College football Week 9 preview: Five best games to watch this weekend

Week 9 of the college football season is upon us, and once again, the Big Ten and the SEC are providing some highly anticipated matchups this weekend featuring a handful of powerhouse programs all with the same goal in mind: a spot in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.

Kicking things off Saturday, No. 4 Ohio State is playing host to Nebraska on FOX’s “Big Noon Kickoff.”

The afternoon window is highlighted by No. 1 Oregon taking on No. 20 Illinois and No. 15 Alabama battling No. 21 Missouri. Then, No. 5 Texas hits the road to take on No. 25 Vanderbilt, followed by No. 8 LSU going up against No. 14 Texas A&M.

Here’s more on the top five games to watch this weekend:

Nebraska at No. 4 Ohio State (Noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app)

Can Nebraska turn into Oregon overnight? I doubt it.

It’s not just that Nebraska is going to lose its 27th straight game against a Top 25 opponent. It’s that Nebraska is 0-5 when a win would grant them bowl eligibility in the Matt Rhule era. This is the definition of folding under pressure. 

That’s what Indiana did to the Huskers defense — folded them into a Ric Flair Figure Four with 495 yards, 215 rush yards and 56 points. And in one fell swoop, a defense that many — including Urban Meyer — believed to be elite looks less like Voltron and more like getting zapped by Zarkon.

This is with an offense that has been inconsistent, dithering and incapable of scoring more than 24 points on a program that can make weight. I expect Ohio State to show its power with the strength of the Buckeyes’ empire flowing through its veins and their wrath felt. But it isn’t the first time a Matt Rhule Huskers team got wrecked by a Big Ten title contender.

Michigan stomped a 45-7 mudhole in Nebraska last year and walked it dry. “Last year, it was Michigan, right?” Rhule said Monday. “Then, we rebound from that and get ourselves to 5-3 and just can’t quite get over the hump.” 

A loss to Ohio State puts Nebraska right there at 5-3 with four shots left to earn a spot in the postseason for the first time in eight years. The Buckeyes are a College Football Playoff team, and they need to show that against Nebraska.

You’ve built a roster and a staff to reflect an ambition to not just make the tournament but to do the whole damn thing right here, right now. You’ve spent your bye week reflecting on a one-point loss to the No. 1 team in the sport. Now those very same carpetbaggers look like gentrifying the joint? I say no, sir. 

The Buckeyes are gonna bang through what’s left of their regular season, reload the Benelli and go hunting duck — but they have to start with pummeling the Huskers. In 2020, Ryan Day apologized for not taking a knee in the Buckeyes’ 52-17 hammering of the Huskers. This year he won’t have that luxury. The CFP selection committee desires dominance the rest of the way from a team and schedule like Ohio State. Nebraska just happens to be a level OSU has to clear on the way to the final boss fight.

At issue against Nebraska will be Jim Knowles’ defense. Given the Huskers ranked 90th in scoring offense, 99th in rushing yards and 57th in passing yards, the scoreboard shouldn’t look a lot different for OSU than it did for Indiana last week.

No. 5 Texas at No. 25 Vanderbilt (4:15 p.m. ET)

Vandy is ranked. Vandy is good. Vandy moves. What will Texas do?

In the 2018 national title game, Nick Saban started Jalen Hurts for the less mobile but better deep ball passer in backup Tua Tagovailoa to take advantage of a matchup Alabama believed it could exploit on the perimeter. Spoiler: Alabama won the national title.

In the 2021 edition of OU-Texas, Lincoln Riley pulled seasoned starter Spencer Rattler for more explosive and athletic Caleb Williams when the Sooners were trailing 35-17. Spoiler? That worked too. Oklahoma won the Cotton Bowl, 55-48.

Steve Sarkisian saw that unfold before him in Year 1 at Texas. He probably saw Saban do it first at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where he coordinated the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons in 2018. He probably locked that away and put that move in his back pocket for a moment like the one he was staring at with 4:43 left in the first half of a game where Texas couldn’t move the ball without an armed escort. He pulled his seasoned and talented deep ball passer in Quinn Ewers for the player for the more athletic and explosive playmaker in Arch Manning. Spoiler? It didn’t work.

He went back to Ewers on the depth chart. He gave the Longhorns the best chance to win, and he still does.

No. 20 Illinois at No. 1 Oregon (3:30 p.m. ET)

Oregon is the top team in the country for the first time in 14 years, and Dan Lanning’s response to that was, “Who cares?”

Well, I do, Dan. I rank teams. I ranked yours. I have ranked yours No. 1 for the past two consecutive weeks. But more than that, it’s how we decide who the best team in the country is. And for longer than I’d like to admit, folks like me voting on things as unimportant to you as the number next to your school designation on a score bug was how we used to decide who the best team in the country was. Even though that national title felt as awkward as the idea of a unicorn with two heads walking around on its hindlegs, that’s what we did.

