Finally, a college football weekend with real potential to reshape the rankings and shake up the national championship race.
The fifth Saturday of the season features four games matching ranked teams, highlighted by No. 6 LSU at No. 9 Georgia. Eight more ranked teams play road games of varying degrees of difficulty.
Last weekend’s schedule produced mostly blowouts, and when it was over it was as if it never happened. The top 14 teams in the AP Top 25 held their spots from the week before, and no team moved up more than one place.
This Saturday could end with a couple of teams saying goodbye to their national championship hopes, and maybe a few new teams being taken more seriously as contenders.
Georgia wraps up the toughest September schedule in the country with its third game against a top-10 opponent.
The Bulldogs (2-1) split with Clemson and South Carolina to start the season and now face an LSU team that is yet again looking like a Southeastern Conference heavyweight, though the Tigers are getting it done a little differently this season.
For the first time in a few years, LSU’s passing game is a strength instead of a question mark.
Zach Mettenberger has the sixth best passer rating in the country.
”There’s a big ceiling on him,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said of Mettenberger, who originally attended Georgia but was dismissed from the team when, as a redshirt freshman, he got into legal trouble over his treatment of a woman at a bar.
LSU receivers Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry are making a case for being the top tandem not just in the SEC but in the nation.
That should lead to another increasingly common occurrence: high-scoring SEC games.
Georgia, with quarterback Aaron Murray and tailback Todd Gurley leading the way, is seventh in the nation in yards per play at 7.83. LSU is ninth at 7.53.
The other big game in the SEC takes place in Tuscaloosa, where No. 1 Alabama faces No. 21 Mississippi.
The Rebels spread it out and play fast like Texas A&M, but Ole Miss presents very different challenges.
”Even though the offenses may be similar, the philosophies are not the same,” Tide coach Nick Saban said.
No. 4 Ohio State faces its first stiff test of the season when No. 24 Wisconsin comes to Ohio Stadium on Saturday night.
Continue Reading: LSU-UGa highlights week to reshape rankings
