Acme Packing Company
Saturday is going to have a sleepy slate of games before things really ramp up in rivalry week, where we’ll get #4 Georgia @ #16 Georgia Tech and #3 Texas A&M @ #17 Texas on Black Friday and #1 Ohio State @ #18 Michigan and #14 Vanderbilt @ #20 Tennessee on Saturday. This week, though, we will only get two top-25 matchups on the entire slate, in part because the SEC has (mostly) scheduled cupcakes leading up to their rivalry games.
Let’s break down these top-25 matchups and the top NFL prospects in these games, according to the consensus draft board.
I’m not sure that the Green Bay Packers will be in the market for a pass-rusher in the 2026 draft, considering that the team will still have Micah Parsons, Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell and Collin Oliver under contract, but if they are, this game will be a good watch for Day 2 players at the position. Three of the top four prospects in this game are edge defenders, with the top one being Oklahoma’s R Mason Thomas. He’s going into the game as questionable with a quad injury, but Oklahoma also desperately needs a win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Safeties and the offensive players in the passing game are the players to watch for USC in this one. At one point, Anthony Lucas looked like a rising player for the Trojans, but the 6’5”, 285-pound edge rusher has only produced three sacks for USC this year, after a hot start. Lucas is a former high school All-American and five-star recruit who began his college career at Texas A&M.
For the Packers, the most interesting players on the Ducks are three linemen: left guard Emmanuel Pregnon, center Iapani “Poncho” Laloulu and defensive tackle Bear Alexander. Pregnon is actually a transfer who left USC in the portal last offseason. Laloulu is one of the team’s best options at the position next draft, in a weaker center class. Alexander is another former Trojan at Oregon who seems to be as good as...
