Written by USA Today Staff at USA Today.com
The USA TODAY Sports college football staff — Paul Myerberg, Lindsay Schnell, George Schroeder, Erick Smith, Eddie Timanus and Dan Wolken — weighs in with some bold predictions for Week 4 of the college football season:
Paul Myerberg
Let’s get really bold: No ranked team will lose to an unranked team and the higher-ranked teams will win the matchups of two ranked teams. That’s actually sort of bold, if you think about it. But it’ll be a weekend with no major upsets. Now watch No. 13 Miami (Fla.) lose at Duke and No. 5 Southern California lose to No. 16 Washington State on Friday night.
Lindsay Schnell
USC won’t just win at Washington State, the Trojans will dominate the Cougars.
This has been a popular upset pick since the Pac-12 schedule came out, and for that exact reason, I’m not buying it. USC has not really lived up to the preseason hype so far, needing overtime to beat unranked Texas and letting unranked Cal hang around for much too long. Washington State, by contrast, leads the Pac-12 in total defense.
And yet, I suspect this will be the breakout game we’ve all been waiting for with Sam Darnold, as he slices and dices the WSU defense and leads the Trojans to a three-touchdown win. Sorry folks, no Pac-12 After Dark action this time around.
George Schroeder
Everybody’s high on Georgia, and with good reason. After a 31-3 victory against Mississippi State, the Bulldogs look like the SEC East’s best team — and just maybe, the kind of team that could contend with Alabama. But hold on. All of that might be correct, and yet Saturday, a Tennessee team in dire need of a victory is going to get one, prompting at least a temporary pause in the Bulldogs’ march to prominence.
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