Welcome to the September finale. A slight chill in the breeze asserts autumn’s (and football weather’s) true arrival, the early fun of the non-conference season has been played out, the conference narratives have been established, and now, it’s time to really learn what your favorite school has got. The quality October matchups are ahead, the crazy environments are finally in mid-season form, and it’s time for this season to truly play out.

Without further ado, let’s get to the Week 4 Review!

About Last Week…

I went 8-3 (72.7%) which puts me at 34-12 (73.9%) overall. I went 4-0 in the previewed games however, with three of them unfolding as predicted, and the exception being Notre Dame, who ditched Brandon Wimbush (my main x-factor) for a new quarterback, who made things comfortable for the Irish.

My three losses were at the hands of Purdue beating a ranked team (B1G!), Florida pulling off the rivalry win in Knoxville, and Michigan State securing a win in Bloomington against the Indiana Hoosiers. Shoutout to The Forest Scout’s NFL Previewer Michael Raupp for correctly picking the Michigan win over Nebraska!

Overall, this CFB Saturday most definitively determined the teams we will have our eyes set on for the College Football Playoff Picture, which can be seen in crucial games such as Wisconsin’s win of the Heartland Trophy in Iowa City as well as Stanford’s significant victory over a powerful Oregon Ducks team. They (among others) will be the ones that you will see below most often, especially as the meat of these important conference matchups begin taking place in the coming weeks. As a bonus, Week 4 showed us an incredible upset with Virginia Tech falling at Old Dominion in front of their (only) 19,000 capacity crowd. We’ll see how these results resonate, starting with some big performances in store for Week 5.

Speaking of Week 5, it’s time for the main event of this article. Preview, commence!

Noon Game of The Week:

#12 West Virginia @ #25 Texas Tech

Quick Essentials

When: 11:00 CT

TV: ESPN2

Rain (Above 40%)? No.

Where: Jones AT&T Stadium (Lubbock, TX)

Series History: WV 46-35 in 2017 (WV leads 5-2 all-time)

Your day of fantastic CFB matchups begin early this week, with two teams ready to put each others’ defensive backfields to shame. The passing game is the main focus here, as a strong West Virginia Mountaineers team visits a Texas Tech Red Raiders team that just plunged what was thought to be a decent Oklahoma State Cowboy team into the loss column.

In this key win at OSU (Oklahoma State, not that OSU, more on those guys later), Texas Tech made their national statement and join the top 25. The Red Raiders feature some of the speediest offense out there, averaging one snap every 23 seconds (!).

A big question mark for this game will be based on the ability for WV to adapt to this, and the answer could be with some serious offensive responsiveness. West Virginia features an experienced quarterback in Will Grier, with some dangerous targets downfield.

Due to the wild high-scoring offensive battle that is set to take place in this game, the ability for defenses to limit things will be crucial and the decisive factor in this game, and this is where West Virginia gets their advantage. The Mountaineers feature a strong defensive front that will specifically work to combat the speediness of Texas Tech’s offense with some serious pressure, and will just barely be the deciding factor in an exciting game.

West Virginia Wins, 48-41

Other Noon Games of Note:

11:00 CT:

Syracuse @ #3 Clemson (ABC)

Arkansas @ Texas A&M (ESPN)

Afternoon Game of The Week:

#14 Michigan @ Northwestern

Quick Essentials

When: 3:30 CT

TV: FOX

Rain (Above 40%)? Nope!

Where: Ryan Field (EVANSTON, IL)

Series History: UM 38-0 in 2015 (UM leads 57-2-15 all-time)

Two of the most popular programs in the Lake Forest and Chicagoland areas face off in Evanston on Saturday, to renew a series that has had a quite unique reputation across the 21st century, with wild (and sometimes badly wild (2000, 2012, 2013, 2014)) showdowns.

The last time the Wolverines made their way to Northwestern, unquestionably the most infamously awful College Football game ever took place, known simply for its nickname “m00n” (which is what ESPN’s scoreboard graphics read for nearly the whole game) took place (I referenced it in my Rutgers/Kansas preview two weeks ago). If you’re interested, I would check out the highlights and state lines, which are quite comedic.

All of this is to say that there is interesting historical background going into this matchup, and also to lead into the fact that both sides have vastly departed from the versions of themselves seen during the M00N game. Michigan was a shell of themselves and soon rebuilt their program under current head coach Jim Harbaugh, and the Wildcats simply have quarterback Clayton Thorson at their disposal now, and exciting bowl wins in most recent years, which are also signs of building up.

The Wolverines are coming off of a 56-10 win over a now-embarrassing Scott Frost-led Nebraska team. Considering it’s overwhelming nature, it is currently quite difficult to contextualize this game and balance out Michigan successes with Cornhusker failures. However, one can easily draw a conclusion that Michigan has a new quarterback outlook for 2018 between starting Ole Miss grad transfer Shea Patterson and backup in Dylan McCaffrey (Yes, THAT McCaffery family), and it’s potentially the best in the last decade for the program. They have a quality target in wide reciever Donovan Peoples-Jones.

The defense, with ends Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary leading the charge, along with Devin Bush leading the linebackers, hasn’t been anything unstoppable, but has held up with raucous and blitzy defensive coordinator Don Brown’s proven success and high standards. All of this has been rounded out by a more established running game, with many threats in Karan Higdon, Chris Evans, Tru Wilson, and even intimidating fullback (!) Ben Mason.

