beat NC State this week, which would be their 6th win and clinch their 2nd bowl game in the past 9 seasons. Entering the season FPI projected Syracuse with a 9% chance to win its first 5 games and a 4% chance to start 6-0 or better.

The two first-year SEC coaches – LSU’s Brian Kelly and Florida’s Billy Napier – meet for the first time on Saturday. Florida leads the all-time series 33-32-3, but LSU has won three straight meetings and is 13-7 against the Gators since Steve Spurrier left Gainesville.  Napier is the sixth full-time Gators head coach since Spurrier left the program. Only one of the previous five won his first game against LSU: Dan Mullen – who had plenty of experience against the Tigers at Mississippi State –won 27-19 in 2018.

Mississippi State holds a 25-24 advantage in the all-time series, but the home team has won each of the past seven meetings.  This is the first time that the teams have met when both were ranked in the AP Poll.  Will Rogers has seven 400-yard passing games in his career, tied with former Wildcat Tim Couch for the most in SEC history. The common denominator is that both played for Mike Leach (current head coach at Mississippi State, offensive coordinator while Couch was at Kentucky).

James Madison is ranked in the AP Poll for the first time in program history thanks to its 5-0 record, matching the best start by a program in its first FBS season since the 1978 FBS/FCS split. The other teams to start 5-0 in their FBS debut (UTSA in 2012 and FAU in 2004) both did so with the benefit of multiple games vs non-FBS teams; JMU has played just one.

It's almost Saturday, so it's time for my college football week 7 preview!  Hard to believe we are at this point in the season already but we are.  Here are 3 big matchups for Saturday, with eyes on Hendon Hooker.  I will have the best of the rest games posted on Friday.

The Alabama-Tennessee game returns to the third Saturday in October with both teams ranked in the Top 10 for the 11th time. That is tied for the 2nd-most AP Top-10 matchups between a pair of SEC teams, trailing only Alabama-LSU (13). However, only one of these games have occurred since 2000. No. 1 Alabama defeated No. 9 Tennessee 49-10 in 2016.

It’s the first Top-10 matchup the Volunteers have been involved in against any opponent since hosting Alabama in 2016, a game they lost 49-10. Tennessee has lost 4 straight AP Top-10 matchups at home, tied for the longest by any team in the Poll Era (since 1936).

The Crimson Tide are 15-0 against Tennessee under Nick Saban with just two of the games decided by fewer than 14 points … both in seasons that the Crimson Tide went on to win the national championship.  Alabama will have its work cut out for it when it takes on the Tennessee offense. The Vols have scored on 62 percent of their offensive drives, good for the best such rate in FBS. Tennessee has averaged nearly 550 yards per game, also the best in FBS.

Hendon Hooker has worked his way into the Heisman conversation by throwing for 1,432 yards and 10 touchdowns without an interception in the Vols’ first five games. There are 53 FBS quarterbacks with at least 10 passing touchdowns this season; Hooker and Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel are the only ones who haven’t thrown an interception.

Since 2000, only 2 SEC quarterbacks have thrown for multiple passing touchdowns and 0 interceptions in each of the team’s first 5 games of a season:

Hendon Hooker this season
Tua Tagovailoa in 2018 and 2019

This is arguably the biggest college football game of the year thus far.  I think it could be a classic!  More on this game later today on Shemon and Sheppard.

For the 3rd time, Penn State and Michigan will square off in an AP Top-10 matchup. The Wolverines won 34-8 in 1997, while the Nittany Lions were victorious in 1994. QB J.J. McCarthy has been solid for Michigan this season, leading the FBS in completion percentage (78.3%) and ranks 2nd in the Big Ten in Total QBR, trailing C.J. Stroud.

For Penn State, this is the first real test. According to ESPN.com/FPI, the Nittany Lions rank 90th in strength of schedule, going from hardest to easiest. However, they have the 5th-hardest remaining schedule in the FBS and the hardest in the Big Ten.

Clemson has won 12 straight games, the longest active win streak in FBS, which actually started last year against Florida State. In addition, the Tigers have won 6 straight games against the Seminoles, tied for the 2nd-longest win streak vs Florida State all-time. Florida won 9 consecutive games against Florida State from 1968-76.

Jordan Travis leads Florida State, recording his 5th career 100-yard rushing game in a loss vs NC State this past weekend. That is the most such games by a Florida State quarterback in school history.  However, he also threw to picks in that game as well.

DJ Uiagalelei is leading the charge under center for Clemson. He recorded 3 passing touchdowns against Boston College, marking the 2nd time in his career he has done that. Uiagalelei had a career-high 5 passing touchdowns against Wake Forest earlier this season.