Last week two top five teams fell. Whats in store in Week 10? Here’s one bold prediction for every top 25 team in college football in Week 10.
See Also: How did the Week 9 bold predictions turn out?
College football never disappoints. Last week’s results saw a pair of top five teams felled. The Penn State loss came out of left field, but TCU falling to Iowa State was predicted right here. As it is with every week, there were some big hits like that and more than a few bad misses to go along with them.
In the category of big misses here are a few upsets we predicted that didn’t happen: USC did not fall to Arizona State, Oklahoma did not lost to Texas Tech. Other notable whiffs included our call that Notre Dame’s Brandon Wimbush would outrush Josh Adams (Adams outrushed him 202 to 21). Lastly, Washington State did not shut down Khalil Tate, rather the Arizona quarterback tallied 426 total yards and four touchdowns.
On the whole this was one of the best sets of predictions yet. In addition to the Iowa State upset, we also picked Houston over undefeated South Florida. Also correct were Jonathan Taylor not surpassing 100 yards rushing (he left the game with an injury), NC State was held without a rushing touchdown for the first time this season and the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense set a season high in points.
When we miss, we miss big, but when we hit we strike gold. Here’s one bold prediction for every Top 25 team in Week 9. And right at the top, we’re going as bold as we can.
Bold Predictions: Luke Falk throws four touchdown passes. Falk is the school leader in passing yardage. He’s also been benched twice for poor play already this season. He’s either on or he’s off. This week he cranks it back up and pummels a Stanford squad that barely beat Oregon State.
Bold Predictions: The Spartans don’t score an offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter. The Michigan State defense is the real deal. However, this is just a situation in which they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fresh off their loss to Ohio State the Nittany Lion defense does not let up from start to finish.
Bold Predictions: Khalil Tate tops 100 yards rushing against USC. How did this guy not win the starting job? This will be Tate’s fifth consecutive game over the century mark on the ground. That’s better than most running backs!
Bold Predictions: Tigers fall on the road to Tulsa. The Group of Five race has thinned out significantly over the past few weeks. San Diego State, Navy and South Florida have all fallen out of the ranks. Next to tumble? Memphis.
Bold Predictions: Mississippi State puts up 60 points against UMass. Just when people had started to forget about the SEC’s obsession with cupcakes, the Bulldogs have a home tilt with UMass. Nick Fitzgerald leads the offensive explosion on the way to the Bulldogs’ ninth straight game decided by double digits.
Bold Predictions: This is a one-score game in the fourth quarter. Clemson might be the defending national champions but the Wolfpack defense is the real deal. NC State bottles up Kelly Bryant and their stable of running backs for three quarters before a late spark vaults the Clemson ahead for good.
Bold Predictions: Coach O gets back on the hot seat. That’s the reality of any coach in the SEC West not named Nick Saban. Just when the Tigers were supposedly back on track they run into the Crimson Tide and get kicked up and down the field. One SEC coach has already been let go and LSU fans are going to be calling for Coach O’s head once more.
Bold Predictions: K.J. Costello wins the starting job. David Shaw has to find some offense outside of Bryce Love. The Cardinal were flat out embarrassing without Love on the field against Oregon State. This week he gives Costello a chance and he does enough to earn the start in Week 11.
Bold Predictions: Ronald Jones has a career day. The USC Hype Train has been all about Sam Darnold, and rightly so. However, this isn’t a one man show and Jones has been equally impressive on the ground. After rushing for 216 yards against Arizona State he tops that number against Arizona.
Bold Predictions: Texas A&M upsets Auburn. What’s more Kevin Sumlin than pulling off a stunning top 25 win a week after nearly begging to be fired? The Aggies find some way to win an SEC West home game, something they haven’t done in a incredibly long time.
Bold Predictions: Five different Knights score touchdowns. There’s only so many new things you can say about the No. 1 scoring offense in the FBS. UCF has proven they can score in every which way, and while the SMU defense is better than Austin Peay the Knights won’t have any trouble distributing the wealth on Saturday.
Bold Predictions: Allen Lazard outplays Devin Stills V. The Cyclones won their game against TCU with defense and Lazard did not find the endzone. However, he did catch six passes for 106 yards. He breaks triple digits once more, but this time finds the endzone more often than the leading scorer in the nation.
