College football predictions: Week 3

Not a great slate of games in college football. But it will arrive soon enough. Let’s go.

Louisiana-Lafayette at OSU: Cowboys 48-24. Back in 1986, when the Cajuns were known as Southwestern Louisiana, OSU went to Lafayette and survived 21-20. Since then, State has won seven more times against the Cajuns, none closer than 17 points.

Rutgers at South Florida: Bulls 31-24. I sort of feel sorry for the Big East left-behinds. Rutgers and USF and the like have played some decent football. Now their league is dysfunctional, their automatic BCS berth is about to go away and Notre Dame doesn’t even want to play hoops there anymore.

Virginia Tech at Pitt: Hokies 30-7. I still think Paul Chryst was a good pick as head coach, but what a disaster is Pittsburgh football. The Panthers run off Dave Wannstedt, hire a guy they have to fire after two weeks (Michael Haywood) and then hire a guy who stays a year and goes to another under-achieving program (Todd Graham). Maybe it’s time Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson was shown the door.

Navy at Penn State: Nittany Lions 21-17. Bill O’Brien should get his first win, so long as it doesn’t come down to a field goal.

Wake Forest at Florida State: Seminoles 31-13. ACC football titles since the start of the 2004 season — Florida State 1, Wake Forest 1. Average record since the start of the 2005 season — Florida State 7-5, Wake 6-6.

UConn at Maryland: Terrapins 24-21. The Randy Edsall Bowl. Despite a rocky start (4-10), Edsall clearly made the right move in jumping from Connecticut. But did Maryland?

Virginia at Georgia Tech: Yellowjackets 24-20. G-Tech came close to winning in Blacksburg, which would rank among the best victories of the season so far. Cavaliers looked only so-so against Penn State, despite winning. Funny how our standards have fallen.

North Carolina at Louisville: Cardinals 31-29. Louisville sure would like to be the 16th ACC school. Or the 11th Big 12 school. It’s going to be an uphill battle, but a big year in football never hurts.

Florida at Tennessee: Gators 24-23. This once was a big game. Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel. Peyton Manning and Phil Fulmer. Maybe it could be again.

Ohio at Marshall: Thundering Herd 31-30. Lots of pressure on mid-majors who have designs on a special season. It’s tough to win every week.

Texas at Ole Miss: Rebels 24-23. Big 12 upset special. Ole Miss will try to pull an Arizona. Ride the momentum of a new coach to a new beginning and an upset. Of course, Hugh Freeze’s track record doesn’t quite match Rich Rodriguez.

TCU at Kansas: Horned Frogs 34-24. The purple teams just keeping getting tougher for Kansas, which lost to Rice last week. Now comes TCU, and Bill Snyder’s PurpleCats await.

Boston College at Northwestern: Wildcats 30-27. Name the only school in America with a 2-0 record and both victories over BCS-conference schools. Yep, Northwestern.

North Texas at Kansas State: Wildcats 38-20. Old pals Dan McCarney and Snyder meet again. Snyder was 9-2 vs. McCarney when McCarney coached Iowa State. Let’s make it 10-2. But their bond goes back much further. They spent 10 years together on Hayden Fry’s staff at Iowa.