Another Saturday and another weekend of college football dominated by the SEC. The two games that will carry the most weight for the playoffs both emanate from the deep south. The matinee, Georgia at Ole Miss. The primetime clash, Alabama at LSU. Georgia is the only one of those four teams that can survive a loss this weekend. The next time Ole Miss, Alabama or LSU losses it will be number three and all but eliminate them from the SEC race.

The staff at GamecockScoop has strung together some good weeks in straight up picks, meanwhile Caleb continues to outpace most Vegas sharps on the season when picking with the spread. Our guest pickers have also had a nice run. The guy looking to continue that trend is Gamecock legend, Jermale Kelly.

Jermale was South Carolina High School's Mr. Football in 1995 while starring at Berea High School just outside of Greenville. He was also a Shrine Bowl participant. Jermale made an immediate impact with the Gamecocks in 1997, hauling in 43 catches for 618 yards and 10 touchdowns. Those numbers earned him a spot on the Sporting News' Freshman All-America team and on the SEC All-Freshman team. During his senior season, Kelly was named All-SEC 2nd Team by the league's coaches after posting 42 catches for 640 yards and four touchdowns. For his career, he finished with 153 grabs for 2,179 yards and 19 touchdowns. Kelly was on the receiving end of the most famous touchdown pass in Gamecock Football history. Jermale's career numbers would have been more impressive had the Gamecocks been able to keep an offensive line or quarterback healthy during the 1998 and 1999 campaigns. (The 1-21 stretch). Jermale finished his football career playing for several teams in former NFL Europe league. Enjoy a pair of Jermale Kelly's career highlights for the Garnet and Black below.

We are now using the official college football rankings below. All game times are listed in EDT. The lines for the games were locked Sunday night and may have moved by the date of this article's publication.

Miami's Cam Ward can pack his bags for New York if the Hurricanes win in Atlanta and Ward continues to pass for over 300 yards. The Miami offense has been impressive, no one has held them under 36 points this season. For the flack that Indiana gets about its' schedule, Miami deserves some heat as well. The Hurricanes can't help that Florida and Florida State both have struggled this season, but Miami's signature win is currently a game where they gave up 45 points to Louisville. The U had close calls with the aforementioned Cardinals, Cal and VT. The winnability for Tech in this game relies heavily on the availability of QB Haynes King. Tech is 5-2 with King and 0-2 without. GT also averages under 10 points without their signal-caller.

Lane Kiffin's Rebels will have to run the table to make the playoff. First up, the SEC front-running Georgia Bulldogs. The Dawgs can probably afford for one more loss but they'd rather not have it come this weekend. Georgia still plays Tennessee, a pesky Georgia Tech team and a possible SEC Championship game. Five SEC teams currently have one conference loss. (Georgia, Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU and Texas). Alabama, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt all have two. Expect this to be a low-scoring slugfest. 24 points should win this game.

No team in the country is catching more of the "who have you played" vibes than Indiana. It's true, the Hoosiers schedule hasn't been filed with heavyweights but they've been pounding teams. IU is 8-1 against the spread and is winning by an average margin of 32 points per game. Indiana QB Kurtis Rouke has been phenomenal passing for 2,204 yards and 19 touchdowns to only three interceptions. The Hoosiers and Ole Miss are the only teams in the country to have a top 10 ranked defense and offense. For Indiana, it's get by Michigan and then Curt Cignetti has two weeks to prepare for Ohio State in the Shoe.

If Virginia Tech is going to pull a home upset, they will have to slow down Tiger running back Phil Mafah. The bruising back is averaging 106.6 yards per game. The Hokies defense is second worst in the ACC against the run allowing 157.6 yards per game. This game also features the national leader in sacks in VT end Antwaun Powell-Ryland. He's currently racked up 12 sacks this season and has 21.5 for his career. The redshirt senior played three years in Gainesville before transferring to Blacksburg following the 2022 season. Powell-Ryland is nowhere near the career sack leader or single season sack record mark for the Hokies - those both belong to guy a name Bruce Smith. (46 career and 22 for a single season in 1983). Clemson has won six straight in this series and Va Tech's starting QB and RB are both questionable for Saturday.

Coach Prime and the Buffaloes are actually playing some pretty good football and they should be favored in the remainder of their games. Texas Tech on the road is the toughest game on paper with only Utah and OK State at home and Kansas on the road. Like every other power league, its seems that the top three teams in the standings don't play each other. (Colorado, Iowa State, and BYU).

Quick Travis Hunter appreciation post: Hunter has played an average of 130 snaps per game for the Buffalos. He's gone over 100 yards receiving five games this season. He has eigth touchdown catches. On defense he has 20 tackles, seven passes defended, a forced fumble and an interception. Hunter deservers to be the Heisman frontrunner.

Toilet Bowl Game of the Week:

Scotty Walden has not found it easy during his first season at the helm of UTEP. The Miners are onto their 3rd quarterback for the year in true freshman JP Pickles. Pickles will attempt to spark the UTEP offense and potentially snag a victory before the season concludes. Linebacker Dorian Hopkins has been one of the few bright spots - collecting 71 total tackles and 2 interceptions.

Brian Bohannon has been tasked with the difficult job of turning Kennesaw State into a winner at the FBS level. The Owls found plenty of success during their FCS days, but not so much in 2024. The offense basically goes as starting quarterback Davis Bryson goes. Defensively, Kennesaw has played the run decently well. However, they have struggled mightily against the pass and to create any kind of consistent pass rush.

Full game predictions, star power matchups, press conference coverage, injury reports, call-in show updates, GamecockScoop has you covered as your only source for information on this unexpectedly big game.

Saturday night on the Bayou will be a good ole-fashioned SEC loser leaves town match. Alabama is 11-2 against the Bayou Bengals since beating them in 2012 National Championship game, but the Tigers upset the Tide in Baton Rouge the last time Bama visited. The winner gets a nice resume boasting win, the loser has almost no shot to make the playoff. LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier is currently seventh nationally in passing yards at 2,627 on the season, but he's only 44th in efficiency due to nine interceptions. (Should have been 10). There are four guys in this game that are currently mocked as first rounders in the 2025 draft, including both quarterbacks. Game of the night by far.

Penn State just being Penn State. They'll win every game except the two against Top 5-10 ranked teams. Rinse and repeat. It might work out in the Nittany Lions favor. Ohio State and Indiana play each other in the regular season. Oregon plays Wisconsin and hosts rival Washington, but they shouldn't lose in November. Ohio State and Oregon are probably playing a second time in the Big Ten championship while Penn State can take a week off at 11-1 and solidly in the playoff field. Penn State usually takes care of business against teams they are favored to beat, they will here too.

The Holy War- one of the best college football game nicknames out there. This is first meeting between the two schools since 2021 and the first game in Salt Lake City since 2019. Utah leads the overall series 59-32-4 and the Utes have won five straight in Salt Lake over their rivals from the south. BYU's last win at Rice-Eccles Stadium was in 2007.

This season, the Cougs are in the driver's seat in the Big XII and control their own destiny in regards to making the playoff and receiving a bye. BYU closes the season with Kansas and Houston at home with a road trip to Arizona State sandwiched between. They are likely still in the Big XII title game even if they slip up somewhere on that schedule. Meanwhile, Utah has found no consistency on offense without QB Cam Rising. The Utes haven't scored more than 23 points against a P4 team this season. This line seems too small.