Degenerate’s guide to week 4 college football 2018 TV watch ‘em ups
The season is starting get some equilibrium to it. Alabama with a legitimately good QB and Coach Kool might just be unkillable but dumb shit always happens.
Here it is, technically the first fall Saturday. It’s still not an unmissable slate of games but the warmup games are mostly done with. East coast times, don’t care about the sites, nothing good will come of all this. Here you go:
Saturday, September 22
Matchup Time (ET) TV/Mobile
Akron at Iowa State 12:00pm FSN
The MAC and the Big XII are close enough to being doppelgangers that if the Big XII committed a heinous crime 35 years ago the Big XII’s legal counsel could probably create doubt by claiming that it was actually the MAC who did it.
Boston College at Purdue 12:00pm ESPN2
BC kind of plays like what the B1G pretends its teams play like and Purdue is running a Big XII kind of team. Worlds are colliding! Boston College has two RTARLsman candidates but I’ve limited myself to only talking about one per week because I still kind of hate Boston College.
Buffalo at Rutgers 12:00pm BTN
Tyree Jackson is the kind of player I would lose my job over as an NFL scout. I look at him and think, “this guy is like a good version of Josh Allen!” Watch him go undrafted.
Georgia at Missouri 12:00pm ESPN
Drew Lock has a three-game stretch starting today that will make or break his prospect status among the general public. NFL evaluators? Who knows. He could look ridiculously awful but show off TRAITS!!! and still go #1 over Ed Oliver and Lil’ Bosa.
Kent State at Mississippi 12:00pm SECN
There are apparently seats at this game available for $2. The Landsharks have some really talented players so if you’re in the area, here’s a 4-hour highlight reel in the making.
Minnesota at Maryland 12:00pm BTN
Brian Kelly got away with murder but DJ Durkin might not. I’d like to think that’s a step in the right direction for society but Durkin is a pretty bad coach on top of being a murderer so it’s probably not indicative of anything larger.
Navy at SMU 12:00pm ESPNU/ESPNews
Game of the week! I could be wrong but my early impression is that SMU is pretty bad this year.
Nebraska at Michigan 12:00pm FS1
Scott Frost is trying to get out ahead of things by saying things will get worse before they get better but as it stands Nebraska is gonna be underdogs in every game for the rest of the year so this should probably be as bad as it gets. As long as you understand it’s going to stay exactly this bad at least for a couple more months.
Nevada at Toledo 12:00pm CBSSN
This is at least as good of a game as the one right above it. So that’s a moral victory.
Notre Dame at Wake Forest 12:00pm ABC
RTARL is officially rooting for Wake Forest this week.
Ohio at Cincinnati 12:00pm ESPNU/ESPNews
The dregs of Ohio football can really give Michigan and Louisiana a run for their money (where monetary value is increased by the decreased quality of football within a given state.)
Pitt at North Carolina 12:20pm Raycom Sports
I wouldn’t have thought two years ago that things could take such a dramatic turn in Chapel Hill but this might be Coach Hat’s last stand. If UNC loses to Pitt they are in very real danger of going 0-12. Stupidly enough, this is a conference game but Ohio-Cincinnati is not.
Louisville at Virginia 12:30pm RSN
Here is a game desperately in need of Lamar Jackson.
Western Michigan at Georgia State 2:00pm ESPN+
There will never be a week where I can remember off the top of my head which one is Georgia State and which one is Georgia Southern. Western Michigan had an NFL prospect last year (I think he went in the 4th round eventually) but this is not last year. As the saying goes.
Illinois State at Colorado State 3:00pm ATTSN
I guess let us know what your interest is here if you have one.
Maine at Central Michigan 3:00pm ESPN+
Wait, is Central Michigan the one that had the big OL last year? Who cares.
Miami (Ohio) at Bowling Green 3:00pm ESPN+
Jesus fuck this is a wasteland.
WKU at Ball State 3:00pm ESPN3
I can’t speak for the talent levels but this is an interesting watch if you’re really into offensive schemes.
Charlotte at UMass 3:30pm ES/NESNplus
This is not a heavily advisable watch ‘em up. Only look if you have money on it.
Clemson at Georgia Tech 3:30pm ABC
Interested to see what those crazy refs have in store for this one. I don’t actually know much about Clemson’s LBs but you need to have really good ones against the option. Unless you can just line up 4-3 every play and have your DL in the backfield constantly. We’ll see.
FIU at Miami (FL) 3:30pm ESPN/2/U
Canes twitter has been obsessing over Andre Ware slighting team captain Jaquan Johnson last week by saying he was faking an injury to stop the clock near the end of the first half. Well, Johnson is out this week so that’s a great acting job by the kid. I don’t really care about this controversy but it’s really odd that Butch Davis is coaching a team against The U and getting basically no notice for it.
Gardner-Webb at Appalachian State 3:30pm ESPN+
Oh, hell yeah.
Kansas at Baylor 3:30pm FS1
Not to discourage our collective Kansas fandom but I really like that we’re back to a point where this game is just a matchup of godawful teams.
Kansas State at West Virginia 3:30pm ABC/ESPN/2
If Will Grier is actually good WFV should win by 30.
NC Central at Duke 3:30pm ACCNExtra
I’ve got all my favorite NC Central gear laid out for this one.
