I have been to night games for plenty of sports, nothing on earth tops the atmosphere of a night game in college football. It’s amazing how when the sun goes down and the lights turn on, college football stadiums become the most horrifying structures on earth, both for opposing teams and for fans who suddenly become rowdier than usual.
The reason I’m saying this is because a little more than three years ago, the best sporting event (non-US Soccer vs. Mexico in Columbus, Ohio division) I’ve ever attended took place. I was a senior in college and Penn State hosted No. 18 Michigan, the game kicked at 5 p.m. EST in mid-October, so the sun was down by 7 and the game went from a late-afternoon game to a night game in no time.
Here’s the thing, this game was awful. Sure, 43-40 in four overtimes in which the home team wins is probably great, but this game featured 10 punts, five missed field goals, four interceptions, and three lost fumbles. Michigan averaged 2.8 yards per carry, Penn State averaged 1.9. Watching as a person with no stake in the game, you probably thought you were watching complete trash where two teams lucked their ways into 83 total points, mostly because the other team kept shooting itself in the foot.
But being there gave the game an entirely different feel. Every play was life or death for the people in the crowd (of course, there was the added feeling of “Penn State doesn’t have a bowl game so this was as close as we’re gonna get so let’s go crazy” but that’s neither here nor there). Night games make the highs in college football feel higher and the lows feel lower. Ask any Nittany Lions fan what the best play from the last five years was, and their answer may very well line up with a Wolverines fan’s answer to what was your least-favorite play form the last five years: Allen Robinson’s leaping fourth quarter grab which has since been immortalized on Robinson’s torso.
This moment was great, but the thing that made it so special was the nearly 108,000 fans in Beaver Stadium collectively losing their minds. Those moments of unity that exist in night games are what make them so great: at Clemson and at Ohio State and at LSU and at Texas A&M and at all of these amazing stadiums around the country, games are just more fun when tens of thousands people come together under the lights to cheer on their team. Every sense is heightened, every moment in the game becomes life or death, and when it’s all over, you as a fan either feel a high the likes of which you’ve never felt before or the lowest of lows, because the opportunity to win a game in the most special of all environments goes out the window.
College football needs more night games. Every fan – student, alumni, person who just likes the program – should get the chance to experience at least one a season. College football is at its best when games are being played in front of huge crowds, and the sense of community that you feel when you’re in a stadium, under the lights, everyone dressed in a shirt of the same color is the best thing on earth. I understand that TV schedules dictate a lot of this stuff, but when a team is able to have a game on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/Watch ESPN/Fox/FS1/NBC/NBC Sports/CBS/CBS Sports Net/[other channels I am missing], I’m inclined to think that we can be a little more flexible on stuff like this.
After the Penn State vs. Michigan game ended, my friends and I walked to Taco Bell. We got there around 10:30 p.m. The line was so long that we waited 45 minutes to order our food and another 45 for it to get made and served to us. It was the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. Night games are weird like that.
Early Slate
FRONT AND CENTER
Noon: West Virginia at Texas Tech, FS1
Oh, look, two of Mike Leach’s regular sized adult sons are coaching against each other. This is going to be bonkers. I won’t even try to talk about defense all that much outside of “neither defense is especially great so both teams will put up points on points on points.”
Texas Tech’s strategy for success has essentially been, to the surprise of no one, “we have Patrick Mahomes and the other team doesn’t so we’ll have him throw the ball a lot.” Mahomes is among the best passers in college football, and through five games, he’s thrown for 2,274 yards, 20 touchdowns, and four interceptions. He’s also completing nearly 73 percent of his passes because he’s awesome. The Red Raiders have a number of dynamic options at receiver, but the two most productive players have been Jonathan Giles (35 catches, 614 yards, seven touchdowns, 17.5 yards per catch) and Cameron Batson (28 catches, 341 yards, five touchdowns).
On the other side of the ball, West Virginia is one of the biggest surprises in all of college football. At 4-0 with wins over three Power 5 teams, the Mountaineers have jumped to 18th in the Coaches’ Poll and 20th in the AP Poll. Dana Holgorsen needed a big year to save his job, and while the rest of the schedule gets pretty tough pretty quickly for West Virginia, a 7-5 or 8-4 season would go a long way to helping Holgo get another year in Morgantown.
