Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where someone with a loose grip on reality is always pining away for an Art Briles comeback. First Quarter: Twelve Angry Men. Second Quarter: Restorative Triumphs. Third Quarter: Transfer QBs Who Need Solid Week 3 Showings.
Fourth Quarter: Stealth Rivalry Week!
This wasn’t really planned, and it’s nowhere near Thanksgiving, but we have stumbled into an underrated slate of rivalry throwdowns this week. There are a whopping 17 games matching in-state schools against each other, plus four other old-school border battles. The Dash is hopeful this will produce some upsets, feuds and general rivalry silliness before everyone goes their separate ways into disparate conferences.
A quick breakdown, based on bitterness.
Bitter as Hell (33)
This week is the Pac-2’s Super Bowl. Or Super Bowls, to be more accurate. Let the realignment resentment fester in the Pacific Northwest.
Oregon Ducks at Oregon State Beavers. Series: 128th meeting, Oregon leads 68–49–10. In jilting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, the Ducks all but left the Beavers for dead. But fortunately the two programs are still scheduled to play (for now), and the aggrieved zombies from Corvallis are the home team. Both teams are 2–0, with different vibes—Oregon has been disappointing so far, given the preseason hype, while Oregon State has exceeded expectations after an offseason exodus. If Reser Stadium isn’t an absolute snake pit for this, the Beaver Believers are doing it wrong.
Washington State Cougars vs. Washington Huskies in Seattle, at the Seahawks’ stadium. Series: 116th meeting, Washington leads 76–33–6. See the above grievances and apply them to the Apple Cup. The only drawback here is that the game is not being played in Pullman, but The Dash still expects the Cougars to arrive with maximum fan and player ferocity. Both teams are undefeated here as well.
Colorado Buffaloes at Colorado State Rams. Series: 93rd meeting, Colorado leads 68–22–2. There is age-old snobbery at play here, with the Buffaloes from Boulder looking down their collective snouts at the former ag-school Rams from Fort Collins. The arrival of the Deion Sanders glam train—and double-overtime comeback win last year—has only deepened the dislike in FoCo.
Rice Owls at Houston Cougars. Series: The crosstown rivals with little in common played annually from 1971 to ’95, then again from 2000 to ’13. This will be the fourth annual meeting in the latest iteration of the Bayou Bucket series, and the Owls upped the stakes by breaking a seven-game losing streak against the Cougars last year.
Kinda Bitter (34)
Oklahoma State Cowboys at Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Series: 76th meeting, Oklahoma State leads 43–27–5. There was a time when Tulsa held the upper hand against the school 65 miles west, but few are alive who remember it. The Hurricane haven’t beaten the Pokes this century.
Cincinnati Bearcats at Miami (Ohio) RedHawks. Series: 128th meeting, tied 60–60–7. They’ve been playing forever—annually since 1945, with the exception of the pandemic season of 2020. A rivalry that started in 1888 got some new juice last year, when the RedHawks scored their first win in the series since 2005.
North Texas Mean Green at Texas Tech Red Raiders. Series: Ninth meeting, tied 4–4. This gets a Kinda Bitter rating based solely on the fact that no state pays more attention to its football caste system than Texas—those in the power conferences scoff at the outsiders, and the outsiders chafe at the entitlement of those in the power conferences. Given the Red Raiders’ weak 1–1 start, the 2–0 Mean Green are dreaming of delivering a comeuppance.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Purdue Boilermakers. Series: 88th meeting, Notre Dame leads 59–26–2. The northern Indiana neighbors played every year from 1946 to 2014, but only once since then. The fan bases seem to get along fairly well, which is a disappointment.
Utah Utes at Utah State Aggies. Series: 113th meeting, Utah leads 78–30–4. This has been referred to as the Battle of the Brothers rivalry, which is entirely too congenial. Both sides save more of their enmity for BYU. Utah State has won only once this century.
Virginia Tech Hokies at Old Dominion Monarchs. Series: sixth meeting, Virginia Tech leads 3–2. There isn’t much playing history but they recruit the same turf in the Tidewater area, which has added to the stakes. So has Tech’s vulnerability in recent years. Suffice to say, Hokies coach Brent Pry needs to win this one.
