A matchup of top-five teams, the Red River Rivalry and a possible College Football Playoff knockout game are the main events on the Week 7 college football schedule.
No. 2 Ohio State goes to No. 3 Oregon for the second game between top-five opponents in three weeks. Something amazing would have to happen for the Buckeyes and Ducks to duplicate the drama of Alabama-Georgia.
Nevertheless, anyone who predicted Ohio State-Oregon on Saturday would loom larger than the traditional regular season-ending game between Ohio State and Michigan — at least this year — is looking pretty smart right now given the recent performances by the defending national champion Wolverines.
This could be the first of as many as three meetings between the Buckeyes and Ducks, with matchups in the Big Ten championship game and playoff possible.
No. 1 Texas and No. 18 Oklahoma square off in their annual game in Dallas. The Longhorns returned to the top of the rankings following Alabama’s upset loss to Vanderbilt. They’re coming off an open date, and it looks as if quarterback Quinn Ewers has recovered from his abdominal injury and is ready to be the starter again. If not, Arch Manning has proved more than capable.
OU, meanwhile, will start a true freshman quarterback (Michael Hawkins) against Texas for the first time.
The other big Southeastern Conference game is No. 9 Mississippi at No. 13 LSU. Neither team has had a smooth ride this season, and the loser will have two losses and a serious dent put in its playoff hopes. The Rebels’ offense has sputtered the last two weeks, and they could be without injured star receiver Tre Harris.
Best game
No. 2 Ohio State (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) at No. 3 Oregon (5-0, 2-0), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (NBC)
This will be the third time in four meetings since 2010 that both teams are in the top 10 when they play. The only other time this was a top-five matchup was in the inaugural College Football Playoff championship game in 2015, won by Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have been nothing short of dominant, outscoring opponents by a combined 230-34. Oregon, which opened with narrow wins over Idaho and Boise State, seems to have found its rhythm the last three games.
BetMGM Sports lists the Buckeyes as 3 1/2-point favorites.
Heisman watch
Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel came into the season as the Heisman Trophy favorite. As steady as he’s been, players like Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe and Travis Hunter seem to pop up each week and overshadow him. Gabriel has the biggest stage this week and can re-establish himself among the front-runners.
He’s throwing for 290 yards per game and completing a best-in-the-nation 78% of his attempts. Playing the Buckeyes is motivation enough for any quarterback. But Gabriel surely will be looking to atone for a so-so performance last week, when he threw two red-zone interceptions against Michigan State.
Numbers to know
0 — Rushing touchdowns allowed by Nebraska through six games.
8 — Runs of 40 yards or longer by Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, twice as many as anyone in the FBS.
16 — Consecutive regular-season wins by Liberty, the nation’s longest active streak.
57 — Passes intercepted by North Carolina State since 2021, most among power-conference teams.
101 — New Mexico’s average penalty yards per game, the highest by an FBS team through Week 6 since 2020.
Under the radar
No. 18 Kansas State (4-1, 1-1 Big 12) at Colorado (4-1, 2-0), Saturday, 10:15 p.m. ET (ESPN)
These teams are in the same conference again, and the Wildcats return to Boulder for the first time since 2010. It’s also the first of crucial back-to-back road games for a K-State team trying to keep pace in a wide-open Big 12.
The Buffaloes’ biggest issue will be controlling the formidable 1-2 punch of QB Avery Johnson and RB DJ Giddens. Johnson is one of the nation’s top running quarterbacks and averages 7.3 yards per carry, and Giddens is running for 121 yards per game.
Shedeur Sanders had an open date to rest his body after having been sacked 18 times through five games and will go against a K-State defense prone to giving up big pass plays.
Hot seat
Akron’s Joe Moorhead went 2-10 each of his first two seasons and is 1-5 entering the Zips’ game at Western Michigan. Of his five wins, three have come against second-tier Football Championship Subdivision teams.
The Zips are an austere program paying Moorhead $620,000 per year through 2027. A potential buyout of around $2 million would be no small expense. Administrators must decide if someone else could do better leading a team that has won no more than four games in a season since Terry Bowden’s 2017 Zips made the MAC championship game and finished 7-7.
Only four Mid-America Conference schools have average attendances better than 20,000. Even by that modest standard, interest in the Zips has waned. Average attendance was 17,958 in 2019, when the Zips went 0-12. This season they’ve drawn just 8,932 and 9,337 for games at their 30,000-seat stadium.
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