Skyler Howard hasn’t been as productive as Mahomes, but he’s been fine outside of the one interception he has thrown in every game so far this season. It helps that he has a trio of receivers – Daikiel Shorts Jr., Ka’Raun White, and Shelton Gibson – who have been productive, as all are averaging at least 12 yards per catch this season (Gibson has been especially awesome by this metric, going for 24.1 YPC). Plus the Mountaineers have a solid running game behind Justin Crawford and Russel Shell III.
This game will come down to one of two things: 1) Which quarterback plays better or, 2) Which defense is able to get one big stop at the end of the game? It’d be something to behold if a West Virginia vs. Texas Tech game came down to one stop.
SECOND SCREEN SPECIAL
Noon: N.C. State at Clemson, ABC
Noon: Kansas State at Oklahoma, ESPN
Clemson should beat N.C. State, although the Wolfpack are a solid squad with two wonderful players on offense in RB Matthew Dayes and TE Jaylen Samuels, along with a pair of scary defensive ends in Bradley Chubb and Kentavius Street. But my vice is dumb, silly football, and my goodness did we get that last week when N.C. State beat Notre Dame 10-3 in a hurricane. It was a terrible, terrible football game that probably should have been rescheduled, and the yards per play numbers for both teams need to be in a museum.
Heading to Norman, this seems like a game that Kansas State just manages to win for no reason, no? Oklahoma could very well wipe the floor with them, but Bill Snyder is usually good for one game a year where his team GRITS and HEARTS a four-point win over a team that is far more talented but underachieves. This may not be a game to watch, per se, but it could be one that you check in on periodically just in case the Wildcats make this interesting.
Dog Day Afternoon
FRONT AND CENTER
3:30 p.m.: Alabama at Tennessee, CBS
God bless Tennessee fans. So far, the Vols have struggled to put away Appalachian State, came back from a halftime deficit to truck Florida, beat Georgia in a game that made no sense, and lost a close game to Texas A&M. How any Tennessee fans are alive right now is beyond me.
For all of those games, though, this is unquestionably the most important Tennessee game of the year: at home, against an Alabama that has looked unreal all year, with a chance to establish themselves as a great SEC team. There’s always a perception that the SEC East is way easier than the West, and there’s no better way to show that you’re among the best teams in the conference by knocking off the best team from the West.
Of course, that best team is the best team in America, which has played exactly one game with a margin of victory less than 19 points, and that was on the road against Ole Miss. The Crimson Tide will not be rattled in any way, shape, or form, mostly because Nick Saban does not believe in getting rattled.
Watch the chess match between Volunteers QB Joshua Dobbs (who fluctuates from “this guy isn’t great” to “oh my god give him the Heisman” based on, well, I don’t know) and Alabama DB Minkah Fitzpatrick, who is a monster and is capable of taking the entire side of the field he’s on away from opposing quarterbacks. Also watching Jalen Hurd (who should be back this week after sitting out with an injury) and Alvin Kamara, Tennessee’s dynamic running back duo, collide with Crimson Tide LBs Reuben Foster and Shaun Dion Hamilton will be fun.
SECOND SCREEN SPECIAL
3:30 p.m.: Western Michigan at Akron, CBS Sports Net
The afternoon slate on Saturday is actually pretty solid – we have games like Wake Forest at Florida State, Nebraska at Indiana, North Carolina at Miami, and a few other matchups worth watching. But I implore you to not watch a second of those games, if you have the opportunity to watch a second football game.
Instead, watch Western Michigan. You have invariably heard of them right now, but treat yourself to watching the Broncos as they go on the road to take on a solid Akron Team. Western Michigan has more Power 5 wins (2) than Notre Dame (1) and UCLA (1). Of course, easier schedule, but still, P.J. Fleck’s merry band of boat rowers got a close win at Northwestern, a comfy win at Illinois, and four other wins by comfy to massive margins.
