CFB Week 7 Friday

Kyle Kirms
Oct 7
5 min read

SOUTH FLORIDA @ NORTH TEXAS - 7:30 PM

South Florida's off to a great start this season. The offense was struggling to sustain drives early in the season. But they opened up the year with 3 tough opponents. Injury - RB Cartevious Norton was hospitalized in their last game.

I don't want to overreact from the last 2 games... they were against really bad defenses... but I also don't want to draw any conclusions from the first few games because those were against some really tough teams.

This is gonna be a tough test for South Florida... cuz North Texas' defense is very good. I know the Army game looks shaky on paper... but it was on the road and North Texas jumped out to a 28-7 lead and I think they may have gotten caught just taking their foot off the pedal.

I think this North Texas defense can give Byrum Brown and the USF offense problems in this game... to me, the better question is on the other side of the ball. We've got two units I trust... we've got the South Florida defense, which has shown us it's a very good unit. And we've got the North Texas offense at home... which has been an absolute wagon.

North Texas has basically smoked everybody that's come into this building so far this year. It's not the toughest competition... but South Alabama isn't a scrub.

But this South Florida defense is looking really strong. They had one bad game... on the road against Miami, (who's looking like one of the best teams in the country)... other than that, they've played great defense all year.

To be honest though, I still don't think they can stop this North Texas offense. Eric Morris has given us one of the most explosive offenses in College Football for 3 straight years now... South Florida hasn't generated a ton of pressure so far this year. Mestemaker should be able to make throws in this game. UNT still may be without RB Kiefer Sibley but he's missed a few games now.

Look this is a huge game... and I understand why the market has South Florida above North Texas... but it should be slight. If you really look at North Texas season, that Western Michigan game was close and went to OT but they dominated that football game. And then Army, they were up 3 TDs and took their foot off the gas. I would prob make this game North Texas -2 personally.

FRESNO STATE @ COLORADO STATE - 9 PM

Gotta hand it to Matt Entz. Fresno State opened up the season getting crushed by Kansas. They haven't lost a football game since then... 5 wins in a row including two excellent road wins.

Now going on the road to Fort Collins... not always the easiest place to play. But Fresno has already gone on the road to Hawaii and Corvallis and grabbed wins. So maybe this Fresno team is just way tougher than we expected. Fresno's offensive line is in tough shape. LT Brayden Walton is probably gonna miss another game. He got injured in Week 4. This is already an offensive line that lost their starting RG in Week 2 for the season. They've also got a couple injuries to the depth of the offensive line. But Colorado State's defensive line is also pretty smoked. EDGE Mukendi Wa-Kalonji is one of the captains of the team and he's now out of the year (since Week 4). Another DL, Gabe Jones, is also out for the season.

I will say... we can't just sleep on this Colorado State defense. They've gotten completely lit up both times they went on the road. But in their 3 home games, they've actually played really good defense.

And I mentioned how Fresno grabbed two huge road wins... the offense didn't look very efficient in those games. They won the turnover battle 6-2 in those games... they played solid defense. But the offense didn't look great in those games. I think we're gonna see Fresno struggle to move the ball in this game.

We saw EJ Warner really struggle on the road in Corvallis and I think he's gonna struggle in this one.

It's the other side of the ball... this is where I just really struggle to trust Colorado State. We've got more injuries. Freshno is missing Asiata, a starting DL who's out for the season. Colorado State lost their LG Tanner Morley for the season (another team captain).

Jackson Brousseau looks to be the official new starting QB for Colorado State. It hasn't looked great... but I suppose it's not worse than what they were getting from Fowler-Nicolosi. Idk... this might just be a bad offense.

They might be able to run the ball in this game though... I know Fresno State's defense has great numbers against the run. But if you look at their gamelogs, they haven't seen any rushing offenses... and when they have, they got run on.

Man idk how you lay 6.5 on the road here. I don't trust the Colorado State offense at all... but I think they can run the ball a bit... and I think they can play a good defensive game. This number should be 3.5/4. Give me Colorado State +6.5 but I am not crazy about it.

RUTGERS @ WASHINGTON - 9 PM

So can Rutgers go out on the road to the west coast and move the ball on this Washington defense? I think the answer might be yes.

Washington's defense is good... we saw Washington State and Ohio State moving the ball on em a little... but this is a strong Washington defense. This is a Washington defense that's missing starters... LB Al-Uqdah is out for the season and EDGE Zach Durfee is most likely gonna miss another game. But there's good news... DT Jayvon Parker is set to return. He hasn't played yet this season. CB1 Tacario Davis is also set to return. He hasn't played since Week 2. They're also getting LB Zaydrius Rainey-Sale on the field. That's Washington's No.1 recruit. He hasn't played yet this year. So Washington's defense is actually healthier.

Rutgers offense is definitely strong this year... but we have seen Kaliakmanis come back down to earth a bit since we've gotten into Big Ten play.

I'm not expecting Rutgers to get shut down... they've got Ian Strong back and healthy. There's too much talent... but I do think Washington is capable of making a few stops in this one. Which is probably all they're gonna need because on the other side, this should be a slaughter. Rutgers defense was already terrible... they already lost Doug Blu-Eli for the season. Now they lose LB Moses Walker for the season. They might also be missing another starter on the DL.

I know Washington's offense hasn't looked too sharp in their last two games. But one was against Ohio State... and the other was a cross country trip to Maryland against a team coming off a bye week. Now I know Rutgers is another team coming off a bye week.. but this one's back at home.

I think we'll see the version of Demond Williams that we saw earlier in the season. He was under some pressure in the Colorado State and Washington State games. Didn't matter... he was still great. Bad news though: Washington is dealing with injuries on this side of the ball. Two starters on the offensive line are gonna miss this one. Carver WIllis also missed the Maryland game and John Mills left the Maryland game early.