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Big 12 play begins in week three but an in-state battle highlights this week’s conference picks.
This week in the Big 12, there are some really intriguing matchups.
There are four in-state contests taking place, two Big 12-SEC matchups, the renewal of the Backyard Brawl, a border rivalry game, and two Big 12 squads looking to pick up their first wins of the season.
How have we done through the first two weeks of the season? Well, after a rough week one, we rallied in week two.
Get ready for Saturday with this week’s Big 12 predictions.
Texas Longhorns beat Alabama Crimson Tide and Big 12 goes 1-2 vs. Pac-12. Who’s on the move in this week’s Big 12 Power Rankings?
Week 2 had several fantastic matchups. Three Big 12 teams played Pac-12 opponents. The Texas Longhorns provided an SEC preview in its win over Alabama.
Big 12 teams matched up with the Pac-12, Big Ten, ACC and SEC on Saturday, providing an intriguing group of games for fans to dive into. The conference went 10-4.
Here are this week’s Big 12 power rankings after Week 2.
West Virginia renews its rivalry with Pittsburgh.
The Big 12 begins nonconference play with two games on Thursday. Oklahoma State faces off against Central Michigan while West Virginia renews its rivalry with Pittsburgh.
The Backyard Brawl will feature two teams with highly touted transfer quarterbacks. Kedon Slovis takes over for Pittsburgh after a boom-and-bust career at USC. Slovis had an otherworldly freshman season, completing over 71% of his passes with 30 touchdowns and 3,502 yards. He regressed statistically over the next two seasons.
West Virginia brings in another former USC Trojans quarterback, JT Daniels. Daniels joins the Mountaineers after a short stay with the Georgia Bulldogs.
Elsewhere, Oklahoma State faces Central Michigan. In their last meeting, Central Michigan won on a Hail Mary attempt and improvisational lateral, scoring as time expired.
Let’s examine what Texas can take away from the two early games.
The Big 12 could secure its future by becoming the top basketball conference.
The Big 12 is well on its way to becoming the next super conference in college football. Continue reading “What the Big 12 could look like if it expanded to 20 teams”
Pitt football schedule. The 2022 schedule with 3 things to know
Pitt football schedule 2022: Who does Pitt miss on the ACC schedule and what are 3 things to know?
2022 College Football Schedules: All 131 Teams
The Panthers couldn’t ask for a bigger break than to play Louisville and Syracuse from the Atlantic. Not to program shame, but those two aren’t Clemson and NC State this year, and not getting Wake Forest or Florida State isn’t a bad deal, either.
In the Coastal, the two really big games that should matter against Miami and North Carolina are both on the road. To make things worse …
It’s about as imbalanced a schedule as it gets with five of the first six games at home and four of the last six on the road. There’s a battle with West Virginia to kick things off followed by a date with Tennessee. Get through those two, and the rematch of last year’s loss to Western Michigan – in Kalamazoo this time – should be gravy.
However, there’s a week off right in the middle of the season before closing with everything on the road except Syracuse and Duke. Not getting Miami up in Pittsburgh in late November hurts.
It’s not all that bad, but throw in the road game against Virginia and just winning the division is going to be a bigger fight considering all the key games appear to be on the road.
Again, not facing Clemson or NC State is a big help, and the team should be battle-tested after an interesting September, but that’s one rough finishing kick with all the time away from Heinz.
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How has Notre Dame fared all-time against each member of the ACC? We’ve updated the numbers.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, if you consider yourself a Notre Dame football fan in even the smallest amount you’ve likely heard that the 2020 football season saw Notre Dame play an ACC schedule.
That got me wondering what kind of success Notre Dame has had against ACC foes. Some have had long histories of playing the Irish while others only really came into the picture since Notre Dame’s “friends with benefits” deal went down just over a half-decade ago.
So how has Notre Dame fared against everyone in the ACC and who won the most recent match-ups?
Breaking down and analyzing the 2021 Pitt Panthers football schedule with the best and worst case scenarios.