Although this team features many players with upside, they have a huge gaping hole in potentially one of the worst set of offensive tackles on the college football scene right now. Although they performed well against Nebraska, they have proven to be a huge weakness for the Wolverines, and a huge factor in the team’s sole loss thus far this season at Notre Dame in Week 1. This combined with a bad road reputation as of late could make things very interesting on Saturday afternoon.

As for Northwestern, the team is led behind a superstar quarterback in Clayton Thorson. However, Thorson’s health remains questionable with an ACL tear back in December of last year, in a Music City Bowl that capped off an exciting 10-3 season. Based on the actions of head coach Pat Fitzgerald to give him recovery time early, I expect him to be way closer to 100% for this game.

Thorson will be key as the Wildcats have lost crucial running back Jeremy Larkin. As for the defense, they had a pretty solid showing in the team’s sole win over an increasingly solid Purdue team in West Lafayette. Problem is, we’ve seen less positivity out of the losses to Akron (!) and Duke at home. This NU team comes off of a bye week, and will be going into their Big Ten Opener ready to give as much as they have.

I will be on site for this matchup, and considering my strong rooting interest (Go Blue!), I would like to invite The Forest Scout NFL Previewer Michael Raupp to give us his own definitive predictions:

Northwestern’s offense wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders two weeks ago. To add additional fuel to the flames, they were hit with the unexpected news that Jeremy Larkin will be forced to retire; he is dealing with a serious neck/spinal condition. They will lean on senior John Moten IV, who has little experience in his first three years. Clayton Thorson must be on his game if Northwestern wants to have any chance, but Michigan is starting to click on both offense and defense. They shouldn’t have any issues getting passed an injury riddled Northwestern squad.

Michigan Wins, 41-17

Other Afternoon Games of Note:

2:30 CT:

Pittsburgh @ #13 UCF (ESPNU)

Baylor @ #6 Oklahoma (ABC)

Night Game of The Week:

#4 Ohio State @ #9 Penn State

Quick Essentials

When: 6:30 CT

TV: ABC

Rain (Above 40%)? Negative.

Where: Beaver Stadium (State College, PA)

Series History: OSU 39-38 in 2017 (OSU leads 18-14 all-time)

And so it begins! The Big Ten East Armageddon Fest 2018 gets started with this top ten matchup that has proven worthy of a College GameDay appearance. Saturday, the Ohio State Buckeyes make their way into Happy Valley and a Penn State Whiteout under the lights, all of which setting up for a defining game of the 2018 season.

Urban Meyer is back from his suspension he had due to really bad things. The OSU head coach was reunited with his team in Columbus for their game last week against the Tulane Green Waves (the Buckeyes just barely escaped with a win…49-6), and now looks at his first major matchup of the 2018 season, as well as their B1G opener.

Like the Afternoon Game of the Week, this game will be lead by quarterback performances. Ohio State sophomore quarterback Dwayne Haskins is rolling with one of the best seasons by a quarterback in the game right now, but this is his first major opponent he will be facing. On the other side of the field, Trace McSorley may be the most valuable player in the Big Ten, and has some Heisman Hype on his shoulders.

Both teams have rolled over buth cupcakes and simply opponents of lesser quality, but the Nittany Lions had an overtime scare against an Appalachian State, and it will be of heavy concern for PSU to be able to pull through adversity that they definitely face in this battle.

As for defenses, Ohio State defensive end (and star) Nick Bosa has been ruled out for the game, with no medical re-evaluation of his injured core muscle set until November. PSU has some defensive worries as well, as the core of their problems in that near-loss against App State could be found in defensive struggles.

This game will live up to the hype, with an offensive shootout that is sure to stay close until the end of the game. Due to the “offensive shootout” part of this game, defense will considerably be the key for both teams, especially early. Any three and out drives will be like gold for the defense.

The loss of Nick Bosa won’t cast a large shadow over this Ohio State team long term, but it certainly will for this game. This combined with the unstoppable home whiteout environment will lead to some big plays for Penn State early on, and will give them the slight edge going through to the end of the game.

Penn State Wins, 38-31

Other Night Games of Note:

6:30 CT:

#7 Stanford @ #8 Notre Dame (NBC)

8:00 CT:

Ole Miss @ #5 LSU (ESPN)

Late Game of The Week:

#19 Oregon @ #24 California

Quick Essentials

When: 9:30 CT

TV: FS1

Rain (Above 40%)? California Says No To Rain.

Where: California Memorial Stadium (Berkeley, CA)

Series History: Oregon 45-24 in 2017 (Cal leads 41-2-38 all-time)

Week 3 was a tough one for Oregon, as they put a very exciting performance on the field, yet fell short to Stanford in an exciting (and loud) night game in Eugene that went to overtime. The Ducks have to get back up on their feet quickly however, as the California Bears welcome them to another edition of PAC 12 After Dark.

Cal has penetrated the rankings after decent-strong wins over BYU and UNC, and hope to put another quality win on their gauntlet when they face Oregon.

The key side of the ball will be an explosive Ducks offense, led by quarterback Justin Herbert, who had a stellar performance against Stanford that would be household talk if not for the outcome. They will face a Bears lockdown defense with a tough style willing to wreak havoc all over Oregon’s plan.

This game will entirely be driven by the Ducks’ willingness to show their resilience, and that is exactly what will be delivered from them.

Justin Herbert will play angry and deliver another strong performance, and over time, the space the Oregon offense creates will reign triumphant over Cal’s threatening defense. However, this won’t be until after California makes a huge statement toward their rankings credit through rapid early scores and a few offensive shutdowns.

Oregon Wins, 41-28

As always, enjoy your Saturday, everyone!