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A weekend in the world of college football can be expected to produce shocking disappointments and better-than-expected performances in conferences throughout the country.
The unpredictable results are especially routine late in the season where teams are playing with the most pressure or have nothing to lose. However, guessing when and where they will happen is difficult even if everyone knows they are coming.
The USA TODAY Sports college football staff — Jace Evans, Paul Myerberg, Brent Schrotenboer, Erick Smith, Eddie Timanus and Dan Wolken — weigh in with its bold predictions for Week 15 of the college football season:
Jace Evans
Florida quarterback Kyle Trask will solidify his position as the Heisman Trophy front-runner by throwing at least five touchdowns against LSU. The defending champs have been stunningly awful on defense this season, especially against the pass where they sit a putrid 125th in FBS (313.1 passing yards allowed per game). Trask leads the nation in touchdown passes and has thrown at least four in seven games this season, and he’s twice hit six TDs in a game. All signs point to it being a long night in The Swamp for the Tigers.
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Paul Myerberg
North Carolina wins a shootout against Miami and gets very close to securing a spot in one of the New Year’s Six bowls. Whether the Tar Heels actually make one of those major bowls depends largely on the result of Notre Dame and Clemson next week to decide the conference championship. A Clemson win would send both teams to the semifinals and pave UNC’s way to the New Year’s Six as the representative from the ACC. If knocked out of the playoff, Clemson would take that spot instead. Predicting UNC to win a game that runs at a fast pace may not be bold, given how the Tar Heels have played in high-scoring games. But it won’t be easy to force Miami into that tempo.
Brent Schrotenboer
If both Southern California and Colorado win this weekend, both will finish the regular season as the only undefeated teams in the Pac-12. But because both teams are in the same South division, only one would play for the league title Dec. 18. That would be USC, which then would play the winner of the North by virtue of having one more division win under its belt than CU, according to the Pac-12 tiebreaker. That’s despite the fact that USC’s scheduled game against the Buffaloes Nov. 28 was canceled because of its own COVID issues.
What can be done about this? The league can arrange to have USC and CU play each other for the title instead, which would be against the league's current protocol. Or the issue can resolve itself on the field this weekend, which is the bold prediction here. The Trojans are historically uneven and underwhelming at times under coach Clay Helton and this time enter a rivalry game on the road against a UCLA team that has proven itself capable of overmatching opposing defenses under coach Chip Kelly. UCLA wins, knocking the Trojans out of league title contention.
Erick Smith
Wisconsin has lost its last two games and scored a combined 13 points in those defeats to Northwestern and Indiana. Iowa has won its last five games by an average margin of 22 points. However, the Hawkeyes are an underdog at home against the visiting Badgers. Makes no sense.
Look for Iowa and its 14th-ranked scoring defense to keep Wisconsin offense in check. And it will eventually grind down the Badgers for another comfortable win to boost its chance to rise into a New Year's Six bowl.
Eddie Timanus
It would be only natural for Coastal Carolina to experience something of a lull after the excitement of last week’s thrilling win against BYU. In addition, the Chanticleers’ spot in the Sun Belt championship game is already secured, so finding motivation for Saturday’s regular-season finale at Troy might be a challenge.
The Trojans are just 5-5, though three of their losses have come by a touchdown or less. They’ve been a strong Sun Belt squad for some time and wouldn’t mind ending CCU’s bid for a perfect regular season.
So will it happen? Well, no. Troy might hang around for a time if the Chanticleers are at all flat early on. But Troy’s most lopsided losses were at the hands of Appalachian State and BYU, both of whom Coastal handled. The Chants will put it away and stay in the major bowl hunt.
Dan Wolken
The end of this slog of a season is all about which team wants to be there on Saturday, and one team that has consistently given great effort is Missouri. The Tigers aren't just going through the motions, they seem like they're excited to play and have been rewarded with a spot in the Top 25 of the College Football Playoff committee rankings. The biggest statement Missouri could make at this point would be to upset Georgia and cap off a really good year. Georgia has played better offensively since JT Daniels became the starting quarterback, but it's fair to say their defense has been a mild disappointment. Missouri ranks fourth in the SEC in total offense, so the Tigers are explosive enough to exploit Georgia. It'll be interesting to see how hard Georgia wants to fight, especially with the weather forecast for Saturday in Columbia calling for an ugly, wet day with a high of 40 degrees. Missouri has a great chance to pull off a notable win here.
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