Looks like No. 8 Texas Tech will have to wait yet another week before finally facing a decent opponent as they run roughshod over No. 23 Kansas on Saturday, 63-21.

Don’t be fooled by the score. Yes the Red Raiders offense is unbelievable and they again showed how explosive they are in racking up 63 points and close to 600 yards. But the Jayhawks have shown week in and week out that they aren’t the same team that finished 12-1 last year and beat No. 3 Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

Kansas turned the ball over five times and couldn’t have stopped Tech’s offense had they only played with Graham Harrell (386 yards, 5 TDs) and Michael Crabtree (9 rec. 70 yards). Again, not to take anything away from them, but the talk next week (depending on how the Longhorns do against Oklahoma State) is how the Red Raiders could upset Texas. I guarantee you everyone is going to hop on the Tech bandwagon and forget how the Longhorns absolutely destroyed Oklahoma and MIZZOU this month.

I think Texas Tech is fun to watch and Harrell and Crabtree are amazing. But Texas is the most complete football team in the nation right now (again, assuming they don’t stumble against OK State and make me eat my words), so hopefully the mainstream media doesn’t go overboard with the upset talk next week. (Although who am I kidding, we all know they will.)

Top 25 vs. Top 25
No. 6 Oklahoma State at No. 1 Texas, 3:30 PM ET ABC
Colt McCoy and the Longhorns are the talk of college football right now, and rightfully so with the way they destroyed Chase Daniel and Missouri last Saturday. But Zac Robinson and the Cowboys are playing as well as anyone right now and this is a huge opportunity for them to prove that they can hang with the big boys. Robinson is completing nearly 70% of his passes and has 14 touchdowns on the year to just four interceptions. But for OK State to pull off the upset, the Cowboy defense will have to be aggressive in getting after McCoy, who completed 29 of his 32 passes last week in the rout over MIZZOU. Mack Brown won’t let his team take their foot off the pedal, but this is UT’s third straight tough Big 12 matchup in as many weeks and the Cowboys won’t be any pushovers.

No. 3 Penn State at No. 9 Ohio State
The Nittany Lions are red hot and destroying everything in their path. The switch the spread offense has been a great success for PSU’s offense and QB Daryll Clark, who ranks 18th in the nation in pass efficiency. Clark will certainly have his work cut out for him this Saturday going against a veteran OSU defense, although the Lions can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the trenches. They also have protected Clark incredibly well this season, which has allowed for big plays in the passing game. For the Buckeyes offensively, frosh QB Terrelle Pryor is the real deal and really stepped up his game last week against Michigan State after struggling to make plays in previous weeks. PSU is allowing more than a half-yard less per carry than OSU’s stingy defense, so it might be tough sledding for Heisman candidate Beanie Wells. Either way, expect a battle at the “Horseshoe” this weekend in matchup of the best the Big Ten has to offer.

No. 7 Georgia at No. 13 LSU, 3:30 PM ET CBS
This is a huge game for UGA after clawing back into the top 10 last week. LSU is coming off a solid come-from-behind win over South Carolina last week and still has plenty to prove themselves after Florida ran roughshod over them two weeks ago. UGA’s inexperienced offensive line has been an issue at times this year, so QB Matthew Stafford must get the ball out of his hands quickly against a stout Tiger pass rush. And even though Heisman candidate Knowshon Moreno gets a lot more pub, LSU RB Charles Scott is rushing for over six yards a carry. The Tigers are a staggering 41-4 in Tiger Stadium since 2002, which doesn’t bode well for the road ‘Dogs.

No. 8 Texas Tech at No. 23 Kansas, 12:00 PM ESPN
The Red Raiders have flirted with disaster the past couple of weeks, even though Heisman candidate Graham Harrell continues to play beyond impressive. Still, Tech is off to its best start in 32 years and will get to test its mettle against the upper-echelon of Big 12 foes over the next four games. The Jayhawks, meanwhile, were drubbed by Oklahoma last week and just haven’t looked sharp in over a month. They have sorely missed Brandon McAnderson in the backfield, but they could be due for a game in which they put it all together. Could this be the prime upset of the weekend?

