College football Saturdays are the best days of the year and if you disagree you’re just flat out wrong. The 20 minutes when the trio of FSU-North Carolina, Wisconsin-Michigan, and Tennessee-Georgia were ending was absolutely incredible and what makes college football arguably the best sport in America. I get giddy just thinking about it.

 

Here’s the top 10:

 

10. North Carolina

I’m all in on the North Carolina bandwagon right now. A cocky kicker, a coach that looks like he could kick your ass, awesome jerseys… and, oh yeah, they’re led by a kid from Northeast Ohio (Mentor) who is generating a little bit of Heisman buzz right now. They lost a close game early in the season to Georgia in the Georgia Dome and their last two games vs. Pitt and Florida State have been instant classics. They’re the favorites to represent the Coastal divison in the ACC Championship.

They host AP #25 Virginia Tech in an interesting afternoon game on Saturday.

 

9. Houston

I said I’d keep Houston around the 5-9 range the rest of the year and nothing changes until they host Louisville in November. Once Oklahoma starts wiping the floor with the other Big 12 teams, Houston’s signature win over the Sooners is going to look better and better.

They travel to Maryland to take on Navy and I can see this being a tough game for the Coogs.

 

8. Texas A&M

They were pretty unimpressive in their 24-13 win over South Carolina but that was to be expected after their drubbing of Arkansas last week and their big clash with Tennessee this Saturday.

 

7. Tennessee

There’s always that one team that no matter what happens to them, you never think they’re out of it. Coming back from 21-3 halftime deficit vs. Florida and then their Hail Mary win over Georgia this week, Tennessee just kind of seems like they can’t lose right now… And I don’t even really think they’re that good. These next 2 games (A&M and Alabama) will show us who the Vols really are.

 

6. Washington

Confession: Friday night was probably the first time I’ve watched the Washington Huskies play football in about 4 years and I (shocker) was impressed with what I saw. #6 is probably too high for the Huskies since I know nothing about them but when you beat Standford FORTY FOUR TO SIX, you vaulted to one spot out of the top 5. Washington also has one of the most underrated college football stadiums in the country. Boatgating seems like it’d be the best thing ever.

The Huskies travel to Eugene to take on Oregon.

 

5. Michigan

That was just some good old fashioned Big 10 football between Wisconsin and Michigan on Saturday.

Michigan travels to Rutgers.

 

4. Louisville

Louisville and Clemson played possibly the game of the year on Saturday and Louisville came out looking great even with the loss. As long as Lamar Jackson is under center I think the Cardinals have a shot against anybody. On a neutral field I think Louisville beats Clemson.

This is still a high quality loss for the Cardinals that probably won’t hurt them because it happened still semi early in the season. What hurts the Cardinals, however, is that they’re not in the driver’s seat to get to the ACC title game. Would a one loss not conference champion Louisville team make it in the CFB Playoff over a one loss power 5 conference champion? It’ll be interesting to see how the committee handles that if it were to happen.

 

3. Clemson

Clemson is now in the driver’s seat to win the ACC after an impressive win over Louisville on Saturday. Is there a better gameday atmosphere than Clemson for a night primetime game? From the buses carrying the players to the hill and Howard’s Rock, Death Valley looks like the most fun place on Earth to watch a football game.

 

2. Alabama

Keeping the Tide as the second best team after they beat (but didn’t cover) Kentucky. I still think the inexperience at quarterback may hurt Alabama sometime down the road this season.

 

1.Ohio State

Ohio State took care of business and their offense and defense seem to be firing on all cylinders right now. I still give Ohio State the nod over Alabama because of their quarterback.

 

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Heisman Frontrunners aka Lamar Jackson and everybody else

This quarterback from UNLV who had one of the craziest runs you’ll ever see in college football:

Mitch Trubisky

My new dark horse. We’ll see how he responds against Virginia Tech with the new national recognition he’s received this week.

JT Barrett

Rutgers and Indians are great teams to pad your stats. Once Ohio State starts their slate of primetime Big 10 games, JT will start to garner a lot of Heisman talk.
Lamar Jackson

Even with his loss to Clemson Jackson was phenomenal. It’ll take an insane stretch of games for anyone to catch him by December. 

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Great slate of games this weekend- Tennessee-Texas A&M, North Carolina-Virginia Tech, Alabama-Arkansas, and Miami Florida State. Let’s go!

Beat the Hoosiers