Buffalo Rumblings
It’s a low-volume weekend in terms of ranked matchups this week in the world of college football. But the two ranked matchups we do get are worthy of your attention.
One of the nation’s darlings in the past two years has been longtime SEC basement dweller Vanderbilt. They have new life under veteran quarterback Diego Pavia with an undefeated record heading to face the Tide this weekend. The Commodores may not have played a team projected to make a bowl to date. Alabama looked like a refreshed team going to Athens and beating Georgia a week ago after it felt like the sky was falling coming off a significant loss to Florida State in the season opener. This game could be very high scoring when the final zeroes flash.
The other ranked matchup of the week features No. 3 Miami going to No. 18 Florida State for a matchup at Doak Campbell Stadium. Miami has a few impressive wins on the year and coasting smoothly since a tightly fought win over Notre Dame to start the season. Florida State is coming off of a road loss to Virginia in double overtime. Both teams have high-powered offenses on paper. This has become one of the better rivalries nationally over the years. Although, it’s rare to get both teams meet when they are ranked at the same time. Like Vandy and Alabama, this game has a feel that it could be very high scoring for two of the more storied programs in college football.
We have a few key prospect matchups to watch this week. Let us know what you’re watching out for in the comments below.
Manning has had the biggest nightmare scenario imaginable to start his first opportunity as a full-time starter at Texas. He went out and looked very bad against Ohio State to open the year and the play since then hasn’t yielded much better results. Both Texas and Florida boast two of the better defenses in the country. Arch’s responsibility is, of course, to go on the road and do enough to beat a Gators team that’s seemed to be reeling in recent weeks. Manning has the talent to get the Longhorns there, but he has to show it at some point.
Cormani McClain has had a fascinating journey from high school to where he currently sits at Florida. McClain signed with Deion Sanders and Colorado as the number-one cornerback in the country in the 2023 recruiting class. After one season, McClain transferred to Florida following an odd year with the Buffs that included some maturity questions and questionable on-field play. McClain has proven himself for the Gators and now stands in the starting lineup. He intercepted Carson Beck in their contest against Miami a couple of weeks ago while looking like one of the better players on the field. This is McClain’s first season of high-level production so...
