Five College Football Games to Watch: Week 3

Alabama blog Roll Bama Roll highlights the five most intriguing match-ups this weekend in college football, including No. 19 Nebraska hosting No. 13 Virginia Tech in the only game pitting two ranked teams against each other on the day.

Nebraska spent weeks one and two of the season slapping around a pair of cupcakes (Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State) and have been rewarded with a number 19 ranking for their efforts. Nebraska went 9-4 last year with all of the losses coming to fairly stiff competition (Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Missouri, Virginia Tech.) Winning here over Virginia Tech would be the most significant win in Bo Pelini’s young head coaching career. On the VT side of things, we’ve seen first hand what they can do. After losing to us in week one (and giving us a collective heart attack in the process), they snapped back and clobbered Marshall 52-10. One has to give VT credit for scheduling two traditional powerhouses for non-conference games so close together (the two teams were a combined 21-6 last year.) Their contest last year in Nebraska ended with Virginia Tech winning 35-30 and holding off a late Nebraska comeback.

You can follow updates and previews on the game at the Nebraska blog Corn Nation or the Hokie blog Gobbler Country.

For those concerned with whether or not they’ll be able to see this or one of the other big games on the day, the ABC and ESPN2 coverage maps are up. Between the two channels, about 2/3 of the country will be able to watch the game. West Coasters and the Northeast will have to “settle” for No. 3 Pete Carroll taking on his protege Steve Sarkisian when USC travels to Washington. Folks in the Midwest and Arizona will have to deal with Arizona vs. Iowa.

Other intruiging match-ups on the day include No. 23 Georgia at Arkansas, Texas Tech at No. 2 Texas, No. 8 Cal at Minnesota, No. 18 Utah at Oregon, Florida State at No. 7 BYU, No. 17 Cincinnati at Oregon State and Tennessee at No. 1 Florida.