TFG: The Bell(e) of the Ball

I would like to apologize for the lack of these posts over the past month or so, life has been very hectic for me lately. It's no excuse but I promise to do better. Moving onto the 2014 season, there's been a lot of good games and great upset wins. Last week, the state of Mississippi were big winners with both state institutions scoring major upset wins. Also it was insane in that upsets shook up the majority of the top 25. Without further ado, here are this week's games to watch.

Texas vs (11) Oklahoma NOON ABC

- The annual showdown between these two Big 12 powers is here. Amidst the Texas State Fair (where literally anything can be fried), Texas and OU do battle in the old Cotton Bowl. Texas has been struggling along in 2014 under new coach Charlie Strong with all the suspensions and subsequent dismissals (NINE have been kicked off), injuries, and new QB problems. However, all is not lost for the Longhorns as their defense has kept them in many games only to see the offense not do much (a familiar refrain for Titans fans). OU is coming off a loss to TCU last week and struggled to put away West Virginia prior to that.

Texas prospects to watch:

1. Cedric Reed DE 6'5 258 Senior

2. Jordan Hicks OLB 6'1 234 Senior

3. Malcolm Brown DT 6'2 320 Junior

Oklahoma prospects to watch:

1. Eric Striker OLB 6'0 220 Junior

2. Daryl Williams OT 6'5 321 RS Senior

(13) Georgia at (23) Missouri NOON CBS

- The Bulldogs will be without their best player in RB Todd Gurley after it was revealed that he allegedly took some benefits for signing autographs among other things such as selling equipment (jerseys, cleats, etc). It's certainly possible that Gurley has played his last down as a Bulldog. He's arguably the best running back prospect this year. Missouri awaits with a terrific pass rushing duo in DE Markus Golden and DE Shane Ray.

Georgia prospects to watch:

1. Ramik Wilson ILB 6'2 232 Senior

2. Jordan Jenkins OLB 6'2 246 Junior

3. Chris Conley WR 6'3 205 Senior

Missouri prospects to watch:

1. Markus Golden 6'3 260 DE RS Senior

2. Shane Ray DE 6'3 245 RS Junior

(2) Auburn at (3) Mississippi State 3:30 PM CBS

- Mississippi State upset Texas A&M last week, who was ranked sixth at the time behind the efforts of their own Heisman candidate in QB Dak Prescott. Auburn blew out a down LSU team at home. Prescott is the presumptive favorite for the Heisman right now because of Gurley's issues, Marcus Mariota's shaky OL, and Jameis Winston's negative public perception. Gus Malzhan has Auburn's offensive machine humming once again after struggling to put away Kansas State a couple of weeks back. Expect a lot of cowbells in this one. College Gameday is in town as well.

Auburn prospects to watch:

1. Reese Dismukes C 6'2 298 Senior

2. Corey Grant RB 5'10 205 Senior

3. Gabe Wright DT 6'3 284 Senior

4. Sammie Coates WR 6'1 201 RS Junior

Mississippi State prospects to watch:

1. Benardrick McKinney ILB 6'5 245 Junior

2. Dak Prescott QB 6'2 230 Senior

(9) TCU at (5) Baylor 3:30 PM ESPN2/ABC

- TCU upset Oklahoma last week in an entertaining 37-33 shootout. Baylor's offense struggled (well by its high powered standards) against a lowly Texas team. It took the Bears a lot of effort just to get to 28 points. One key thing to watch: Baylor QB Bryce Petty has been limited by a back injury and it has showed in his play. TCU is very well coached by Gary Patterson every year it seems. Offensive genius Art Briles vs defensive mastermind Patterson.

(12) Oregon at (18) UCLA 3:30 PM FOX

- Both teams suffered upset losses last week. Oregon lost to Arizona for the second consecutive year and UCLA lost to Utah. The loser of this game is pretty much eliminated from Pac-12 championship contention. Oregon has suffered from significant injuries to every OL position except center. UCLA is relatively healthy on the OL but were never good at protecting Brett Hundley to begin with. A battle of Pac-12 Heisman candidates. Could be the most fun game out of the incredible 3:30 block of games.

Oregon prospects to watch:

1. Marcus Mariota QB 6'4 212 RS Junior

2. Ifo Ekpre-Olomu CB 5'10 185 Senior

3. Hroniss Grasu C 6'3 298 RS Senior

UCLA prospects to watch

1. Brett Hundley QB 6'3 222 RS Junior

2. Eric Kendricks ILB 6'0 228 RS Senior

(3) Ole Miss at (19) Texas A&M 9:00 PM ESPN

- Ok, so let's slow down the Kenny "Trill" Hill hype train a bit. Turns out that the Aggie defense is still not that good enough to make up for Hill's mistakes. Miss State completely dominated A&M last week in all facets of the game. Ole Miss got an impressive win over Alabama (who seem less than enthused in the fact that yes, the SEC is good so you have to show up every week thing) last week. The Rebels errr Bears? are led by a group of sophomores.

Texas A&M prospects to watch:

1. Cedric Ogbuehi OT 6'5 300 RS Senior

2. Javon Harrison OG 6'3 325 RS Senior 

3. Deshazor Everett DB 5'11 188 Senior

Other notable games:

Penn State at Michigan 7 PM ESPN2

- The Fire Brady Hoke watch continues for another week. Why he wasn't immediately fired for what he did last week is beyond me. Hoke put a clearly concussed QB back into a game instead of calling timeout to get someone else ready to go in. The QB (Alec Morris) was so concussed that he literally did not know which direction was which and had to be guided towards the correct sideline. Why is Hoke not fired?

LSU at Florida 7:30 PM SEC Network

- Well someone's offense has to score at some point, right?

(19) East Carolina at South Florida 7 PM ESPNU

- Unlike the aforementioned two teams, ECU knows how to score...a bunch. They put up 70 points on UNC and blew them out by 30. ECU is my favorite "mid major" team to watch.