Breaking down and analyzing the 2021 Pitt Panthers football schedule with the best and worst case scenarios.
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Full schedule analysis with best and worst scenarios below
Games vs. The Atlantic: Clemson, at Syracuse
Missed Teams From The Atlantic: Boston College, Florida State, Louisville, NC State, Wake Forest
Pitt Panthers Football Schedule Analysis: The good: most of the key games are at home with North Carolina coming in on a Thursday night, Miami in on Halloween weekend, and with Virginia and Clemson in Heinz, too. There’s a good run of four home games in five wrapped around a winnable game at Duke, and with a trip to Syracuse to close.
The bad: Clemson. The Panthers have to play that team from the Atlantic. Dealing with Virginia Tech on the road isn’t all that fun, either, and going to Tennessee will be a key early test.
Pitt Panthers Football Schedule Best Case Scenario: 9-3. It’s not a bad schedule if the Panthers can beat Tennessee. Do that, and it’s a 4-0 start before going to Georgia Tech for a winnable game. Win at Duke and Syracuse, come up with a few good home victories, and it’ll be a great season.
Pitt Panthers Football Schedule Worst Case Scenario: 5-7. It would take a total flop to not have a winning season, but it’s possible. Lose at Tennessee, don’t get at least two of the road wins against Georgia Tech, Duke and Syracuse, and there’s a possible problem. Even at home beating Miami, North Carolina and/or Virginia – much less Clemson – isn’t a given.
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Patrick Jones II is an impressive talent that will be an intriguing player to watch at the NFL level.
The Arizona Cardinals are coming off of a loss last week to the Seattle Seahawks that came down to the wire on Thursday Night Football. Going into Week 12, the Cardinals have the 19th-ranked defense in the NFL.
With the absence of Chandler Jones, we have seen flashes of their trade deadline acquisition Markus Golden. However, the future of this position is still in question. The Cardinals’ pass rush win rate is just 44% while their run stop rate is 29%. They will need a player to boost their edge-rushing corps for next season and their future. One perfect fit would be Pitt standout Patrick Jones II.
The Pitt Panthers had a lot of excitement on their defense with guys like Paris Ford and Jaylen Twyman, who opted out of the season, and Patrick Jones II, who has been nothing short of impressive this season and it sometimes goes unnoticed. He is lengthy and has the perfect body frame to be a productive player at the NFL level. Jones has been efficient on the inside, but he excels as a pass rusher. He is explosive off the ball and is very active with his hands. Last season, Jones recorded 43 tackles, 12 for loss, and eight sacks, earning Second Team All-ACC. This season, he has 34 total tackles and is second in the nation with eight sacks through nine games. He screams consistency and, with the opt outs of Ford and Twyman, Jones has become the leader of that Panthers defense and has gained even more of the spotlight than he already had. Jones would be the perfect player to complement Chandler Jones for the future of the Arizona Cardinals. He will be an intriguing player to watch come April, as his draft stock continues to rise.
Jones has been consistent throughout the majority of his career as a Pitt Panther. However, unlike other edge rushers like Michigan Edge rusher Kwity Paye or even Penn State edge rusher Jayson Oweh, Jones does not necessarily play with a high motor at times. There are some plays where he is so explosive off the ball and violent with his hands. However, there are other plays where Jones will play too high and lose all of his intensity and leverage he needs to win his one-on-one battles. Patrick Jones II is far from a project. But, this will be something to watch closely at the next level, and what better player to learn from than Cardinals two-time All-Pro edge rusher Chandler Jones.
Patrick Jones II is an impressive talent that will be an intriguing player to watch at the NFL level. He has high upside and has the length and body frame to be a successful NFL edge rusher. His motor, or ability to play at a high level at times, can be concerning and he does have room to grow. However, with his draft stock continuing to rise, he could be a nice fit for the Cardinals’ edge-rushing corps that is in question and would benefit greatly from learning behind one of the best edge rushers in the game in Chandler Jones.
