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Back in 2009 Michigan St. lost to Central Michigan after conceding 10 points in the last 32 seconds. To date this is the only loss for coach Dantonio in his East Lansing tenure to an unranked opponent. Now Spartans are #2 in the country and this is their last test before the start of league play next week. They are +17 at the halftime in 2015 while the Chippewas are -18 in two games against FBS opponents. And Michigan St. is by far the strongest they will face the whole year.

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Bookies think highly of the Michigan defense that allowed 14 combined in the last weeks. However it's worth noting that both their opponents Oregon St. (118th) and UNLV (127th) are ranked at the bottom in all offensive categories. At the same time BYU faced two ranked teams and played Nebraska in their home opener and every time managed to score at least 23 points. Cougars have topped the 17 total in their last 15 games and I hope the streak is in no jeopardy.

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The biggest mystery surrounding this game is will Kevin Hogan play at all? Stanford QB suffered a sprained ankle last Saturday in the win at USC and has practiced only once since. If he's not ready to go it will be either Ryan Burns or Keller Chryst under center and they have thrown three passes combined. If Hogan is good to go I suspect Stanford will turn to their ball control conservative pro style offense and will not allow him to move him much outside the pocket. In any case the Cardinal will take a step back from last week's look.
It's not exactly a trap game for Stanford as Oregon St. are limited offensively. But since the beginning of the century Stanford has beaten the Beavers by double digit margin in Corvalis only once - 38:13 in 2011. But back then they had Andrew Luck and not Kevin Hogan as a QB.

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Memphis are fifth in the country in scoring (54.0 PPG), 8th in yards (570.s YPG), and 14th in rushing (251.0 YPG). And they are facing a team that is allowing 330 YPG despite facing less than stellar competition so far (Miami Oh despite having 3 wins combined in the last three seasons ran for 220 yards last Saturday). Cincinnati has four sacks total in 2015, one forced fumble and two INTs and their captain Adrian Witty is out for the year with a broken ankle.
Last year Memphis beat the Bearcats 41-14 away from home and they weren't that good on offense as they are now.

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Arian Foster is out yet again and the bulk of carries will belong to Alfred Blue. He averaged 4.7 y/a last week against KC but as Houston were forced to abandon the run relatively early he finished with just 42 yards. This week Blue should benefit from the absence of LB Like Kuechly and also one of Panthers' main run stoppers (DT Star Lotulelei) has been limited in practice the whole week.
I think this should be a low scoring affair. Both teams will try to avoid turnovers and with Ryan Mallet making his first start of the season Texans may be a little conservative with their game plan. Which will mean less throwing and more running.

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DeMarco Murray is facing his old team. The way he was let go there will be some blood today. And Chip Kelly will give him a chance to stick to it his old bosses. Moreover: Murray had only 9 yards rushing and 11 receiving on Monday but still managed to find the endzone twice. There's no doubt who the Eagles' featured back in short yardage situation is.

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Since the beginning of 2013 season Cincinnati have been ahead in 13 home games, tied twice and trailing only twice. And they are facing an opponent that led through two quarters only once in its last 10 away games. Keep in mind also that teams from California are usually having problems playing at 1PM on the East Coast.

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USC have big goals this season and they big wins to reach them. Trojans are in a two-game winning streak against Stanford who fade further with every year Jim Harbaugh is away from the program. Cardinal lost at Northwestern and needed a flea-flicker trick to finally end the TD drought. They have a relatively young defense and this will not bode well against a full of veterans USC offense. In bot their games so far Trojans were excellent before halftime and backed off in the third quarter. I hope they do something similar today.

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Usually at this time of the year fans in Iowa City are calling for Kirk Ferentz's head. It's not the case this season though as Hawkeyes beat convincingly Illiinois St. and Iowa St.
Pittsburgh lost starting RB James Conner and with the uncertainty at QB it's hard to see where will the points come from.
Iowa and Pittsburgh played three times since 2008 with Iowa winning two of them. Combined difference of wins? 8 points.

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I hate to bet on SEC games but after Auburn looked so bad against FCS Jacksonville St. last week I can't resist. LSU escaped with a two-point win the visit at Mississippi St. and hasn't lost at home to Auburn since the beginning of the century. And since the game with McNeese St. was called off due to lightning this is the first time in 2015 the Tigers will play in front of their fans. Which will turn Tiger Stadium into a living hell.