Now, we don’t. Now, it’s about seeding. It’s about you getting pole position at the start of a race. About an extra week of rest for you and yours to get healthy and to do what all great head coaches do at night because they don’t sleep. They scheme. You scheme. You scheme so well that the NCAA was forced to close a loophole you knowingly or unknowingly exploited in a one-point victory against a Buckeyes team aching to get you on a neutral site in just over a month’s time.

But they’ll have to keep up their end — as will your No. 1-ranked Ducks. And this Illinois team might be the best one you face the rest of the way. Penn State is undefeated because they took care of this Illinois team. They won by two touchdowns, and most of us aren’t sold on PSU as one of the three best teams in the sport. The Ducks are favored by 21 and the line keeps going up. 

And Illinois? They’ve been looking forward to Autzen Stadium. The Illini have their name beating up on ranked teams not named Penn State. It’s just them and Tennessee who have beaten three ranked teams this season. They know you’ve beaten exactly one, and who is to say if you didn’t need a little home-cooking to get it done? The Illini haven’t beaten a No. 1-ranked team since 2007, but I guarantee if they win you won’t have ask about who cares that Oregon is ranked No. 1 come Sunday — because it won’t be you.

No. 21 Missouri at No. 15 Alabama (3:30 p.m. ET)

The next time Missouri beats Alabama will be the first time that’s happened since 1975. Normally, I’d lean on Alabama having won the last five it has played against Missouri here and that’d be enough, but backs are against the wall here, and Alabama has been anything but predictable. 

The same team that went up 28-0 against Georgia and knocked them off in a comeback win managed to get anchored down Vanderbilt as the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Alabama can’t afford to lose this game, as it has already lost two games before the month of November for the first time since 2007.

A loss to Missouri not only extinguishes any hope of the Crimson Tide making the CFP, even with it extended to 12 teams, but makes this season a worthwhile one for Mizzou fans who are unfamiliar with beating SEC royalty away from home.

Yes, Mizzou is 6-1, but it has been a rocky road. The Tigers needed to come back a 17-3 deficit last week to beat an Auburn team that looked like the worst in the SEC. They’re 3-0 in one-possession games, but consider their opponents: Boston College, Vandy and Auburn. Not exactly CFP teams. And the Tigers defense has been getting ravaged in SEC play, giving up 28.3 points per game. A Heisman Trophy-worthy performance might be needed from QB Jalen Milroe to win this game, but if Alabama gets a Hyde one, there will be no hiding him.

No. 8 LSU at No. 14 Texas A&M (7:30 p.m. ET)

LSU and Texas A&M make up the last two undefeated SEC teams in league play and will leave one in pole position to clinch a spot in the SEC Championship Game with five matchups left to play.

The Tigers have won their past six games after dropping their season-opener to USC. And they’ve done it behind an outstanding passer in QB Garrett Nussmeier and a defense that knows how to create havoc.

Nussmeier has thrown for at least 300 yards in five of LSU’s seven games this season. At the start of the season, that might’ve been out of necessity. The Tigers lost star tailback John Emery for the season against USC and lacked an elite presence at running back. Then, true freshman Caden Durham emerged, rushing for 101 yards with three touchdowns in LSU’s win at Arkansas. Nussmeier, averaging 317.4 yards per game, continues to be one of the SEC’s two best passers.

Despite losing star linebacker Harold Perkins to a season-ending injury, the LSU defense has created a pass rush capable of punishing opponents. Defensive coordinator Blake Baker’s defense has notched 24.0 sacks this season and is allowing just 15.3 points per game over its past three. EDGE Bradyn Swinson has already collected 7.0 sacks in seven games.

While proving formidable, Texas A&M fans might be quick to point out the home team in this series has won the past seven games in a row. And the 12th Man is real at Kyle Field. QB Conor Weigman hasn’t enjoyed the best season — missing games due to injury — but he has been more than capable of operating Collin Klein’s offense. This is especially true when RBs Le’Veon Moss and Amari Daniels are able to gash a defense. They’ve combined for 1,091 yards from scrimmage with 13 touchdowns. Moss has averaged 107.6 yards from scrimmage and been responsible for eight scores.

The No. 2 rushing offense in the SEC is one reason Aggies head coach Mike Elko is off to the best start by a first-year head coach at Texas A&M since 1917 when Dana X. Bible began the season 6-1. The other reason is that the Aggies don’t give the ball away as much as they take it. Their plus-five turnover margin also ranks No. 2 in the league.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.

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