{"id":3633,"date":"2018-09-21T09:52:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T14:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=3633"},"modified":"2018-09-21T09:52:29","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T14:52:29","slug":"gridironstuds-3-for-3-week-four-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/gridironstuds-3-for-3-week-four-college-football\/","title":{"rendered":"GridironStuds 3-for-3 Week Four College Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

By- Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog<\/strong>
\nTwitter: @GridironStuds<\/strong><\/p>\n

Already a third of the way into the college football regular season and things are beginning to take shape.\u00a0 Last week in this column I was good or bad depending on how you approach college football on Saturday.\u00a0 If you just like to sit on your couch and know who will win the game,\u00a0 then I wasn’t too good for you as I went 1-2 in that regard.\u00a0 If you are one to have “a little action” on the games then I was your man.\u00a0 While I may have not been right straight up about the Auburn vs. LSU game as I thought Auburn would pull it out,\u00a0 I was right in a Las Vegas kind of way as LSU covered the number as an underdog.\u00a0 I was also correct from that standpoint with Ohio St. over TCU.\u00a0 Where I was wrong from every angle was with USC as they fumbled the rock on the road vs. Texas.\u00a0 Let’s see what my fortunes bring this week.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M @ Alabama<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’ve been reading my 5 Big Things column<\/a> each week then you know I have been singing the praises of Nick Saban and Alabama.\u00a0 This could potentially be Nick Saban’s best squad in Tuscaloosa in his twelve years. They have literally crushed all that has stood before them in 2018 including reporters.\u00a0 It’s hard to know where to set the expectations for them each week especially when they go out and handle a conference foe by 55 points last week.\u00a0 Alabama’s biggest opponent is themselves now as they must fight complacency and boredom.\u00a0 I am certain Saban has cracked the whip this week but Texas A&M provides an unexpected challenge.<\/p>\n

After watching Texas A&M vs. Clemson a couple of weeks ago,\u00a0 I came to the conclusion that the Aggies were the team with the best chance of upending the Tide in the West.\u00a0 This thought is purely about matchups.\u00a0 A&M has a nifty quarterback in Kellen Mond and nifty QBs have been one of the few achilles heels for Nick Saban in this Hall of Fame journey at Alabama.\u00a0 On top of that,\u00a0 A&M has a nice stable of wide receivers to attack the only area that has shown any sign of weakness for the Tide and that has been pass coverage.\u00a0 The best thing for A&M is that they get this game now before the Tide secondary has had a chance to mature.\u00a0 Throw into this also that Jimbo Fisher knows a little something about Nick Saban and we might have something.\u00a0 What’s wrong here for A&M is the location of this football game.\u00a0 Were it in College Station,\u00a0 I would give A&M a puncher’s chance but it’s not.\u00a0 So while I feel the game will be closer than the experts predict,\u00a0 I still think Bama remains undefeated.\u00a0 Tide win 42-24.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin @ Iowa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Misery set upon the Badgers last week as they were stunned at home vs. BYU.\u00a0 The Cougars ran the ball with unexpected effectiveness vs. Wisconsin and also found some effective passing to find the endzone three times in the contest.\u00a0 At issue for the Badgers is an inability to stop the run nor get a pass rush when they deploy a five man front.\u00a0 Versus BYU,\u00a0 Wisconsin’s four man front was giving up big plays in the run game.\u00a0 Wisconsin’s lack of pressure on QB’s made life tough for their inexperienced secondary and will continue to do so throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Here’s the fortunate thing for Badger fans,\u00a0 Iowa is not likely to be able to take advantage of any of it.\u00a0 Once again Iowa’s offense anemic.\u00a0 They have failed to impress thus far this season vs. the two quality opponents they have faced.\u00a0 When you lack dynamic skill position players,\u00a0 you need an exceptional offensive line to make things happen and that’s not what I’ve seen from Iowa.\u00a0 Too much penetration on both run and pass plays.\u00a0 While I am not in love with Wisconsin’s defense I think they are good enough to keep the Badgers a step ahead in the contest.\u00a0 If Wisconsin’s front seven can’t put pressure on Hawkeye QB Nate Stanley then Wisconsin is looking at back to back losses but I think they may be able to on account of how poorly Iowa is playing up front.\u00a0 This will be a boring game to watch for those of you in love with points. On account of their motivation off of the loss,\u00a0 I like Wisconsin here 20-14.<\/p>\n

Stanford @ Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember when Oregon was riding high,\u00a0 winning double digit games each year and playing for a national championship?\u00a0 Their biggest fly in the ointment was Stanford and the reason was simple.\u00a0 Stanford was just more physical than Oregon every year.\u00a0 Nothing has changed.\u00a0 It has been a good start to the Mario Cristobal era in Eugene as they are 3-0 but the real test starts now and I’m not sure they are quite ready.\u00a0 What Oregon lacks at the moment are dynamic skill players.\u00a0 Outside of QB Justin Herbert,\u00a0 missing from Oregon are the DeAnthony Thomas, LaMichael James type players that changed the game for the Ducks in their heyday.\u00a0 Without that type player in this contest,\u00a0 Stanford will be able to methodically plot their way to success.<\/p>\n

Stanford does what Stanford does and they are doing it again.\u00a0 The Cardinal are going to play solid defense that makes you earn it down the field and they will pound away at your psyche with their offensive front all game long.\u00a0 USC could not piss a drop vs. the Cardinal a couple of weeks ago and while USC is down right now,\u00a0 holding them to just three points should not be overlooked.\u00a0 Oregon has had some trouble fitting up on run plays defensively and against a Heisman Trophy candidate like Bryce Love,\u00a0 that’s no bueno.\u00a0 Without a game breaker on their side to destroy Stanford’s patient approach,\u00a0 I think Stanford imposes their will on Oregon and gives them their first loss of the year.\u00a0 Stanford wins 28-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By- Chad Wilson – Editor GridironStuds Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds Already a third of the way into the college<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[829],"tags":[719,152,887,891,519,892,889,888,890],"class_list":["post-3633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-football","tag-alabama","tag-college-football","tag-crimson-tide","tag-iowa","tag-oregon","tag-predictions","tag-stanford","tag-texas-am","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}