Florida International Panthers at Florida Atlantic Owls. Series: 22nd meeting, FAU leads 16–5. This should be a zesty nascent rivalry, but it would require the programs to have fans. And then they’d have to care.
Not That Bitter (35)
Appalachian State Mountaineers at East Carolina Pirates. Series: 34th meeting, App State leads 21–12. The two schools from opposite ends of North Carolina played annually from 1948 to ’62, then again from 1972 to ’79. Then they took 30 years off. This should have growth potential.
North Carolina Central Eagles at North Carolina Tar Heels. Series: First meeting. There is no history and no outward antipathy between the HBCU in Durham and the ACC school in Chapel Hill.
Gardner-Webb Bulldogs at Charlotte 49ers. Series: Fifth meeting, Charlotte leads 3–1. You can throw out the record books when the invaders from Boiling Springs, N.C., come to the big city. Or you can keep them there on the shelf, gathering dust.
UTSA Roadrunners at Texas Longhorns. Series: Second meeting, Texas leads 1–0. UTSA is a quality program, but any rivalry here is purely aspirational on the Roadrunners’ part. That said: Texas cannot afford a Notre Dame–level letdown after winning at Michigan, because the trap is set.
Eastern Illinois Panthers at Northwestern Wildcats. Series: Third meeting, Northwestern leads 2–0. Northwestern’s pop-up lakefront stadium should be able to easily handle the crowd for this one.
San Diego State Aztecs at California Golden Bears. Series: Ninth meeting, series tied at 4–4. SDSU should have some extra motivation due to its frustrating attempts to crash the power-conference club in which Cal resides. The Pac-12 move appeared to be lined up in 2023, until the league crumbled before it could happen. There is assuredly some recruiting crossover here as well.
Border Battles (36)
West Virginia Mountaineers at Pittsburgh Panthers. Series: 107th meeting, Pitt leads 62–41–3. The Backyard Brawl is an American treasure and needs to be played every year forever.
BYU Cougars at Wyoming Cowboys. Series: 80th meeting, BYU leads 46–30–3. The only schools the Cougars have played more are Utah and Utah State. They have beaten the Pokes nine straight times dating to 2003.
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. Series, 74th meeting, WKU leads 37–35–1. For both schools, this is by far the most-played rival among current FBS members.
Maryland Terrapins at Virginia Cavaliers. Series: 80th meeting, Maryland leads 45–32–2. The rivalry that the Big Ten tore asunder is being played for the second straight season, with the Terps having won big last year.
Stat of the Week
The Temple Owls (37) are back again, doing what they do—losing the football. After their minus-six turnover margin in the opening loss to the Oklahoma Sooners, the Owls were a minus-three in a Week 2 loss to the Navy Midshipmen. That comes on the heels of their nation-worst minus-20 margin in 2023.
While there has been lamentable sloppiness from the Temple offense, the defense is not earning any turnover totems of its own. Temple has produced just five takeaways in the last 16 games.
The Owls have not won the turnover battle in 13 straight games. They’re minus-50 over their last 40 contests.
Coach Who Earned His Comp Car This Week
Jake Dickert (38), Washington State Cougars. He lost star quarterback Cam Ward to the transfer portal after the Pac-12 fell apart, but Dickert has kept the Cougs viable and even downright explosive. Wazzu is averaging 53.5 points per game, following an opening rout of the Portland State Vikings with a three-touchdown beating of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Ward’s replacement, John Mateer, is seventh nationally in total offense at 359.5 yards per game and is averaging 12.19 yards per play.
Coach Who Should Take the Bus to Work
Jeff Lebby (39), Mississippi State Bulldogs. The first-year head coach’s defense was shredded for 346 rushing yards by the Arizona State Sun Devils on Saturday night in the desert, the most the Dogs have allowed on the ground in eight years. That’s a weakness SEC opponents will line up to exploit all season if it’s not corrected.
Point After
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Forde-Yard Dash: Rivalry Week Comes Early With 21 Matchups to Watch.
