Campus Confidential

By Adam Abramson

I guess every weekend’s schedule can’t be loaded with monster games.

After I looked over the schedule, I actually yawned (which sucks because I have 8 hours of work ahead of me). At least we had Thursday night’s game, which was actually a lot of fun to watch.

So, what happens if Louisville runs the table? Are they going to sneak in over a one-loss SEC team? For a while, I thought the SEC was worthy if one team could escape with a single loss, but after watching last night’s game, I’m not so sure. I’m not so sure Louisville would be “exposed’ by Ohio State/Michigan in a national championship game. If Louisville can learn to stop the run, they can beat anyone with that offense.

Whoa, whoa, whoa Adam, you’re looking past Rutgers-Louisville next Thursday. You’re right, I am, although Louisville shouldn’t. I’m banking on the fact that the Cards are going to take the game seriously and beat the Scarlet Knights.

What about Ray Rice and Brian Leonard you ask? Well, the Cards faced the No. 1 rushing attack on Thursday and took care of business. Rutgers averages 115 yards less a game running the ball. I know the Scarlet Knights can play defense, they have the second-best unit in the country (which is VERY impressive). But West Virginia had been no slouch on the defensive side of the ball, and they couldn’t figure out how to stop UL with an extra week of preparation.

So, I take the Cards, and I take them to run the table and get a bid to the National Championship game.

As far as this weekend, this is what I care about:

• No. 13 LSU at No. 8 Tennessee: If the Volunteers can win this game, I’ll take them seriously for the rest of the season. There’s no reason UT can’t – they can throw, they can run and they can play defense (I think I said this before UT beat Georgia). But, LSU can do all of that as well and I think they’ll quiet that massive crowd in Knoxville.

• No. 9 Southern Cal at Stanford: I actually don’t care about this game. I just think it’s funny that Stanford is 0-8.

• UCLA at No. 10 Cal: I said this the other day, but I didn’t include this game in the mix. If Cal loses, but beats USC and USC beats Notre Dame, then I just can’t see Notre Dame getting a BCS bid. That’s really the only reason I care about this game. I think Cal will win this game, however, but it won’t be by as many points as Vegas thinks it will (the line is about 17/18).

• No. 16 Boston College at No. 22 Wake Forest: This game has HUGE implications for the ACC Championship game. BC-WFU…I would have laughed if you told me this game would be important 2 months ago.

• No. 23 Virginia Tech at Miami: Miami will show everyone the talent it has this weekend. The Canes hate Virginia, it’s homecoming, they’re underdogs and a lot of the older guys still haven’t forgotten Tech dancing around on the Orange Bowl field in 2004.
  

As for what I’m watching tomorrow? Only one of the above. I’m catching the Borat movie in the afternoon and heading to the city to watch my Hokies at night with the VT alums.

Also, I think I’m going to start including spreads in my blog next year, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.