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After dodging the bullet last night I'll take a chance on the first FSU test in ACC. Seminoles put up 14 in the first quarter against Texas St. and 7 a week ago against USF. They weren't remotely impressive against the Bulls but this was a 11.30 kick-off and they looked asleep. With a 8 PM kick-off tonight I don't see such problems.
BC had played two FCS schools so far (two wins with a 100-3 combined score) and this is their first clash with real football. And they will need time to adjust to the physical aspects of the higher competition. Eagles are playing FSU tight in the last few years but the wild card today should be Everett Golson. He finished 16-of-24 for 200 yards, passed for 2 TDs and added one on the ground as a member of Notre Dame in the midst of their national title game run in 2012.

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With the way Niners' OL looks these days (especially on the right side) Kaep will have to run a lot for his life today. Jordan Devey will start as a guard less than a month after being acquired from New England and Erik Pears is penciled to be the starting tackle. Ninners tried to make Kaep a traditional pocket passer last season before taking the shackles off towards the end and he responded with a 90 y/g average in December and January.

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For the second time in Chip Kelly era Eagles are selected to play the Monday Night opener. The reason? Points are guaranteed. They scored 33 against Washington in 2013 and 34 against Jacksonville in Week 1 last year. Eagles are fresh, ready for the quick tempo and they have probably the best return unit in the league. Which may give them some short fields to play with and possibly a TD or two.

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Carson Palmer is back after missing the second half of the last season with a torn ACL. But the main reason for the pick is the demise of New Orleans. The Saints traded Drew Brees' favorite weapon (TE Jimmy Graham) and left him with next to nothing to operate. And on defensive side they will miss two key parts of the secondary today - CB Keenan Lewis (hip) and SS Jairus Byrd were both ruled out.

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The line went through the roof climbing 10% in a matter of minutes. I don't like the Chargers at all this season. They are eyeing a move to LA, won't have TE Antonio Gates for the first month of the season and the running game is suspect. Melvin Gordon had a great NCAA career but no Wisconsin RB had made a great impact in NFL.
Lions made some necessary and some unnecessary changes on the DL front and strengthen the RB corpses with the rookie Ameer Abdullah. I think they may be the class of NFC North this year and they need to prove it today.

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Picking Tennessee on the road? No way even after Marcus Mariota's good performance in the preseason. Titans do not have a reliable offensive line and one of the few bright spots on otherwise terrible TB team last year was the defense. Not to mention that Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson will now have a much better QB to throw to them.

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I was impressed by UTEP last week as they were able to score 13 points against one of the better defenses in NCAA Arkansas. Texas Tech usually don't play much defense and I expect the Miners to top 13 today. The biggest problem for UTEP however is their secondary - the youngest in NCAA with three freshmen and they have to face the Pat Mahomes (425 yards, 4 TDs last week) air show. Good luck surviving.

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Two teams with excellent QBs that may very well turn the game into a shootout. Brandon Doughty (WKentucky) led the NCAA is passing yards and TDs last year while Jeff Driskel (LTech) transferred from Florida and completed 12 of 15 passes for 274 yards and 4 TDs in his debut last week against Southern. Western Kentucky were disappointed on offense last week against Vanderbilt finishing 30 points bellow their average (44) but on home soil they have a good chance to get back on track.

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The line is climbing steadily and I'm not sure how long these odds will last so get them fast.
It was expected that this will be a year of turnaround for Connecticut and they started with a win over one of the best FCS teams. A heroic defensive performance ensured the 20:15 win over Villanova and brought hope to the Huskies. They limited Villanova to 3.2 y/a and are facing one of the few offenses in NCAA that implement triple option. Bob Diaco had great success against Navy as a Notre Dame defensive coordinator defending the option and Navy at least throw the ball sometimes to keep the opponents honest. Only 12 teams threw for less yards than Army last week even though they were playing FCS Fordham!

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New Mexico State won five games in the last three seasons combined. And three of them were against FCS opponents. They started 2-0 in 2014 only to lose 10 games in a row. Aggies were picked by Florida as an opponent to start the Jim McElwain era. His first goal is to revive Gators' passing offense that was ranked 114th, 107th and 104th in passing in the last three seasons. McElwain was head coach of Colorado State and both of his previous stops (Fresno State, Alabama) he engineered high-scoring offenses. One final stat: in 2014 New Mexico State was ranked last in rushing defense and 116th out of 128 teams in total defense.