Separation Saturday: Week 6 Preview

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The 4^th and Forever inbox has been deluged with emails this week from delirious Carolina fans taunting me and boasting about beating the spread against Notre Dame last weekend. This savory moral victory is indeed the high-water mark for the program over the last few years, and years from now fans will be toasting that game and regaling friends with stories about where they were when the Heels scored the late touchdown to cover. “I was puking behind the Phi Delt house when I heard the roar from Kenan Stadium, it was electric!”

This week’s slate has a lot to offer, and this is the time of the season when we separate the men from the boys. Several prominent teams that came in with high expectations and high rankings are on the verge of seeing their season careen into a ditch. With said, on to the games.

Wake Forest @ NC State (WFU-3.5, O/U 58.5)

Wake and State both earned three-point victories over Louisville over the last two weekends, but State has been wildly inconsistent this season. Embarrassing losses to mediocre UVA and Vanderbilt teams don’t endear the chronically underachieving Dave Doeren to the Wolfpack faithful, but a 9-4 record and five straight wins against Carolina have kept him employed in Raleigh for 14 seasons. Wake and Duke are the two toughest games remaining on the schedule, and if he could manage to sweep Tobacco Road this season, plus a nice win last month against always dangerous App State, trailer parks all over eastern North Carolina will be burning couches in November. However, master motivator Jake Dickert has been reminding his team and the media all week about hearing NC State fans chanting in Allegacy Stadium after beating the Deacs in Winston-Salem last year and he would dearly love to return the favor. He is also well aware of the significance of beating in state rivals and would love to give Wake fans reason to walk out into their yards late tomorrow afternoon and offer the State grads mowing their grass a cold beer and condolences on the loss.

RAH, RAH, WAKE FOREST, RAH!

Old Alma Mater’s sons are we!

We’ll herald the story, and die for

her glory: Old Gold and Black is

ever waving high.

Deacs by 7!

North Carolina @ #25 Pittsburgh (Pitt -3.5, O/U 47.5)

I’m not sure if Ed will get in a submission previewing the Carolina game this week, apparently, he has a job, so I’ll do the honors for now. The Heels head to Pittsburgh sporting a gaudy 2-2 record, while the 5-0 Panthers best win of the season was beating Virginia Tech by two, so this isn’t exactly a clash of the titans. I haven’t seen Pitt play all season, but I know Pat Narduzzi is a pretty good coach, and Bill Belichick has a hot girlfriend. Carolina does have a lot of talent at running back and on defense, and that is usually a winning formula, but it wasn’t enough to beat Clemson, and great running backs can’t beat anybody from the sidelines. Nonetheless, I think UNC should win this game on talent alone (hoping to jinx them) and begin to achieve the mediocrity the fans have long craved. Take the Heels plus the points.

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#2 Georgia @ #6 Alabama (Bama -1.5, O/U 51.5)

That’s my Tate Smillie impression, four lines of blank space. I’ve heard he’s in a yurt in Mongolia seeking spiritual enlightenment and no longer follows college football.

I’m taking Bama in this game because they’re at home and they have the only two impressive wins either team has compiled this season. Beating Kentucky on the road continues to look better with time, and the beatdown they laid on #16 Mississippi State in Starkville last weekend looks way better than anything the Dawgs have done so far this season.

#7 Indiana @ Nebraska (IU -7.5, O/U 47.5)

 Remember when I mentioned it’s time to separate the men from the boys? We’ll find out what 5-0 Nebraska is this weekend. If there was ever a time when you might expect some of the old Nebraska glory to rise up from the grave, now is it. At home against a top 10 team, they need to show something. Lord knows it’s been a long time since the Huskers won a meaningful game, their fanbase has been wondering in the desert for seemingly the last two decades, it’s time to get back to the Promised Land of football relevance. Now Huskers, go and sin no more. It’s religious metaphor week here at 4th&F, you’re welcome!  

#21 UCLA @ #13 Oregon (Quack Attack -10.5, O/U 58.5)

This game is far and away the most interesting one of the day as far as I’m concerned. New Bruins coach Bob Chesney, who followed Curt Cignetti at James Madison after previous coaching stops at powerhouses Johns Hopkins, Salve Regina, Assumption and Holy Cross was rumored to have been considered for the Pope job when that came open, but the guy from Chicago got that gig so he headed west. The Bruins are undefeated but haven’t beaten anybody, and the Ducks are 3-1 with a loss to Oklahoma State, who lost to Tulsa. Bob Chesney has seemingly performed the miracle of getting fans in the stands at the Rose Bowl, and he reportedly fed the whole crowd at the Purdue game with only five burritos and two corn dogs. None of that will matter with the game at Autzen, but he has brought genuine enthusiasm back to Westwood. Boys or men? This game will tell us.

#1 Texas vs. Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl (‘Horns -7.5, O/U 39.5)

Any American who has red blood running through their body LOVES the Red River Shootout! I’m not kidding, this game is on my bucket list and one fine day I’ll wander through the Texas State Fair for a few hours, then head over to the game to wash down my elephant ear and turkey leg with an ice cold beer, or three. It’s been said in this space that Texas is the least impressive #1 team we’ve seen since UVA was #1 in 1990. That UVA team went on to lose four of their last five and finish unranked. What lowly mongrel did they manage to beat during that miserable stretch you ask? Why, it was Carolina in Kenan Stadium of course, 24-10. The first team to beat them during that run was Georgia Tech, coached by VMI graduate Bobby Ross, and they did go to win the Natty that year. Sharing it with Colorado doesn’t count, because of the fifth down game.

Back to the issue at hand, why is the #1 team in the nation only a 7.5 point favorite over an unranked team that lost to a weak Michigan team and struggled to beat New Mexico? Because nobody is scared of Texas, and this game has a long history of big upsets. I don’t expect that to happen this year though, Texas during the Manning years has tended to play up or down to their level of competition, hence the win over Ohio State, and Oklahoma hasn’t looked good all season. Take the ‘Horns, give the points, and that under looks awful tempting.