Best of the Rest: Matchups to Watch Saturday: VT-Vandy, UNLV-Houston | GSMC College Football Podcast

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in for the entirety of the four quarters but you're definitely going to want to make sure you know what the score is in these CU maybe they get a little bit more interesting than You're Expecting as of right now but let's start this off and I think the biggest one that I want to touch on or not the biggest one by any means that I want to touch on but the first one I want to touch on is Oklahoma versus Temple this one goes on tonight Friday 88 uh 8:00 p.m. but this one's not going to be close I'm not necessarily implying that it's going to be close but there's a couple of big things to watch for here Oklahoma is a team that's going into this year that feels really good about a number of different pieces of this team whether it's quarterback or wide receiver or running back wide receiver actually took a little bit of a hit with Nick Anderson not playing in this game but I'm sure he'll be fine for week two and they'll move forward from there but at the end of the day Oklahoma's going to have so many big tests in the future I want to see this team just tear them to pieces I want want to see uh Jackson Arnold airing the ball out downfield and doing all of the incredible things he can do with his arm I want to see this offensive line absolutely push this uh Temple defensive line that frankly Temple is not a good team this would be a absolute blowout should be a total domination but I want to see just really clean football from the offensive line and from uh Jackson Arnold and if you do that at least you go into the second week feeling really confident you know obviously none of the answers are going to be uh none of the questions are going to be answered in this game but if you can get out of that game with no picks from uh Jackson Arnold and the offensive line totally dominant you feel a little bit better now on the flip side if Jackson arold makes a couple of mistakes in this o line it looks a little bit porous against Temple you're going to have some problems and this season might get really ugly really quickly for Oklahoma honestly but at the end of the day it's going to be a really interesting one to watch tonight and one of those that maybe the score won't be all that interesting but at least the nuances of that game will tell us a lot about this new SEC team moving forward we have another really good one tonight at 10:30 they're going to kick off TCU versus Stanford TCU favored about uh by about nine here over under at 59 and a half and this is a fascinating game TCU is coming back after what was a really really bad year after the national title run and uh Stanford obviously kind of reeling in the shadows a little bit under appreciated in some respects I think going into this year but TCU goes into year two with Josh Hoover at the Helm and cam cook is the guy that I want to talk about because he was a freshman last year got injured didn't wasn't able to play the amount that he wanted and he's finally healthy again he is downright scary I think he's going to be so much fun to watch this upcoming year and then on the other side you have a really good quarterback wide receiver connection between Ashton Daniels and Alec a Manor it's going to be really really fun I think this one's going to be a little bit up and down I think both defenses are still trying to find themselves and TCU with a lot of the transfers that offensive line might be a little bit more porous than we want it to be I do think they're more talented but maybe putting it all together just doesn't happen quite as quickly I do think TCU is going to be able to win this one I wouldn't necessarily pick him to cover though I think this one could be a real battle and especially out there in Palo Alto I think they might just be able to keep this one a little bit close for Stanford but I am going to pick TCU to win and this to be cam Cook's kind of coming out party if if you will in uh week one moving forward this is the one for me Virginia Tech heading over over to Vandy is one that I think some people are kind of shrugging off because it's Vandy and I understand that I do get that don't get me wrong but at the end of the day Kiren Jones coming in with Virginia Tech a ton of hype no doubt about it Diego Pavia coming in from uh from New Mexico state to Vanderbilt to take over the quarterback position and this guy's capable of some special things we saw it last year in h Jordan haris Stadium when he took down Auburn as at New Mexico state and they're hoping they they can get some of that magic on Saturday this is a very very interesting matchup cuz Virginia Tech looks like the better team they are the better team they're more talented and they have a lot of hype heading into this year vy's got nothing to lose and I kind of like that I I think it's one of those lines where you look at it and you say well of course Virginia Tech's going to beat Vandy by more than 14 points I wouldn't be so sure I think this one might just be a little bit closer than some people think and I think Vandy might I think M's going to lose this game don't get me wrong but I think some things could L clunky for Virginia Tech early on and they win this one maybe by seven or 10 points but not by the margin that some people I think uh think that's going to happen in this game but going to be a low-scoring affair so we'll see what happens in that one this is another one that's just outright awesome Oklahoma State playing South Dakota State I absolutely love at on Saturday at 2 p.m Oklahoma State favored by 9 and a half right now 33 uh 53 and a half uh over under and this is one you're going to want to watch an FBS versus FCS matchup and I know that's not the most tantalizing thing in the world SDSU is just a special team down right I there's plenty of teams in the F FBS I would bet the majority of the teams in the FBS are not as good as the South Dakota State team this is a very very good team and they're led by probably the best player in the FCS and Mark gronowski he was the winner of the Walter pyton Award winner a year ago uh kind of the Heisman of the FCS if you don't know but a very very important player and someone that could be a little bit groundbreaking CU there are people talking about him for the NFL draft it would be awesome to see an SDSU quarterback find their way into the draft but at the end of the day this one's going to be really interesting both teams are very experienced they're going to run the ball obviously olly Gordon on the other side but SSU is going to run the ball plenty as well it's going to be really fun I I think this one's going to come down really to the wire and I think you might just turn on your TV or check your