Bold Predictions: Virginia Tech upset Miami. While the Canes are undefeated they’ve had more than enough close calls to make their fans nervous. Those concerns come to fruition in Week 10 as the Hokies’ defense silences a Hurricane offense that still hasn’t figured out what to do without Mark Walton.
Bold Predictions: Dante Pettis breaks the NCAA punt return record. Pettis currently has eight career punt return touchdowns, tied for the most all time with former Texas Tech wideout Wes Welker. This is the week he breaks off one more big play and breaks the record.
Bold Predictions: The Pokes upset the Sooners. At this point it seems like the Big 12 is destined to have a conference full of 2-loss (or more) teams. Mason Rudolph and James Washington connect multiple times as the Cowboys win this iteration of Bedlam.
Bold Predictions: TCU picks off Texas three times. The Horned Frog defense was not the problem in their Week 9 loss. Texas is right in the middle of a quarterback dilemma. Sam Ehlinger, if healthy, will presumably draw the start but neither him or Shane Buechele has proven they can do much damage against the better defenses in the Big 12.
Bold Predictions: Malik Rosier throws for less than 150 yards. The drop off from Brad Kaaya to Rosier has been staggering and it’s going to get exposed against the first Miami’s first ranked opponent of the season.
Bold Predictions: Baker Mayfield accounts for five touchdowns in a losing effort. With the TCU loss the Big 12 is once again wide open. Mayfield can’t play defense, and while that will ultimately be the Sooners’ undoing, he will give everything he has to win Oklahoma’s biggest game of the year. It won’t be enough for the win, but he’ll keep himself in the Heisman conversation with another impressive performance.
Bold Predictions: Saquon Barkley breaks Michigan State with 250 all-purpose yards. Michigan State hasn’t allowed a running back to exceed 65 yards rushing this season. Barkley had a season low 44 rushing yards against Ohio State. Which is more likely to happen, a stifling Spartan performance or the Heisman front-runner making a splash? I’m taking Barkley.
Bold prediction: Kelly Bryant starts to earn some Heisman mentions. It’s only going to be a matter of time before the Tigers’ continued dominance earns Bryant some love. He’s one of the best offensive players on a team that is well positioned for another College Football Playoff run.
Bold Predictions: The Notre Dame defense registers six sacks. Wake Forest is the weakest opponent that the Irish have left on their schedule. The rushing attack of Josh Adams and Brandon Wimbush will get their yards and points, but it will be the Irish defense that has the most impressive performance of the day. Wake Forest topped 600 yards of total offense last weekend. They’re not coming close to that in Week 10.
Bold Predictions: Tony Fumagalli grabs two touchdowns. Alex Hornibrook hasn’t been stellar so far this season. The truth is, when you have Jonathan Taylor in the back field you don’t have to be. Taylor left last week’s game with an injury, forcing Wisconsin to find a Plan B. There really wasn’t much of a good answer. If this team is going to contend for the Playoff they need to find a passing game, and that starts Saturday with their elite tight end.
Bold Predictions: Iowa holds Ohio State below 28 points. The Buckeyes were tied with UCF with the No. 1 scoring offense in the country entering Week 9. This will be the second straight week when they fail to break 40 points.
Bold Predictions: Georgia holds South Carolina below 20 percent on third down conversions. What’s left for the Bulldogs to do to prove they belong? Georgia has dominated everyone on both sides of the ball so far. A sputtering South Carolina offense gets ripped to shreds as the punt team gets more work than quarterback Jake Bentley.
Bold Predictions: Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa each have multiple touchdowns. This game is going to be over at halftime. Nick Saban will add to the Tigers’ woes by letting his backup quarterback play to full quarters and rack up plenty of garbage time stats. The Crimson Tide are just that good and a bye week before their game against LSU gives them even more time to make a calculated assassination.
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Not enough star power in recent weeks? Week 10 boasts seven games between two ranked opponents highlights by a dual nightcap of No. 19 LSU at No. 1 Alabama and No. 13 Virginia Tech at Miami.
Even the non-ranked matchups look intriguing. It’s well within the realm of possibility that Butch Jones finds a way to lose to Southern Miss at home. Don’t put it past a dreadful BYU team to fall to 2-8 after losing to Fresno State on Saturday. No matter what happens, we’re in for another excellent weekend of college football.