Week 7 Preview: More Tigers For Florida To Contend With

October 8, 2019 by Dave Congrove

After a big win over Auburn this past Saturday, Florida jumps right back into the fire. But this time, the Gators must leave the friendly confines of "The Swamp" and invade "Death Valley" to take on LSU.

Florida entered the Auburn game as a 3-point home underdog and won 24-13, partly with the help of Auburn's freshman QB Bo Nix's worst game of the season. The Gators won't be able to rely on LSU Senior QB Joe Burrow making the same mistakes. Burrow is second in the nation in yards passing (372.8 per game), 3rd in passer rating (216.16), tied for 2nd in TD passes (22), and has thrown just 3 interceptions.

Early Tuesday morning, most sportsbooks listed the Gators as a 13-1/2-point underdog, while the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com have the Bayou Bengals projected to win by 14.95. The computer spread has barely budged off the preseason prediction that had LSU favored by 15.07.

Indeed, 'Mike the Tiger' should have more bite than 'Aubie'.

ESPN's College GameDay crew will be on-hand in Baton Rouge, making this the second straight game that the Gators have been a featured team. It's also the second time this season that LSU has been a featured team as the GameDay show was in Austin for the Tigers' September 7th win at Texas.

Speaking of Texas, the Longhorns travel 195 miles up I-35 to Dallas to take on Oklahoma in the 115th edition of the Red River Rivalry. The Sooners will travel an equal distance south on the same interstate. Oklahoma opened as the betting favorite at anywhere from 9-1/2 to 11 points and was mostly found at minus-11 early Tuesday morning. The computer sees it as a tighter contest with a projected 7.39-point edge for Lincoln Riley's squad.

Other notable games this week include Alabama at Texas A&M, Florida State at Clemson, USC at Notre Dame, Penn State at Iowa, Michigan State at Wisconsin, and South Carolina at Georgia.

The college football week begins Wednesday with a rematch of last season's Sun Belt Championship game when Appalachian State (4-0) heads to Lafayette to take on Louisiana (4-1). On Saturday, a few more interesting Group of 5 contests take place as Hawaii (4-1) heads to Boise State (5-0), Temple (4-1) entertains Memphis (5-0), and Cincinnati (4-1) visits Houston (2-3).

Auburn and Ohio State are among the 25 idle teams.

Undefeated

Iowa and Auburn were the only schools to get knocked from the unbeaten ranks last week. Iowa fell 10-3 at Michigan, and Auburn lost 24-13 at Florida.

Here is the list of the 16 remaining unbeaten teams by conference. Of these schools, only SMU and Ohio State are idle this week.

American: SMU, Memphis
Mountain West: Boise State
Sun Belt: Appalachian State
ACC: Clemson, Wake Forest
Big 12: Baylor, Oklahoma
Big 10: Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
SEC: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU.

Winless

Akron was idle last week and remains 0-5 while New Mexico State and Rice each fell to 0-6. New Mexico State lost 20-13 at home to Liberty, and Rice lost 35-20 at UAB.

FBS vs. FCS

114 games this year pit FBS teams against FCS schools. That's two more than a season ago when FBS teams won 105 of 112 games.

There is just one FBS-FCS game this week as Virginia Tech hosts Rhode Island.

FBS teams are 98-3 (.970) for the season. Since we began tracking this in 2003, the FBS schools are 1,422-127 (.918).

FCS victories over FBS teams in 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)

FCS victories over FBS teams in 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 20 straight over-all (FBS longest). Won 22 straight regular season (FBS longest) games. Won 16 straight conference games (new FBS longest). Won 18 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: 21-20 win at North Carolina on September 28.
Next: Hosts Florida State on October 12.

ALABAMA - Won 29 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: 59-31 home win over Ole Miss on September 28.
Next: Visits Texas A&M on October 12.

OKLAHOMA - Won 22 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last:: Won 45-20 at Kansas On October 5.
Next: Plays Texas at Dallas on October 12.

RUTGERS - Lost 15 straight conference games (FBS longest).
Last: 48-7 loss at home to Maryland on October 5.
Next: Visits Indiana on October 12.

AKRON - Lost 10 straight overall (FBS longest).
Last: 37-29 loss at Massachusetts on September 28.
Next: Hosts Kent State on October 12.

CONNECTICUT - Lost 20 straight vs. FBS teams (FBS longest).
Last: 48-22 home loss to USF on October 5.
Next: Visits Tulane on October 12.

RICE - Lost 14 straight road games (FBS longest).
Last: 35-20 loss at UAB on October 5.
Next: Visits UTSA on October 19.