What to Watch: Week 08 of the 2011 College Football Season

With the exception of three games this weekend (excluding ours of course), there is a whole lot of snooze on...and even saying there are three games worth watching is a pretty big stretch. When you have bottom feeder C-USA games on TV on Thursday, it lets you know that the weekend probably isn't going to be a whole lot better. When scrolling through Saturday's schedule, it's incredible how many games are between teams with losing records or between .500 teams or huge mismatches of 6-1 against 1-6, etc. Truly, truly awful stuff. As always, all times listed are central and rankings are those of the BCS.

JACKSONVILLE STATE at KENTUCKY - 11:00 a.m. - ESPNU

Sure, there's probably something on that would rate a bit higher, but Kentucky is so very awful that I'm sincerely and morbidly curious to see if Jacksonville State can take down the dregs of the SEC two years in a row. It'll be interesting to see when Ole Miss and Kentucky meet up in two weeks to see what a farce of a display they'll put on. It's the best chance there will ever be for negative points to be scored in a game.

AUBURN (20) at LSU (1) - 2:30 p.m. - CBS

Despite this being a meeting of two ranked teams, I don't think anyone figures this to be much of a contest. Vegas is still big on LSU as they remain a 3+ TD favorite despite losing starters Tyrann Matthiew and Spencer Ware. Auburn also lacks the home field hoodoo that has served them so well this season (both of their losses have come on the road...though they managed to scrape out a road victory against hapless South Carolina.) Auburn has named Clint Moseley as starter in attempt to kick start their offense which has fizzled out with Barrett Trotter at the helm. I imagine this one's going to be Tigers vs. Paper Tigers when all is said and done.

WISCONSIN (6) at MICHIGAN STATE (16) - 7:00 p.m. - ESPN

Wisconsin has been running through opponents like they're not even there. Granted, they've  played all of one ranked team (Nebraska) until this weekend, but they absolutely smashed them 48-17. Michigan State's only loss is to Notre Dame, so that ought to tell you how steep the dropoff is after the top 7-8 teams. I imagine the Spartans are probably in for a pretty epic beatdown. They beat undefeated Michigan last week, but I doubt they'll play spoiler two weeks in a row. 

TEXAS TECH at OKLAHOMA (3) - 7:00 p.m. - ABC / ESPN-GP / ESPN3

This will probably be a bloodletting of the highest order, but like I said, it's a pretty dismal week for games so here it is. And, hey, who won't enjoy seeing a Wingnut led squad get completely eviscerated? Texas Tech's four wins have come against a horrible slate of teams and they've lost to the only two competent teams they've faced (Kansas State and Texas A&M.) Oklahoma's been on fire lately and will probably be in the driver's seat early for this one.

WASHINGTON (25) at STANFORD (8) - 7:00 p.m. - ABC / ESPN-GP / ESPN3

Stanford has played a whole lot of nobody so far this year (San Jose, Duke, Arizona, UCLA, Colorado, Washington State.) Not many teams get the luxury of six weeks to warm up before facing a ranked team, but such is the luck (no pun intended) in Palo Alto at the moment. Despite the massive gap in ranking, Washington is tied atop the division with Stanford, so this game has big implications in the Pac-12 race. Washington's only loss was on the road to Nebraska where they lost by 13 in a high scoring affair. Washington's also been racking up wins against the dregs of the Pac-12, so this is the first real conference test for both.