Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh surveys the field in a recent game. The Wolverines, ranked No. 2 in the nation in both the Associated Press and the AFCA Coaches polls, have had more troubles off the field than on it in the 2023 season. (Photo courtesy of SATURDAYTRADITION.COM)
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders admits he’s not and will never be a noodler, and Michigan football must be wondering just what all the sign stealing allegations probe entails, just a handful of days shy of the initial College Football Playoff rankings released on Halloween evening.
On the Buffaloes’ bye week, Coach Prime told us he wasn’t interested in fishing for catfish, using his bare hands or feet, practiced primarily in the southern United States. His interest today is No. 24 UCLA in a primetime game on ABC tonight in Los Angeles.
This week we also learned the FBI has entered the scene involving former Michigan assistant Matt Weiss, a completely different investigation than the sign-stealing. There’s a lot going on with Michigan these days. And, let me tell ya’, you can probably bank that’s not good news for the Wolverines, no matter how insignificant the news seemed when the story broke.
And, least we forget, the games starting this morning at 11 a.m. No. 6 Oklahoma is at Kansas on big FOX, as well as an SEC matchup between South Carolina and Texas A&M on ESPN, as well as Penn State, looking to rebound from its loss a week ago, hosting Indiana on CBS, or SMU entertaining Tulsa on ESPNU.
If you’re like me, I want to see how good (or bad) No. 7 Texas is, playing its first game at home in a month against BYU at 2:30 on ABC. The Horns will be playing without QB1 Quinn Ewers, who suffered a shoulder injury last week against Houston. Redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy (6-5, 238) came off the bench to finish the UH game and engineer the game-winning drive with freshman CJ Baxter scoring the final touchdown. Murphy won the No. 2 job behind Ewers in the spring, but has played only sparingly thus far this season.
If you’re interested and watching, we could see Arch Manning playing for the first time collegiately. Coach Sarkisian says “that’ll depend on the flow and situation of the game. Murphy and Manning have had a good week of work, so we’ll have to wait and see on that.
Another thing that makes this interesting is Sark will be coaching against his alma mater, BYU, for only the second time. His first was a season-opening loss in 2010 when he was at Washington. Sarkisian was the Cougars quarterback in 1995-’96, guiding BYU to a 7-4 record in ’95 and a 13-1 No. 5 ranking in ’96 and a 19-15 win over Kansas State in the 1997 Cotton Bowl.
The Cougars are the best of the Big 12 newcomers thus far with a 5-2 record, 2-2 in conference play with wins at home over Cincinnati and Texas Tech. The two schools have played five times previously. And, BYU is 4-1.
Texas, a 17-1/2-point favorite, begins its most trying stretch of games.
Other 2:30 games include Pittsburgh and No. 14 Notre Dame on NBC, No. 1 Georgia and Florida on CBS, as well as No. 8 Oregon at No. 13 Utah on FOX.
Tennessee is at Kentucky, Washington at Stanford, No. 3 Ohio State at Wisconsin, or Colorado at UCLA are a few of the late afternoon or evening-window games.
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