Upset Watch:
Michigan State at Michigan, 3:30 PM ET
The Wolverines have been absolutely brutal this year, but this is a game they win. The Spartans were crushed by Ohio State last week in a game that they were trying to use as a measuring stick to see how good they were. This is a huge letdown game for them and Rich Rodriguez is desperate not to lose to his in-state rival and save at least a little face in his first year at Big Blue.

This is exactly why you need to be prepared if you enter one of those halftime contests that teams hold at games:

Having already gone through two kickers – who have combined to miss six PATs and half of their field-goal attempts – the sixth-ranked Red Raiders are now seriously considering giving Matt Williams a shot against No. 18 Kansas this weekend.

Williams is a Tarleton State transfer student who won a month of free rent at the Tech/UMass game several weeks ago by kicking a 30-yard field goal. After his successful try, Williams was walking back to his seat when he was flagged down.

“They relayed a message to me saying that Coach [Mike] Leach wanted to talk to me,” Williams told RedRaiderSports.com the next day. “He told me to come into his office on Tuesday and talk to him, and then Coach [Clay] McGuire told me to come and speak with him on Monday.”

Initially, it was thought that Williams was ineligible this season due to transfer rules. However, according to McGuire – who heads up the Red Raiders’ special teams unit, Williams has been cleared to play.

“That is the way I understand it, yeah,” confirmed McGuire on Tuesday. “He’s got a real good shot. Only Mike Leach could bring a guy out of the stands and make it work.”

Granted, this kid had already played collegiality so it’s not like it was somebody practicing in their backyard for four months getting ready for some contest and now he’s the Texas Tech field goal kicker. Still, this a wild story.

This isn’t a story about some D-III team out in East Jesus New Hampshire; Texas Tech is the eighth ranked team in the nation.

Michigan defensive end Brandon Graham told reporters following last Saturday’s loss to Penn State that the Wolverines will not lose to rival Michigan State this weekend.

“We are not going to lose to State,” Michigan defensive end Brandon Graham told reporters Saturday following a 46-17 loss at Penn State.

Two days later, Graham’s teammates didn’t fault him for firing up Michigan State more.

“He wanted to guarantee a win. We’re going to back him up on it,” defensive tackle Terrance Taylor said Monday.

Oddsmakers aren’t counting on that happening.

Michigan State (6-2, 3-1 Big Ten) is a 5 1/2-point favorite to beat Michigan (2-5, 1-2) for the first time since 2001, when T.J. Duckett caught a touchdown pass with disputed time on the clock, and for the first time in Ann Arbor since 1990, when Desmond Howard dropped a pass in the end zone after he appeared to be tripped.

Michigan is an underdog at home against Michigan State for the first time since 1968 when the Spartans were a six-point favorite, according to World Features Syndicate. The Wolverines won that game 28-14.

When you’re one of the more storied programs in the nation and you lose to Toledo on your home turf, you automatically forfeit the right to guarantee victory over anyone.

Ohio State freshman QB Terrelle Pryor is still using what ESPN’s Mary May said earlier this season about him not being ready for the big stage as motivation to prove critics wrong.

Pryor got huffy earlier this season before the Minnesota game about some fairly innocuous and well-reasoned comments May said about wanting to see Pryor perform on the big stage. He remains huffy.

“I’d love to battle against Mark May anytime,” Pryor said, before adding, “I don’t worry about what he says. I don’t even watch ‘SportsCenter.’”

Perhaps not. But Pryor clearly has rabbit ears for any perceived criticism, using it as motivational fuel.
“People don’t know what I can do,” he said. “They say I’m overrated. Wait and see. The time will come and you will find out.

“I didn’t prove anything yet. But I like playing with a chip on my shoulder.”

Pryor also put a charge into this Saturday’s Big Ten battle between Ohio State and Penn State when asked how it would feel playing in his home state of Pennsylvania this weekend.

“I don’t care,” Pryor said. “I’m from Ohio now. That’s still my hometown, but this is where I am now. I don’t need to make Penn State happy.”

I like this kid and I like this competitiveness. He seems to walk the line of being cocky and confident, but he doesn’t give off the impression that he’s just another mouthy athlete looking for attention. And you have to like a freshman quarterback that walks into his coaches office before a game and tells him to bench him if he doesn’t get the offense into the end zone on the first drive of the game.