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Notre Dame football returns in 68 days! Don’t miss today’s countdown as we look back on a rivalry that has been played, well, 68 times.
Another day down and just 68 more to go until we get Notre Dame football officially back in our lives. We’ll be breaking down plenty of position battles, starting spots and everything regarding the 2020 Fighting Irish football team.
Day 69 looked back at a recent Notre Dame All-American who made a game changing defensive play in a win over a then top-fifteen team. Now we move to 68 and an opponent who has come up here fairly often in recent weeks.
68: Total meetings all-time between Notre Dame and Pitt in football
I never think of Pitt as one of Notre Dame’s biggest rivals, probably because in my lifetime I can count on one hand how many times the Panthers have finished a season ranked in the top 25.
However, Notre Dame and Pitt have been playing nearly forever and the series has included some incredible moments even if the Panthers haven’t been a national championship contender like they were in the Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett days.
Notre Dame has dominated those 68 games, winning 47 of them and never losing more than three straight meetings in any point of the series that dates back all the way to 1930.
The series has had plenty of memorable moments, like when Allen Pinkett helped Notre Dame get a win at No. 1 Pitt in 1982, the 2012 comeback win that somehow kept Notre Dame’s unbeaten season alive or the 2018 thriller that again, somehow kept Notre Dame’s unbeaten season alive.
The most iconic moment in the history of this rivalry however may have happened when a pair of teams who finished the year a combined 16-10, battled to a three overtime game on the first day of November in 2008.
After blowing a 17-3 and being forced to overtime, Notre Dame played host to one of the more embarrassing moments for a grounds crew in sports history.
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The only thing worse was eventually losing that game and stumbling to a 7-6 final record after a promising 4-1 start.
They may not be on the schedule even close to annually anymore and they may not be in the national championship picture often, but the Notre Dame/Pitt rivalry continues to provide memorable moments all these years later and is the game that scares me the most in terms of an upset entering the 2020 season.
Will Notre Dame be playing schedule games in NFL venues in 2020? Brian Kelly spoke to Mike Tirico about potentially changing that Tuesday.
For playing a plenty respectable schedule in 2020, Notre Dame has a very kind set of games in terms of where they’re played.
Sure they have to play Wisconsin who is almost always in the top 15, but they get them at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers instead of at Camp Randall in Madison.
Wake Forest doesn’t present the most difficult of places to play but the Irish are slated to play the Demon Deacons in Charlotte, home to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers instead.
And the meeting with Georgia Tech on Masters weekend is currently set to be played in the Atlanta Falcons stadium, not on Georgia Tech’s campus.
That only helps things for Notre Dame in terms of the of the likelihood of a victory in each of those games by not having to go play a true road game.
But it all might be changing according to Brian Kelly, who spoke on Mike Tirico’s new show on NBCSN Tuesday.
Brian Kelly, on Mike Tirico’s show, says that Notre Dame is exploring moving games from NFL stadiums back on campus.
He references games against Wisconsin, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh.
Moving Wisconsin to campus would mean Notre Dame, for what it’s worth.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) June 9, 2020
The one thing worth mentioning there is that Pitt does not have a stadium on their campus as they play at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Wisconsin would then come to Notre Dame Stadium as well since it is technically a Notre Dame home game in the Shamrock Series.
I can’t at all get upset about any of it. One, the Badgers having to come to Notre Dame Stadium, even if the crowd is nowhere near capacity only does Notre Dame favors.
College football is made to be played on campus, though. I know some of those in Georgia and Florida or Oklahoma and Texas will discuss how great their rivalries are when they’re played annually on neutral fields, but is there anything better than a football Saturday in the fall on your favorite college campus?
As cool as it is for teenagers to get to play in NFL venues and as much as Notre Dame promotes doing so, there is nothing like college football being played on campus and not in neutral or watered down professional stadiums.
Some might get upset because Notre Dame doesn’t play as many games in NFL venues but to me, this would be more how college football is meant to be played.
