Football expert Phil Steele is the owner and publisher of Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, regarded as the college football bible. Get in-depth coverage of college and pro football 24/7/365 at PhilSteele.com and follow him on Twitter @philsteele042.
WISCONSIN (-10¹/₂) over Northwestern: It is imperative when following college football to not only look at statistics, but also the emotion a team has following a game. I had the Badgers over Purdue here on these pages four weeks ago and then went against them when they played at elite Ohio State. Now Wisconsin is rested coming off a bye, playing with a vengeance coming off a loss and will be in front of a homecoming crowd in its only home game in a seven-week span. Meanwhile, a dispirited Northwestern team is coming off its “biggest home game ever” in a loss to Ohio State and playing its first game on the road in six weeks.
ARKANSAS (+6) South Carolina: True superstars either raise the productivity level of the players around them or become distractions. Jadeveon Clowney did the former last season, but is clearly the latter now. The Gamecocks are outgaining their opponents by 192 yards per game at home, but on the road they are getting outgained by 10 yards per game. Arkansas is on a three-game losing streak, but two of those games were on the road, and the home loss was against No. 9 Texas A&M. The Razorback defense doesn’t get much publicity, but it has held all three opponents to season lows and the other two FBS teams to their second-lowest offensive output. Upset!
LAST WEEK (NCAA): 1-1.
SEASON: 4-7-1.