T1B

........is it over for Charlie??

Can he possibly overcome a 1-2 start and save his job?

To me, this is an elimination game......

For Notre Dame, it's potentially an elimination game for Charlie's job AND BCS elimination. I don't think the BCS is within reach for them if they start out 1-2.

For Michigan State, I think a loss would eliminate them from their preseason expectations of getting back to a New Year's Day Bowl. They would have to go 7-1 in the Big-10 in order to pull that off should they lose on Saturday.

Other important games this weekend and why......

Georgia Tech vs Miami. HUGE program changing game for BOTH teams. Look for The U to win by double digits.

Boise St at Fresno St. Probably the last potential loss for Boise St. Win this and we've got ourselves a BCS party crasher.

Cal at Minnesota. Should be a rout. Minnesota is terrible. New stadium looks pretty sweet though. If somehow the Goofers could pull the upset (they won't), could really boost their program- though that idiot Brewster would fuck it up anyways.

Tennessee at Florida. Easy win for Florida but will be interesting to see if Meyer runs it up.

Nebraska at Va Tech. Not sure how to pick this game, but it's big for both programs. I think both teams are overrated but I'd give the edge to Va Tech since it's at home.

Arizona at Iowa. Somewhat of a trap game for the Hawks. Mike Stoops returns to his alma mater. Should be interesting. Both teams need this one. Iowa should win, but Arizona has a shot.

West Virginia at Auburn. I don't think WVA is that good but it will give us a better sense for how good Auburn is. Toss-up game.

Texas Tech at Texas. Texas will win this one in a laugher. It will be over at halftime.

Florida State at BYU. Another game where if you don't want a mid-major in the BCS you had better root for FSU. Seminoles have been terrible so far this year.

Georgia at Arkansas. Georgia is a fraud. They aren't even Top 40. How they're ranked still is beyond me. But Arkansas needs a win like this to get to 2-0 and start getting their program headed in the right direction. Look for this to come down to a late score. I'll take the home team (Arkansas) by the slimmest of margins.

Cincinnati at Oregon State. Win this game and Cincy proves they're legit. Lose it and Oregon State proves they are. I will take the home team in a close game. If this was at Cincy, I would take them.

Utah at Oregon. Another decent game. No great games this week but I can't think of a September weekend where we had this many quality games to watch. Oregon has a chance to right the ship. Win this and they head into conference play on a positive note and potentially turn their season around. Lose, and it could be the beginning of the end for them. I'll take Utes by a TD.

Temple at Penn State. Obviously, this is a mismatch. But here's what I am interested in seeing..........Penn State's running game. They haven't run the ball well their first 2 games and I'm curious if that's a fluke or not. 3 straight games and you can't call it a fluke. Plus, this could be closer than expected. They've got Iowa circled next week so they'll be looking ahead for sure. I don't know what the spread is but I'd be surprised if Penn State covered.

Should be a great weekend for college football. No marquee games, but still a lot of very intriguing matchups. Can't complain for a September weekend. Usually don't get this many quality games until October.

TheJON wrote: No marquee games, but still a lot of very intriguing matchups. Can't complain for a September weekend. Usually don't get this many quality games until October.

Don't forget about SMU at Wazzu. The Cougs lose this one and they've got a great shot at running the table just like Washington did last year.

No doubt Weis would be gone. Also, Miami isn't disciplined enough to stop the triple option.

USC could easily see themselves involved in a, pardon the pun, dogfight in Seattle.

Washington outplayed LSU and would've beaten them, were it not for the turnovers. They followed that up with a win m2 would've been impressed with, breaking their long losing streak in the process. USC normally struggles in Seattle anyway, win or lose. Coming off the emotional Ohio St roadie Barkley hasn't practiced all week, due to that bad shoulder.

This game is Sarkisian's and Washington's Super Bowl, so I'd be mildly surprised to see USC play really well there, or cover the number.

With another win over a Helmet Team BYU can truly solidify themselves as the first BCS buster this season, especially if they beat the hell out of the Seminoles.

Utah at Oregon is a game both teams have to win. Can't beat that. Utah is riding the nation's longest winning streak, and they're going BCS bowling if they run the table again. Oregon needs to atone for that abortion in Boise, and for losing at home last year to Boise St. If Oregon wins this one, yeah, they could still end up being the team many people thought they'd be this year. If they lose this one, and especially if they lose it badly, they're toast...and the Pac 10 takes another load on the chin.

There is no way in hell Cal shouldn't annihilate Minnesota. Cal should at least score in the 40s, and Minnesota should struggle to crack 20. If that one ends up being a close game, much less a loss by Cal...holy fuck.

If Michigan St continues their dominance in South Bend, yep, it's the end of Weis. He'd be allowed to finish the year, but he's done. If he loses this one it'd be more than a safe bet that it won't be the last embarrassing loss ND suffers this year, not counting the USC game.

Cincy at Oregon St is a very cool and unusual game. A Big East team on top of their game, traveling to the west coast?? Don't see that every day.

WVU and Auburn is the The Pretenders Bowl, wherein we find out which Helmet Team is merely that this year.

Good call on Miami, JON. And if ND burries MSU, they won't have any embarassing losses.

TheJON wrote:If Notre Dame loses to MSU, is Charlie done?

Let me Google that for you.

Killian wrote:Good call on Miami, JON. And if ND burries MSU, they won't have any embarassing losses.

I think ND wins by 10-14 points but you never know in this series. Always seems to be a tough game to predict. I think Charlie needs to throw the ball around the ballyard and test that MSU secondary.

Scares me to think what Kelly would do with Weis's recruit-classes. As much as I like seeing ND lose I might have to root for them. Anything less than 10-2 with ND's talent and experience against a just-OK sched is unimpressive. Anything less than 9-3 should get Weis canned and that is likely if he loses to MSU.

If Weis loses to Sparty, he'd need to pretty much run the table the rest of the way to keep his job. A loss to USC might be tolerated, provided it wasn't too embarrassing, but nothing beyond that.

Fortunately for him, I think this is the year we break the home losing streak to Sparty. It's embarrassing that we haven't beaten them at home since '93.

I agree that Weis would have to win out, including win their bowl game if they lose to MSU.

I know the oddsmakers know what they're doing, but ND hasn't shown much history of covering large spreads. Which is why the double digit spread against a team that has owned them in South Bend is a little head-scratching. And let's face it, ND was on a whopping 2 game winning streak (Hawaii and Nevada) before losing to Michigan. Not exactly world-beating stuff. So if that line is really drawing 50/50 action, I'm surprised. It doesn't matter how good or bad MSU is, they always play well down there. But I guess that says more about the folks betting on the game than it does the actual oddsmakers.

There is a lot more pressure on ND and Weis to win this game than there is on MSU. Personally, I don't want my money on Weis in a do or die situation, though I predicted ND would win this game in the preseason simply because the streak has to end at some point.

I think MSU is going to respond from the CMU debacle, and will keep it close at a minimum. Should be interesting.

He'll still be fat but I wouldn't consider him "done" if they lose.