Guest Post: College Football Marquee Matchups Week 9

The college football season is marching right along and there is another good slate of games coming up this Saturday. Several key matchups will play an important role in shaping the national championship picture this weekend. Let’s take a closer look at some of the marquee matchups for week nine. No. 3 Florida Gators vs No. 12 Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville, Florida – This annual rivalry is always a big game but it is even bigger this time around. If Florida wins on Saturday afternoon, the Gators can all but lock up their spot in the SEC championship game. If Georgia wins, they will control their destiny and have a great shot of representing the SEC East in the conference title game. Both teams have been a bit of a shock this season as no one expected the Florida Gators to get off to a 7-0 start and play as well as they have this season. After dominating the South Carolina Gamecocks last weekend, the Gators appear poised to play for the SEC title and a possible national title. Georgia will be without defensive end Abry Jones in this game as he suffered an ankle injury in the first quarter against South Carolina, but should see linebacker Jarvis Jones return to the lineup after missing the game against Kentucky last weekend. The Bulldogs need their defense to step up and perform up to preseason expectations if they have any shot of pulling off the upset in this game. No. 15 Texas Tech Red Raiders at No. 4 Kansas State Wildcats – The Kansas State Wildcats continue to dominate their opponents in the Big 12. The West Virginia Mountaineers were the latest victim of the Wildcats as Kansas State went into Morgantown and crushed the Mountaineers 55-14. Quarterback Collin Klein continued his impressive season as well by scoring seven touchdowns in the game, three passing and four rushing. Texas Tech should provide a better defensive effort than the Mountaineers did last Saturday but it may not be enough to stop Klein and the Wildcats once they get into the red zone. Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege had a great game last weekend as well as the Red Raiders defeated the TCU Horned Frogs 56-53 in triple overtime. During that game, Doege threw for 318 yards and seven touchdowns as the TCU defense did not have an answer for him. While Kansas State has a decent pass defense, the Red Raiders should still be able to put up some points in this contest. No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish at No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will look to continue their excellent season when they visit Norman, Oklahoma to take on the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday night. Without their starting quarterback last week, the Fighting Irish held off the BYU Cougars by a final score of 17-14. A major reason why Notre Dame was able to come away with the win was because of the play of its running backs, Theo Riddick and Cierre Wood. Riddick ran the ball 15 times for 143 yards while Wood had 18 carries for 114 yards. If Notre Dame is going to have any chance of winning on the road, the team will have to have another great rushing performance to keep Oklahoma and its high powered offense on the sidelines. On Monday, Notre Dame received a bit of good news as quarterback Everett Golson was cleared to play this weekend after recovering from a concussion he sustained against Stanford two weeks ago. With Golson in at quarterback, the Fighting Irish have a more balanced attack and effective offense. The Oklahoma Sooners have had three impressive victories in a row after losing to the Kansas State Wildcats on September 22nd. Last week, the Sooners dismantled the Kansas Jayhawks by a final score of 52-7. In fact, over the past three weeks, Oklahoma has averaged 52 points per game. Notre Dame has a better defense than what Oklahoma has faced in recent weeks, but the Sooners should be able to put up a fair amount of points in this game against the Fighting Irish. As long as Oklahoma can play a bit of defense, the Sooners should be able to win this game on their home field. No. 11 Mississippi State Bulldogs at No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide – The Mississippi State Bulldogs will look to keep their magical season alive when they travel to Tuscaloosa to play the Alabama Crimson Tide this Saturday night. Both teams enter this game 7-0 on the season and undefeated in SEC play. Mississippi State has lost four straight in this series and would love nothing more to dethrone the Crimson Tide and put themselves in the driver’s seat to the SEC championship game. The Bulldogs are coming off an impressive 45-3 win over Middle Tennessee last weekend but will be facing much stiffer competition in Alabama. In fact, Mississippi State’s schedule has been relatively weak thus far with the Tennessee Volunteers being the best team Mississippi State has beaten. It will be interesting to see if Mississippi State is worthy of its current ranking and whether or not the Bulldogs can hang with the Crimson Tide on the road. Alabama on the other hand continues to dominate its opponents. Last weekend, the Crimson Tide destroyed the Volunteers 44-13 and held another team under 14 points. Alabama’s suffocating defense should prove to be too much for Mississippi State in this game, and the Crimson Tide will more than likely roll to another convincing victory as long as the team is not looking ahead to next week’s showdown with the LSU Tigers. By Don Phan - Just another sports enthusiast.