College football games to watch: Oregon-Auburn the only matchup of top-25 teams
The schedule features 24 of the top 25 teams in action, but only two are playing against each other.
College football has the weekend to itself since the NFL doesn’t kick off until next week. So explain to us how with all but one of the top-25 teams playing over the five days of the extended Labor Day weekend, the sport managed to come up with only one game in which ranked teams play each other.
The four games involving ranked teams Thursday night featured an average victory margin of 38 points. This trend could continue. Try to contain your excitement.
Games of the Week
Oregon vs. Auburn at Arlington, Texas, Saturday at 7:30 p.m., 6ABC
All right, so these aren’t a pair of top-10 teams, but the 11th-ranked Ducks and the No. 16 Tigers should put on a good show at JerryWorld.
The featured performer is Oregon senior quarterback Justin Herbert, a biology major and academic All-American who passed on NFL riches to come back for his final season.
He has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 28 consecutive games, the longest active streak in FBS, and is fifth among returning players with 63 career scoring tosses. He has a new target: former Penn State wide receiver Juwan Johnson (Glassboro High), who went west as a graduate transfer.
The interesting battle should be in the trenches. The five guys on the Ducks’ offensive line have combined for 153 career starts, most in FBS. Auburn defensive linemen Derrick Brown, Marlon Davidson and Nick Coe all considered the NFL draft after last season but have returned.
The Tigers will start a true freshman in quarterback Bo Nix, son of Patrick Nix, whose career highlight was coming off the bench to lead his team to a win over archrival Alabama in 1993.
Duke vs. Alabama at Atlanta, Saturday at 3:30 p.m., 6ABC
Many folks out there think that Alabama and Clemson will meet once again in the College Football Playoff, desiring a rematch of the Tigers’ 44-16 thrashing of the Crimson Tide in last season’s national championship game.
But that’s a long way off. The Tide enter their season opener on a neutral site for the eighth consecutive year, having defeated the previous seven opponents by at least 10 points. The margin should be significantly higher this time around with junior Tua Tagovailoa and what many consider the best group of receivers in the SEC.
The Blue Devils lost quarterback Daniel Jones to the NFL, but senior Quentin Harris had some good moments last season when Jones sat out with a broken collarbone. Alabama’s defense lost its star middle linebacker, Dylan Moses, this week with a knee injury that could keep him out all season.
Florida Atlantic at Ohio State, Saturday at noon, Fox29
When Ryan Day was quarterbacks coach of the Eagles under Chip Kelly in 2015, he couldn’t have predicted that he’d be standing on the sideline as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes four years later. If he did, he’s pretty good.
Day replaces Urban Meyer, who was merely 83-9 in his seven seasons leading Ohio State. In Justin Fields, he gets a quarterback who was a five-star high school recruit but bolted Georgia after having to play a backup role. It’ll be a good day for Fields to gain experience in Day’s offense against the overmatched Owls.
Notre Dame at Louisville, Monday at 8 p.m., ESPN
The Fighting Irish would love another chance at the College Football Playoff, in which they were bashed, 30-3, in the semifinals by Clemson, the eventual champion. Senior Ian Book returns at quarterback, having thrown for 2,628 yards and 19 touchdowns last season. The Cardinals are in a rebuilding mode after going 2-10 last year.
Houston at Oklahoma, Sunday at 7:30 p.m., 6ABC
The Sooners welcome Jalen Hurts, who played in three national championship games at Alabama and now succeeds a pair of Heisman Trophy quarterbacks, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. But the Cougars have a pretty good QB of their own in D-Eriq King, who passed for 36 touchdowns and ran for 14 more last season. Neither defense is spectacular, so it could be a shootout.
Northwestern at Stanford, Saturday at 4 p.m., Fox29
Insert your own “Who has the better SAT/ACT score?” joke here. Otherwise, look to see if Clemson transfer Hunter Johnson starts at quarterback for the Wildcats, and if the Cardinal’s K.J. Costello has to throw the football as much as he did last year, when he passed for 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns.
What else is happening?
At long last, Tommy Stevens finally gets a chance to start at quarterback after sitting behind Trace McSorley at Penn State for three years, and then heading south to join his old offensive coordinator, Joe Moorhead, at Mississippi State. Stevens’ first career start will come Saturday at home against Louisiana-Lafayette.
After Florida’s win last week in Orlando, SEC teams are playing three more games at neutral sites this weekend, with Alabama (Atlanta), Auburn (Arlington, Texas) and South Carolina (Charlotte). The conference is 21-6 in regular-season, nonconference games against Power Five opponents at neutral sites since 2012.
Michigan and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis will unveil their new spread offense against Middle Tennessee. Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh said he’d like to play not only starting quarterback Shea Patterson (2,600 yards, 22 TDs last season) but also backup Dylan McCaffrey (six games, 15 pass attempts). Either way, fans at the Big House should get a kick out of the new-look offense.
Expatriate of the Week
Sophomore wide receiver Taj Harris, who starred at Palmyra High School, enjoyed a fine freshman season at Syracuse, finishing fourth on the team with 40 receptions for 565 yards and three touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound resident of Beverly, N.J., had his best game against North Carolina State: season highs of six catches and 86 receiving yards, and one touchdown.