NIU at Florida State 3:30pm ESPN/2/U
It’s cool that FSU is still sitting here with like 20 future NFL guys on their roster and they still might plausibly lose to NIU at home.
Texas A&M at Alabama 3:30pm CBS
aTm has good receivers. Stop me if this sounds familiar.
Tulane at Ohio State 3:30pm BTN
Really looking forward to the redemption angle the announcers use for Urban Meyer in this one.
Virginia Tech at Old Dominion 3:30pm CBSSN
Look the games aren’t good, OK? Just better than the last two weeks.
Arizona at Oregon State 4:00pm Pac-12N
He isn’t going to be a Heisman candidate this way but Khalil Tate’s passing stats are actually pretty good.
South Carolina at Vanderbilt 4:00pm SECN
Can Coach Boom go from redeemed to fired in the span of 10 weeks? Yes, he can. Vandy is not bad this year. Or Notre Dame is bad. Hopefully the second one.
UConn at Syracuse 4:00pm ESPNews
Classic matchup of Big East rivals.
TCU at Texas 4:30pm FOX
TCU doesn’t have enough talent or coaching to get past Ohio State this year but you know who they can still beat by 30? Texas.
McNeese at BYU 6:00pm BYUtv
I didn’t watch last week. Did BYU show off their turnover chain or did they just hastily design it after they could have given Paul Chryst a stroke?
North Texas at Liberty 6:00pm ESPN3
UNT had by far the funniest upset of the week last week so it’s nice that they get to beat up Liberty this week as a reward.
Arkansas at Auburn 7:30pm SECN
Maybe Arkansas was just looking ahead last week and they aren’t going to lose by 75 to Auburn this week?
Army at Oklahoma 7:00pm FSOK PPV / SoonerSports.tv
Kyler Murray is really good and Lincoln Riley is really good and neither of those things takes away from how really really good Baker Mayfield is.
Coastal Carolina at Louisiana 7:00pm ESPN+
Thank god this one is in prime time for most of the country.
Florida at Tennessee 7:00pm ESPN
20 years ago this was the most consistently entertaining annual rivalry in college football. Now it’s sort of the opposite of that. But it’s still a brand name, on the main ESPN channel sort of thing somehow to this day.
LA Tech at LSU 7:00pm ESPNU
LSU is liable to still go out and win this game by 7 points or less, just so you know.
Mississippi State at Kentucky 7:00pm ESPN/2/U
Kentucky might really be top 5 in the SEC this year. Understand that for what it’s worth.
NC State at Marshall 7:00pm CBSSN
A huge battle of unbeatens with national championship implications! I assume there will be some sort of strength of schedule ramifications from this game, I mean.
Rice at Southern Miss 7:00pm ESPN+
There is nothing I could tell you about this game that would make me interested in what I was saying.
Texas State at UTSA 7:00pm ESPN+
No Davenport and no Coker makes interest go something something.
Texas Tech at Oklahoma State 7:00pm FS1
Without checking I’ll just say bet the over.
Troy at ULM 7:00pm ESPN+
Still traveling through a wasteland here.
UNLV at Arkansas State 7:00pm ESPN3
We’re still 2 years from Armani Rogers getting dark horse NFL draft hype but it’s never too early to say he sucks without ever watching him play.
Michigan State at Indiana 7:30pm BTN
I really believed in Sparty (and Wisconsin) this year. That was a mistake.
New Mexico State at UTEP 7:30pm ESPN3
Now we’re getting into real gambling hours. The line is trending towards NMSU and the over keeps falling. Not sure what to make of either of those things but look for UTEP to spring the big upset in a 5 OT thriller.
East Carolina at USF 8:00pm ESPNews
I feel like the TV info is a mistake. This game has to be on CBS SN, doesn’t it? This pure AAA goodness. Both teams have looked better than expected so far but that doesn’t mean ECU is good. I’d still take them +21.5 if I were betting.
South Alabama at Memphis 8:00pm WMC-TV/ESPN3
I’m not asking for a lot from Darrell Henderson. Just get over 300 yards rushing on less than 20 carries and we’re good.
Stanford at Oregon 8:00pm ABC
This is a top 25 matchup which seems funny. Justin Herbert is the odds-on favorite to be the #1 QB in next year’s draft right now. Oregon still doesn’t defend the run. This could be real entertainment.
Texas Southern at Houston 8:00pm ESPN3
Ed Oliver is really trending towards the Khalil Mack zone where nothing he personally does is going to be enough to make his team’s defense actually good. This is a reference to Mack’s college days but I guess it applies to his time in Oakland, too.
Wisconsin at Iowa 8:30pm FOX
Wisconsin really shook things up by shitting all down their own pants against BYU last week. Nice going, Chryst. Turnover chain your ass, indeed.
Air Force at Utah State 10:15pm ESPN2
Let’s get weird!
Arizona State at Washington 10:30pm ESPN
How’s the Herm Edwards bandwagon holding up? Per the gambling numbers, UDub should win 34.25 to 16.75 but I’d be very surprised if that’s actually the final score.
Eastern Michigan at San Diego State 10:30pm CBSSN
This is the good stuff. SDSU by 100.
Duquesne at Hawaii 11:59pm Spectrum / ATTSN PGH
I don’t know if I get this channel, Attention Pittsburgh but you can believe I’ll watch this game if I do. Could be a true Jack Pardee special here.
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