Week 8 Staff Picks and Games to Watch

The last weekend of college football was probably the most exciting of the year with fantastic finishes to UT/Bama, OkSt/TCU, and Utah/So Cal. Week 7 saw six unbeaten teams fall, yet there are countless examples of seemingly quieter weeks like Week 8 producing total chaos.

Gamecocks fan can enjoy a day of football from their living rooms or from their tailgate lots, that is loaded with most of the better games in daytime windows, prior to filing into a sold-out Williams-Brice to witness South Carolina attempt to defeat Texas A&M for the first time.

Note: We lock the lines in on Sunday night so they will likely be different on the publishing date.

Dino Babers has had a massive talent disadvantage in this series since he arrived at Syracuse in 2016. He will again in 2022. Despite the talent discrepancy, the Orange have generally played Clemson well since their upset defeat of the Tigers in 2017, with losses by 4, 3, and 26, (they led in the third quarter of that game). If this game were being played in Syracuse you might be able to convince us that the Tigers would be upset, not in Clemson though. This one will be close for 2.5 quarters and Clemson will pull away in the second half.

This was the double-take line of the week. LSU is 5-2, but they are a shaky 5-2. Ole Miss is undefeated and is scoring a lot of points, but taking a closer look at the Rebs shows they haven't been a dominant 7-0. The Rebs couldn't pull away from a bad Auburn team at home and struggled with Tulsa, also at home. Kentucky had Ole Miss beat if not for multiple turnovers late.

LSU has won five of the last six meetings in this series, with the lone loss being last year in Oxford. Ole Miss has only gone on the road twice this year, Vanderbilt and a lifeless Geoff Collins led Georgia Tech team. Vegas thinks they know something here. If Lane Kiffin's bunch loses this one, the Rebels close at Texas A&M, Alabama, at Arkansas, and Mississippi State at home.

The winner of this Pac-12 clash will have the conference's best shot at a playoff birth. Utah with two losses is probably already out. After losing to Utah, Southern Cal would need to run to the table and probably need to get a lot of help. If UCLA can escape Oregon, they would need to avoid an upset and beat their crosstown rivals. It would be hard to see the committee leaving out an undefeated Chip Kelly coached team that happens to play in the second-largest TV market in America.

For Oregon, they can't lose again and that still might not be enough. They certainly won't get the nod over a 1-loss Georgia team should they stumble against Tennessee or Alabama, (SEC Championship). They likely also wouldn't get the nod over Bama or Tennessee either if both have only 1 loss.

This Big12 showdown is likely going to be determined by who is under center for the Cowboys. Spencer Sanders has a bum shoulder that he has been playing through, but he hasn't been as effective the last two weeks. If Sanders can't go, Mike Gundy's son Gunnar Gundy will get the nod.

Texas appears to have righted the ship following an overtime loss to Texas Tech on the final weekend in September. The Longhorns have won three in a row including a pasting of rival Oklahoma and a solid home win over Iowa State. The Pokes are a step up in competition and should be a good litmus test for far the Horns have come in year two of the Steve Sarkisian tenure. Quinn Ewers being backed certainly helps. OK State has won 5 of the last 7 in this series.

Look, there just aren't a lot of marquee games this week. This one at least has a chance to feature a ton of points. Liberty still has an outside shot at being the non-power 5 representative in a NY6 bowl, with emphasis on outside. Should you watch it, probably not, but it could be a good game.

No need for a full breakdown here. Leach v Saban while at their current schools. 90-9 advantage Saban. The Tide defense is a terrible matchup for State and we doubt that the Tennessee game is going to set well with those future NFL players. Alabama hasn't lost two regular season games in a row since 2007, Saban's first year. Last season Mississippi State caught the Tide after a road loss to Texas A&M, the result was a 49-9 home loss.

We realize not many of our readers are going to catch this game so we'll make it short. Boise State is 19th against the run, Air Force has the most rushing yards of any team in the country. Falcon running back Brad Roberts is 4th in the country in rushing yards with 853, he also has 12 touchdowns. If nothing else, this should be an interesting box score to look at on Sunday morning.

The forecast is calling for white-out conditions in Happy Valley. Penn State is 9-8 all-time in their white-out games. Minnesota has never before been the white-out opponent.

Penn St was exposed as a 4-2 team in 6-0 clothing last week at Michigan. Minnesota is capable of exploiting the Nittany Lions in the same fashion. Nonetheless, the Gophers have yet to get their boat rowing against quality teams. Penn St at home gets it done.

We doubt anyone is reading Gamecock Scoop to get an X's and O's breakdown of UCF and ECU, so we decided to do a side-by-side profile as we've been to both schools for games.

By now you know that Gamecock Scoop has the best weekly coverage of South Carolina football in the business. We will have you covered all week leading up to kickoff at 7:30.

How many weeks can TCU fend off a Top 25 challenger? This will be the fourth consecutive week that the Horned Frogs have played a ranked team. (Oklahoma and Kansas are no longer ranked). Big 12 Coach of the Year shoo-in Sonny Dykes’ team still has a game with Texas, but otherwise, the schedule is manageable. TCU was 5-7 in 2021 and has already surpassed that win total.

Meanwhile, no program in America hits on more 2-3 stars than Kansas State. They have a Belichick-like track record of finding guys no one wanted that fit their system. Expect this game to go down to the wire.