Western Michigan runs the ball well. QB Zach Terrell has been fantastic this year, completing nearly 71 percent of his passes and throwing 15 touchdowns with no interceptions. WR Corey Davis is going to be drafted really early next year. The defense has had some issues – it is 94th in defensive S&P+ – and Akron’s offense is nothing to scoff at, so this game has some chaos potential. Watch it. Row the boat.
Under the Lights
FRONT AND CENTER
8:00 p.m.: Ohio State at Wisconsin, ABC
It’s amazing how quickly we can go from “this team is doomed” to “this team is really good” in college football. This year’s best example of this is Wisconsin. Prior to the season, some people thought the Badgers would struggle to make a bowl due to a minor down year and a schedule that seemed more difficult than most.
Instead, Wisconsin is quite possibly the third-best team in the Big Ten and could make it to the Rose Bowl if it only loses one more game. That one game should probably come this weekend when it hosts Ohio State.
On the topic of the Buckeyes, they’re kind of another team that went from “gonna be a rough year” to “this team is amazing.” You wouldn’t have been off-base to start the year to wonder if replacing basically every draft-eligible player from last year would hurt Urban Meyer’s squad, but so far, you can make a really convincing case that Ohio State is the best team in America.
It’s easy to point to Ohio State walking into Oklahoma and obliterating the Sooners as proof that the Buckeyes won’t be phased at all by Camp Randall, but with how good Wisconsin is defensively, J.T. Barrett is going to need to have a big game. The Badgers, meanwhile, need to run the ball more effectively – of their five players with double-digit rushes, only one of them is averaging more than 4.7 yards per carry.
SECOND SCREEN SPECIAL
7:00 p.m.: Ole Miss at Arkansas, ESPN
7:30 p.m.: Stanford at Notre Dame, NBC
Ole Miss and Arkansas are both very good teams that are only relegated to the undercard because Ohio State vs. Wisconsin is going to rock. The Razorbacks lost at home last week to Alabama, so this has the potential to be a big bounce back game against a Rebels squad that has scored at least 43 points in each of its last three games. It seems like Ole Miss will have Chad Kelly, who has not gotten into any trouble for the bizarre incident involving his brother’s high school football game last week. Kelly and Arkansas signal caller Austin Allen are two of the very best quarterbacks in the SEC, and both of these defenses have gotten carved up this season by teams with good quarterback play, so this could turn into a shootout.
Both Stanford and Notre Dame really need wins. Neither squad is ranked even though both of them began the season in the preseason top-10 and had national title aspirations. The Fighting Irish probably need a win more, because with a loss, they will fall to 2-5 and the people calling for Brian Kelly’s head will get even louder. The Cardinal would fall to 3-3 with a loss, which wouldn’t be great, but nobody would be in jeopardy of getting fired for that.
The Late Show
FRONT AND CENTER
10:15 p.m.: Colorado State at Boise State, ESPN2
This is usually the spot where I tell you to watch some bonkers Pac-12 game, but Boise State, to the surprise of no one, may end up being pretty good. Colorado State, on the other hand, isn’t all that great, so you should tune in if you want to watch the Broncos carve up another opponent.
Per S&P+, Colorado State has the No. 113 defense in college football. Said defense has to go up against the latest Boise star quarterback, Brett Rypien, who is all sorts of awesome. Last week, he threw for five touchdowns and nearly 400 yards with no interceptions against New Mexico. A sophomore, he’s probably going to end up re-writing the Boise State record book by the time he graduates, so get in on the fun now.
And on defense, Boise’s got this defensive end named Sam McCaskill who is probably in the process of sacking a quarterback as you read this. He has 9.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, and four pass break-ups this early in the season. He and NT David Moa (six TFLs, 5.5 sacks) are going to eat quarterbacks all year.
SECOND SCREEN SPECIAL
10:30 p.m.: UCLA at Washington State, ESPN
I’m done trying to figure out what either of these teams will do. UCLA is probably not as good as we thought heading into this year. Washington State beat Stanford by 26 last week. Hope this game turns into Cougars QB Luke Falk raising as much hell as possible and Josh Rosen trying to respond.
