Week 8 is lining up as the kind of Saturday that can flip the college football mood in a hurry.
Week 7 already did plenty of damage. The No. 1 team lost to an unranked opponent for the second straight weekend, and eight more top-25 teams went down. Now a fresh batch of ranked teams is staring at tricky trips, emotional hangovers and home crowds that could turn nasty fast.
Indiana gets one of the toughest asks on the board after seeing its 22-game winning streak end by roughly an inch in a 19-15 loss to Ohio State. The Hoosiers were part of a heavyweight fight between two top-5 teams, and now they have to show how they respond.
Curt Cignetti’s group heads to Ann Arbor for its third road game in four outings, and Michigan has already proved dangerous at home despite a disappointing season. The Wolverines are 4-1 in Ann Arbor and have knocked off Oklahoma and Penn State there.
They’ll also be rolling with a new quarterback, as Tommy Carr takes over after Bryce Underwood was benched. Indiana’s most recent road test was hardly smooth, either; the Hoosiers trailed Nebraska 17-6 before rallying in the fourth quarter to escape Lincoln.
With only one more game left against a ranked opponent, this one stands out.
Ole Miss also has to guard against a slip. The Rebels have won three straight since their early BYE week, capped by a 31-3 pounding of No.
13 Missouri. But No.
19 Texas is arriving with urgency after back-to-back losses to unranked opponents. The Longhorns’ playoff hopes are hanging by a thread, and another loss would essentially end any shot at the College Football Playoff.
Arch Manning needs to step up. Ole Miss has been solid against ranked teams, going 3-1, but the one loss came away from Oxford, where Florida blew the Rebels out 52-28 in the Swamp.
College GameDay is headed to Salt Lake City for Utah’s first game against a ranked opponent this season, and that alone tells you the Utes are about to get a real measuring stick. No.
14 Houston visits on Saturday night after taking down No. 18 Oklahoma State last week.
Utah has mostly cruised through a soft schedule, though it did have to fight back from a second-half deficit against Colorado for a 27-24 win. This is Morgan Scalley’s first real chance to prove he’s the right successor for Kyle Whittingham.
Tennessee comes in off one of the biggest boosts a team can get, a dominant win over Alabama, but that can cut both ways. The Volunteers were aggressive on defense and made the Crimson Tide pay for their mistakes, yet inconsistency has followed them all season.
That makes this a classic emotional letdown spot if there is one. South Carolina, meanwhile, is only 3-3 but has the setup to make things interesting.
The Gamecocks are coming off a BYE week and are fresh off a 38-19 win over No. 16 Florida in Columbia.
Back home with extra rest, Shane Beamer needs another upset if he’s going to get away from the hot seat.
LSU rounds out the list, and the pressure is obvious. The Tigers still haven’t consistently matched preseason expectations, and two losses already have them in danger of dropping out of College Football Playoff contention before November even arrives.
They head into an early kickoff at Auburn, where the crowd should be loud and the challenge immediate. Lane Kiffin’s team is 5-0 at home but 0-2 on the road, with both losses coming by a single possession.
Auburn, though, is riding the high of taking down No. 1 Georgia in Athens last weekend, the first big win of Alex Golesh’s tenure.
Golesh would love to keep the momentum rolling with another upset.
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