2023 College Football Watch Guide - Week 3

It’s time to lawyer up in this week’s College Football Watch Guide.

Not for anything involving us, of course. We here at the Pants are as mild as newborn lambs. Rather, it seems like half the CFB world is tangled up in legal mischief of one form or another. There are typically a few legal stories that pop up throughout the season, but when they involve high profile coaches and a conference suing its own commissioner, that’s when people really sit up and take notice.

It started with Washington State and Oregon State, suing the conference to prevent any outgoing members from taking any action regarding league governance. In addition to safeguarding the conferences assets, according to The Athletic the move is also intended as a way to prevent the departing ten schools from keeping WSU and OSU from attempting to rebuild the conference in any way. Last Wednesday, a Washington Superior Court Judge granted the two schools the restraining order they sought. Pretty heady stuff, but understandable action on the part of the Cougars and Beavers are looking to safeguard their futures as best as they can.

Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images

The biggest legal bombshell was dropped late Saturday, when USA Today broke the news of Michigan State coach Mel Tucker’s alleged sexual harassment of a prominent activist and rape survivor in April of 2022. Before the story became public, the university had hired a Title IX attorney to investigate and a formal hearing is scheduled for early next month, but now Tucker has been suspended without pay. It sure seems like the public attention pushed Michigan State to take more severe action against Tucker, similar to how Northwestern suspended and eventually fired Pat Fitzgerald this past summer. I would be shocked if Tucker continues as the Spartans’ coach after the hearings, this kind of public attention is not the kind a university wants.

I’m sure Michigan State will find someone fine and upstanding to help guide the team in the meantime.

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!

Anyway, now that I’ve absolutely destroyed the mood in the room, let’s see what games are on this weekend.

Virginia @ Maryland

The only all power-5 game on the weeknight schedule. That in and of itself doesn’t always mean a game will be good, we’ve seen plenty of such pairings land with a wet splat. Still, such games do intrinsically have higher stakes for the teams involved.

Honorable mention: Navy @ Memphis, Army @ UTSA

#7 Penn State @ Illinois

Okay, so far my expectation that the Illini would have a strong year isn’t looking the best. After a struggling against Toledo I thought they’d bounce back at Kansas last weekend. The Illini were down 28-7 at halftime. Jayhawk QB went 21-29 for 277 yards and two scores. This isn’t the same team Bret Bielema had last year and it only looks to get tougher with Penn State coming to town.

Iowa State @ Ohio

Iowa State has a good team which has suffered attrition because of the betting scandal, but I think Rocco Becht can be a solid QB for them with a great enough defense to help smooth over the mistakes we see out of young signal-callers. But this will be his first road game, so we’ll see how Becht bounces back from a loss. After a Cy-Hawk win, it’s easy to be a bit magnanimous.

Apparently it’s easy to be petty after a loss too.

Honorable mention: #15 Kansas State @ Missouri, Louisville @ Indiana

Western Michigan @ #25 Iowa

The final non-conference game for the Iowa Hawkeyes is also the last opportunity for some fine tuning before the Big Ten slate begins. The Broncos are 96th in total defense this year, twenty-three spots below Utah State, and the 112th scoring offense. To be fair, Iowa has the 103rd scoring offense but I’ll take what I can get. The coaches and team say the offense is coming together, this is the show me game, because you don’t want it to be next week.

#8 Washington @ Michigan State

I’m fascinated to see how Michigan State comes out in this game in the midst of the Mel Tucker saga. The Huskies have one of the best offenses in the country, but the Spartans aren’t too shabby on that side of the ball either, with a solid defense to boot. This is a prime opportunity for Michigan State to get some good publicity in the midst of all the bad.

Honorable mention: South Carolina @ #1 Georgia, San Diego State @ #16 Oregon State

Northern Illinois @ Nebraska

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Nebraska needs to this win to get their season back on track. After an 0-2 start the Rhule era has had an ignominious beginning. But I believe it was Shakespeare who said “beware MAC schools bearing non-conference games”. An 0-3 start and loss to the Huskies would be tragic for Nebraska, and delightful for the rest of the world.

Pittsburgh @ West Virginia

The Backyard Brawl returns for only its second installment in a decade. Last year’s game was a tremendous welcome back party for this rivalry, featuring a 56-yard pick-six with under three minutes remaining for the Panthers to pull a 38-31 win. In a weekend devoid of high-profile game hype, a rivalry game like this one can pick up the slack.

Honorable mention: BYU @ Arkansas, #11 Tennessee @ Florida

There may not be much in terms of heavyweight fights this weekend, but that can be fertile soil for those magical upsets we all love. I’m hoping we’re not disappointed.

Enjoy the weekend and stay out of trouble, y’all.