Most years tOSU drumming OU would hurt us, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.
Stewart Mandel has us in the Cotton Bowl against Nebraska now. Intriguing rmatch.
SI, like ESPN, has us in their top 4 of the power rankings:
4 HOUSTON COUGARS
Houston ran away from Cincinnati with 28 unanswered, fourth-quarter points, benefitting from the return of quarterback Greg Ward Jr. from a shoulder injury and two interceptions returned for touchdowns. The first three quarters were much closer than the final score of 40–16 suggests, as the Bearcats were able to pressure Ward and force him into a pair of interceptions. The Cougars’ defense was stout throughout, though, limiting Cincinnati to 3-of-12 on third downs and 307 total yards.
Previous rank: 6
Record: 3–0
Last week: Beat Cincinnati 40-16
Next week: Saturday at Texas State
And USA Today’s panel that’s supposed to simulate the committee ranks the Coogs 7th and out of the playoffs. Coogs got 3 #4 votes total:
The Playoff Projection panel is based on the College Football Playoff selection committee’s model and includes the WWE Hall of Fame announcer Ross, former FBS coaches Frank Beamer, Tommy Bowden and Rich Brooks, former FBS athletic directors Mike Alden, Bill Byrne and Jim Livengood, and USA TODAY Sports college sports staff members Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder, Eddie Timanus, Daniel Uthman and Dan Wolken. Beamer and Alden joined the panel after retiring last year.
As long as Louisville stays undefeated, we have a spot reserved for us in the top 4. If Louisville and UH are still both undefeated going into their matchup, the media will hype the game as a winner take all game. With OU slipping back to the bottom of the top 25, Louisville’s game against Clemson becomes doubly important.
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Amen.
UL will lose to Clemson. Clemson is much better than FSU. UH may go undefeated, don’t want to jinks them.
Would not like to face Ohio st, too much beef there.
I think it’s cause they all expect us to lose to UL. I bet if we beat UL(and still undefeated) they’ll all change it immediately.
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Yes, beat UL and decent chance we’re in the CFP. I don’t see any conference game tougher than @Cincy (except for maybe the championship game), so we would likely be 13-0; moreover, the Big 12, which OU may yet win (Ohio State would roll any Big 12 team), probably will have a champ with two losses, and it’s very possible the PAC will as well. Stanford plays practically every tough conference game on the road, and Washington and Oregon and UCLA and WSU are likely to beat up on each other.
Having said that, even if we lose to Louisville, we’re odds-on favorites for another conference championship, the Cotton Bowl against a marquee opponent, and possibly two consecutive Top 10 finishes. No way I could complain about that, and frankly, while I think we could play with most anyone, the two that may not fit that most category are Ohio State and Alabama. We’d get more PR in the CFP, but the Cotton against a Nebraska or Michigan or some team of that stature may actually turn out to be a better deal for us.
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UH needs to beat an undefeated Louisville. I think Louisville will beat Clemson at Clemson in a tight close game.
Imagine how big of a game between two undefeated teams that late in the season who aren’t conference foes be.
That would be ESPN’s wet dream. The golden boy (Lamar Jackson) vs a real good undefeated Houston team featuring Greg Ward, another Heisman hopeful.
If that happens, I bet ESPN would hype that game up all week. Hopefully we get what we all couldn’t last year when a undefeated Memphis lost to Navy just before playing UH.
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#1-0 each week- lets not worry about a brainless comment after three weeks of football- interesting The Ohio State beating OU was a big deal- but much in the same with Houston Beating OU its not worth anything. #GoCoogs
Not sure why you think Clemson is a lock to beat UL. Clemson barely beat UL last year. Even A&M had a better game against Auburn than Clemson did this year. Clemson’s defense won’t have an answer for Jackson.
Clemson will have the best defense UL has seen this year. Florida State’s defense is not very good. That said, I don’t know that they’ll be able to slow Jackson down much. I also don’t think UL’s defense will be able to slow Clemson much. I think it will be a high scoring, back and forth game. Should be really fun to watch. I do think UL will win.
Clemson does have a good defense, but it’s not last year’s. They had SEVEN defensive players drafted, including four in the first two rounds.