College Football Viewing Guide: Week 7

Well, well, well, would you look at that. Iowa has their first 11am game of the season and it could not have come at a more perfect time. College football is back for another glorious week, but in this week’s slate is particularly heavy with the afternoon matchups.

So we don’t have to worry about missing quality football while we watch our beloved Hawkeyes try to keep up with overpower the Indiana Hoosiers. And when that wraps up, there’s a lot of potentially good matchups to take our minds off an agonizing loss cap off a glorious day.

But it’s not just Saturday. No, no, we’re to that time of year when the college football takes over your living room. In fact, the college slate already started this week. What? You’re telling me you didn’t tune it to watch Appalachian State dismantle Arkansas State 35-9 on Tuesday night? SHAME.

Fear not, young football fans, there’s more on the docket tonight and tomorrow night as you prepare your pallet for Saturday.

Let’s have a look-see.

Note: All times are as the good Lord intended, in the central time zone. For that is where the college football Mecca known as Kinnick Stadium lies.

Thursday Games

There are a pair of college games tonight, in addition to the NFL matchup. The fact that one of them could be a lot of fun in a power 5 matchup makes it all the better.

Both games kick off at 6:30 CT. Georgia Southern is at Texas State on ESPNU. ESPN has Texas Tech at TCU.

The NFL kicks off at 7:20pm CT on FOX with the Philadelphia Eagles at the New York Giants.

Friday Games

The fun continues tomorrow as there are three games. Nothing too crazy here, but hey, there’s some #Pac12AfterDark so maybe things get weird.

The action kicks off at 6pm CT with #23 South Florida at Tulsa on ESPN. At 8pm CT you’ve got Air Force at San Diego State. And things wrap up at 9pm with Arizona at Utah back over on ESPN.

Saturday Games

Ok, here we are with the Saturday slate. As I said, it’s a bit of a slow start, which is fine for Hawkeye fans as we’ll all be tuned in to the Iowa at Indiana matchup on ESPN2 at 11am.

If we find ourselves needing to fill the million commercial breaks, we do have some options that might be mildly entertaining. For instance, I’ll always be here to watch LOLbraska losing yet again. You can catch Northwestern beating up on them on ABC. FS1 will have the execution of Minnesota by #3 Ohio State. It should be ELITE.

ESPN has #14 Florida at Vanderbilt and the SEC Network has Tennessee at #21 Auburn. ESPNU has Oklahoma State, fresh off their loss to Iowa State, at Kansas State. And the BTN has the battle for belonging as Maryland hosts rutger. If rutger keeps this even remotely close, I’ll feel much better about Iowa’s game with Maryland next week.

OK, on to the good stuff.

The afternoon slate actually has a staggered start, which I am a big proponent of. At 1:30pm CT, you’ve got #5 Notre Dame hosting Pitt on NBC. Then we get a slew of ranked teams kicking off at 2:30, including a trio of games that could be really good.

CBS has #2 Georgia at #13 LSU. ABC and ESPN2 have a mirror of #7 Washington at #17 Oregon and #10 UCF at Memphis (GTFO with UCF at Memphis, there’s no need for a mirror here). And the BTN (the BTN!) has Michigan State at #8 Penn State.

Also at 2:30 CT you have Baylor at #9 Texas on ESPN and #22 Texas A&M at South Carolina on the SEC Network, as well as a couple of meh matchups across CBSSN, ESPNU and FS1, which will show Purdue at Illinois.

The evening slate kicks off at 6pm this week. You can watch Missouri die a long, agonizing death by a million touchdowns as they travel to #1 Alabama on ESPN. Iowa State looks to continue boosting the Hawkeyes’ strength of schedule as they host #6 West Virginia on FS1. And #16 Miami is at Virginia on ESPN2.

At 6:30pm CT, you’ve got #15 Wisconsin traveling to #12 Michigan. As much as I hate hearing the media talk about the unbalance between East and West in the Big Ten, we need to be rooting hard for Michigan here if Iowa has any hopes of making it to Indy. Go Blue.

The night cap has a trio of games that could be OK. At 9:15 you’ve got Hawaii at BYU on ESPN2. Then at 9:30, #19 Colorado travels to USC on FS1. There’s also Wyoming at Fresno State on ESPNU and Boise State at Nevada on CBS Sports Network.

And that’s it, folks. Here’s a look at the full slate for Saturday:

---

On the beverage front, I’m a bit torn. It’s officially Fall in Iowa. Well, sort of. Today is the first day in memory without rain and after touching the 80s earlier this week, we’re looking at temps in the 40s and 50s. So at least I think it’s Fall. And that has me ready for all that October has to offer.

I’m here for the Halloween decorations, the candy, the trips to the pumpkin patch in my plaid and vest with a PSL in hand. And yes, I’m here for Oktoberfest beer.

But we got all month to be here for that stuff, ya’ll. And this particular week, I think we’re really going to need an offensive explosion to keep pace with Indiana. I’m worried about that offense against our banged up defense. I have visions of them dinking and dunking us to death with quick hitters that totally negate our amazing pass rush.

Image via beerandbrewing.com

SO, I think I’m going to be tackling a few Toppling Goliath Pompeiis as I do my best to bring forth that explosion. Here’s to hoping the Hawkeyes can deliver like Vesuvius and leave the citizens of Bloomington melted in molten hot lava before they knew what hit them.

Go Hawks.