Tennessee at Georgia, Texas at Arkansas, Utah at Colorado, and more games with playoff implications as well as my locks for the week:
Locks
Last Week: 1-2
Texas (-12.5) at Arkansas is a game that a lot of people are looking at as possibly being a game where Texas could find themselves on the brink of elimination, but I am not one of those people. Outside of Vanderbilt and Georgia, Texas has dominated everyone on their schedule this year, and I don’t expect that to stop here. Quinn Ewers is coming off one of the best games of his career, and Texas will cover this number in the first half alone.
Syracuse (+9.5) at California is perplexing to me. Cal just got their first ACC win last week in a close one against the lowly Wake Forest. They are also capable of losing to Florida State. Syracuse has been very inconsistent, but Kyle McCord has proven that he can sling it. I think Cal wins outright, but Syracuse will make it close.
Tennessee (+9.5) at Georgia seems like too big of a number to me. I think Tennessee outclasses Georgia in almost every aspect across the board. Carson Beck is also coming off his worst stretch of games ever in his career. This matchup just seems really bad for Georgia’s offense. When is Beck at his worst? When he is under pressure. What is Tennessee’s best unit on the team? Their D-line. How well did it go for Beck last week when he went against an elite d-line? Not well. I’m not sure if Tennessee is getting the win outright, but it should be extremely close whether Nico plays or not, because I can’t see Georgia moving the ball at all.
Playoff Implications
3 Texas at Arkansas
I already said how I feel about this one, but if the Hogs did end up upsetting their rivals here, that means the SEC championship race would open up even more, especially for 3 loss (2 conference loss) LSU. Yeah, after they got molested last week, they still have a somewhat realistic shot with tiebreakers to make it in if Arkansas wins this.
Utah at 17 Colorado
All Colorado has to do to make the playoffs is win out. Utah almost spoiled BYU’s perfect season last week, and now they have an opportunity to spoil CU’s. This should be a tough physical game, and it is a must win for the Buffaloes.
7 Tennessee at 12 Georgia
I think this game will be a better game than most seem to think. This game is an elimination game for Georgia, if they lose, they’re out. If Tennessee, who hasn’t been super impressive outside of the Alabama win, loses, they might be facing elimination. If Tennessee wins this game, they are all but in, as the only challenge left is game against Vandy on rivalry weekend.
Kansas at 6 BYU
BYU is only a 2.5 point favorite at home against the 3-6 Kansas Jayhawks. That may sound weird, but Kansas’ record is extremely deceptive. Kansas has been playing a lot better lately, and most of their losses have been very close. BYU needs to get some stuff on offense figured out because they really struggled against Utah last week. If BYU loses, that would completely destroy any hope they had at getting in the playoffs as an at large.
JacobErwin.com 