phone at 5 p.m. eastern time on Saturday and say s South Dakota State's really in this game so this is one definitely to watch out of the side of your eye there is a reason that Oklahoma state is not favored by 21 in this game they're favored by 9 and a half so it's going to be really really fun and I would not be surprised if the jack rabbits left there with a win we saw Oklahoma State lose to South Alabama a year ago not crazy to think South Dakota State could do the exact same thing this year moving on Houston versus UNLV is just so much fun I think this one's going to be off the charts awesome when you have uh Houston only favored by two and a half points at home against a non power five opponent you're likely going to get a pretty good game I love this game top to bottom I think when you look at the quarterbacks they have on either side it's going to be a ton of fun two very different styles Donovan Smith a very talented quarterback that NFL Scouts are talking about as being a very talented guy at the next level I haven't necessarily bought into that quite as much but still a very talented kid definitely could do some really good things and then Matthew sluka stepping in for Jaden mava who made his way over to USC and a very talented kid coming over from Holy Cross and then you got the play callers Willie Fritz against uh brenon Marian is going to be about as fun as you will have watching offensive football this entire year so incredible incredible matchups I think one of the big time things in this game is going to be what does uh Donovan Smith do on those QB designed runs he's a very very talented athletic kid and I think it's going to be a little bit off the- walls if I'm being totally honest with you I think this game is going to be back and forth all over the place but frankly I think UNLV has the best player on the field in Ricky White I think that player is downright special and I think Houston might just be in for a bad loss on Saturday and UNLV might just roll into this season and get a big time win so it's a weird game it's one of those games that is going to be close I can almost promise you that but if you're a if you're really really into play design watch this game because you're just going to love what Brennan Marian does and you're going to absolutely love what Willie Fritz does I can promise you that moving on Georgia Tech Georgia state is one that I'll T touch on for very very very short because 20po uh line not nothing crazy over under at 55 A2 but there's been a little bit of a pattern that is formed around Georgia Tech over the last couple of years last year they only won back-to-back games one time it was UNCC and then uh this says Vanderbilt I don't think that's correct maybe that maybe that's correct I'm not sure actually but um and then in the his first game first couple of games as the interim they were able to win two in a row those are the only two times that he was able to win two in a row during his head coaching career at Georgia Tech and last year they beat a Wake Forest team then lost to Bowling Green or they beat a Miami team in Crazy fashion and then got dominated by Syracuse the next week so I'm not saying that George Tech's going to lose I tend to believe that they're going to win in this game but you might just want to keep uh one eye on this game throughout this one because maybe it's a little bit closer down the stretch than you're thinking James Madison playing Charlotte there's uh this one made a ton of headlines this uh week for a matchup that Franklin is not near the top of the list but at the end of the day James Madison favored by eight points in this game 47 and a half over under and Biff pogy the uh head coach for Charlotte and one of my favorite football characters in the entire country uh said this team is going to be down at least eight maybe nine starters in this game I don't know how that happens I don't know how it's not you know if you lose two or three or four starters you're not just shutting down fall camp but at the end of the day there is going to be a big time question mark around that uh part of this team and then on the other side JMU has a little bit of a QB problem Dylan Morris came in from Washington and figured to be the starter but Alonzo Barnett II is a very talented player battled with McLoud a year ago to get that starting job and I believe won it for a time being before Jordan McLoud took over a very very talented team and JMU coming off that incredible year a lot of change in the off season want to hit the ground running and I expect them to I think this one might just end up being well above that number eight uh line and I think JMU just rolls in this one if I'm being honest so a ton of really good games but the final one I want to touch on Wyoming against Arizona State this one's interesting to me just because that line should not be seven if it's Arizona State against Wyoming the line just in general should not be seven but a very good Wyoming team walking in uh Evan Zod Evans Zoda excuse me a very talented quarterback for Wyoming that fully understands this offense and has a a lot of really good players around him now Arizona State on the other side has some questions at quarterback Sam levit is taking over the transfer from Michigan State they have tons of running back Talent whether it's cam scabbo on your screen right there reli Brown's a very talented transfer from USC so they got plenty of guys they might have four different backs that they could throw at you so a very talented team Wyoming beat another big 12 team a year ago in Texas Tech that one was at home so a little bit different of circumstances but this one's going to be close I can promise you that this one's going to be a little bit sketchy and an Arizona State team that has a lot to figure out might just come out just a little bit clunky and Wyoming might be able to steal one for the second time in a row against a big 12 opponent but this one's going to be incredible uh this week we've been talking about all these games and kind of spreading them out throughout the week to make sure we get all of the all of you guys everything that you want to see but it's going to be awesome there's so many incredible games this upcoming weekend there's so many different story lines there's so many different upsets alert upset alerts and everything that you could possibly want from a week one uh in college football so we're about to get into it but we're going to take our final break here and we'll finish off the show just giving you a little bit of a headline uh weekend wrap-up just kind of uh go around all the different stories around college football that we haven't gotten a chance to get to because of all the craziness that is going on so we'll get to that right after this so stick with us