Week 3 Picks: 24-Game Slate Includes the Season-Opener for 13 Teams

September 14, 2020 by Staff

Week 3 of the college football season has a slate of 24 games on tap, featuring the season opener for 13 teams including the matchups of Tulsa at Oklahoma State, and Houston at Baylor.

The other 9 teams taking to the field for the first time this week are Boston College Central Florida, Cincinnati, FAU. Georgia State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, NC State and Troy.

As we've seen over for the first two weeks, schedule cancelations and changes are a distinct possibility. As we write this, Army West Point has taken to Twitter to try to find an opponent for this weekend after BYU had to bail-out on its trip to West Point due to Covid issues.

SEC teams are scheduled to begin next week.

The ESPN College GameDay crew will be in Louisville for the ACC clash between the Cardinals and 'Canes, both if whom are 1-0. If you want to be a part of the broadcast, visit collegegameday,.com. As of Monday morning,there was an online form to fill out that could make you part of the "crowd" watching from home.

This week, the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com has 3 outright upsets with homestanding Georgia Southern favored over FAU, UL-Monroe over Texas State, and visiting Wake Forest over N.C. State.

Georgia Southern eked out a 27-26 win over FCS member Campbell last week, despite missing 33 players who were either covid-positive, traced to a covid infection, or in some form violated team rules. That list of inactive players included 7 starters. The game against the Owls this weeks marks the head coaching debut of Willie Taggart who was hired to replace Lane Kiffin when Kiffin was hired at Ole Miss.

Taggart has been bouncing in and out of jobs since leading USF to a 10-2 record in 2016. That drew the attention of Oregon where he stayed for just one season and led the Ducks to a 7-5 campaign. But Florida State came calling when Jimbo Fisher redesigned so Taggart headed to Tallahassee where a pumped-up fan base became quickly deflated as the on-field results sank to records of 5-7 in 2018, and 4-5 before in 2019 before he was abruptly fired.

Speaking of head coaching changes, Southern Miss will return to the battlefield under interim head coach Scotty Walden. The school parted ways with Jay Hopson after an opening-day  32-21 loss at home to South Alabama on September 3. The Golden Eagles host Louisiana Tech on Saturday.

Oklahoma State is seen as a legitimate contender for the Big 12 title this season, along with Texas and front-runner Oklahoma. The Cowboys are 29.98-point computer favorites in Stillwater to beat the visiting Golden Hurricane for the 8th straight time.

This week's slate kicks off on Friday when Coastal Carolina hosts FCS member Campbell. It will be a meeting between the team that scored its second straight upset of Kansas in Lawrence (Coastal Carolina) against the team that fell short by a missed 2-point conversion at Georgia Southern.

See: Weekly Picks.

FCS vs. FBS

29 FBS teams will play a total of 33 games against FCS schools this season. Army has 3 such games on its schedule.

Six teams are playing FCS schools this week - Arkansas State, Cincinnati, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, UTEP and UTSA. This will be UTEP's second game this season against a FCS program. The Miners ended an 11-game losing streak with an opening day win over Stephen F Austin on September 5.

So far this season, the FBS schools are 10-0 in such matchups.

That makes the FBS teams 1,439-127 (.919) since we began tracking this in 2003.

Last year, FBS teams were 111-3 (.974) in such games.

These were the FCS wins vs. the FBS in the previous 2 seasons:

2019:
August 29: Central Arkansas 35, Western Kentucky 28
September 7: Southern Illinois 45, Massachusetts 20
September 14: The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24 (OT)

2018:
August 29: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 31
September 1: Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: Nicholls State 26, Kansas 23 (OT)
September 2: North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19

Streaks

CLEMSON - Won 30 straight regular season games (FBS longest) games. Won 22 straight conference games (FBS longest). Won 22 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 13 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 37-13 at Wake Forest on Saturday, September 12.
Next: Hosts FCS member The Citadel on Saturday, September 19

LSU - 16-game over-all winning streak (FBS longest).
Last: Won 42-25 over Clemson in the national championship game in New Orleans on January 13.
Next: Season opener at home vs. Mississippi State on September 26.

ARKANSAS - Lost 19 straight conference games, 9 straight road games, and 9 straight overall. All of those streaks are the current FBS longest among teams playing this Fall season.
Last: Lost 24-14 at home to Missouri on November 29, 2019.
Next: Season opener at home vs. Georgia on September 26.

UTEP - Lost 15 straight to FBS schools.
Last: Lost 59-3 at Texas on Saturday September 12.
Next: Hosts FCS member Abilene Christian on Saturday, September 19.

Streaks (Involving teams NOT playing this fall, but longer than those above)

RUTGERS - Lost 21 straight conference games (FBS longest). Lost 13 straight road games (FBS longest)
Last: Lost 27-6 at Penn State on November 30, 2019.
Next: Rutgers, and all of the Big Ten, is sitting out the Fall season.

AKRON - Lost 17 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 8 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 52-3 at home to Ohio on November 26, 2019.
Next: Akron, and all of the MAC, is sitting out the fall season.

UCONN - Lost 19 straight conference games.
Last: Lost 49-17 at Temple on November 30, 2019.
Next: UConn, which left the American Conference at the end of last season and became an Independent, is sitting out the Fall season.