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Clemson fans have an important choice to make this weekend, one that could impact the rest of this football season. With the Tigers taking the week off, you have two choices for what to do with your weekend, both with positives and potential negatives:
1. Your first option is to take that to-do list that keeps growing and get as much done as possible. If you're single, go see your parents, fix that knocking sound in your car engine, or clean up around the house a little. That will keep your mom off your back for a few weeks, ensure you can get to Clemson for the game next weekend (if you luck into tickets), and make things sanitary for your friends who come over (when you don't end up landing tickets after all). If you're married, do whatever your wife tells you needs to be done, take the kids out to a park so she can have some quiet time, and then take her to a nice dinner. This will store up some brownie points and good will that you can cash in later.
2. Your second option is to dust off the Fry Daddy, whip up some wings, grab a six pack of Bell's Two Hearted IPA, and settle in for a day in the recliner watching football. Neither mom nor the wife and kids need to know that Clemson isn't playing this weekend. They've already settled in to the routine of Saturdays being devoted to football, so why disrupt the family rhythm? This allows you to scout our upcoming competition, get a better idea of what's going on around the country, and keep expectations low so you don't disappoint anyone by your absence throughout the remainder of the season.
For those who choose option #2, here are some games that may be worth checking out:
#20 Georgia Tech at Duke
Kickoff at 12:00 EST
TV: ESPN 2
After Georgia Tech underwhelmed against Notre Dame last weekend, many are wondering if their early season fireworks were simply the result of playing overmatched opponents. It'll be interesting to see if they are still reeling from their first loss of the season or if they come out angry, ready to prove the doubters wrong. I'm a big David Cutcliffe fan and I'm glad to see him making Duke competitive. I don't think this game will determine the Coastal, as some have said, but it will probably eliminate Duke from contention. GT 41 - Duke 17
UCF at USCe
Kickoff at 12:00 EST
TV: ESPNU
I will check in on this one as long as there's hope that UCF can beat USCjr. While both teams are unranked, the few South Carolina fans I haven't blocked on Facebook yet feel that this is an automatic win simply based on the fact that they play in the SEC and UCF doesn't. Nothing would make my weekend like seeing Spurrier lose to a team that got beat by Furman last weekend. I doubt it will happen, but a guy can hope. USuCk 38 - UCF 10
#8 LSU at Syracuse
Kickoff at 12:00 EST
TV: ESPN
A poor, backwoods, Southern state school sends their football team up into the hot, humid, and defeaning Carrier Dome. Will the Bayou Bengals be able to withstand such a hostile home environment? Will Kevin Steele be able to stop the juggernaut Syracuse offense? Will Fournette find any running room through the brick wall known as the Cuse's front 7? Ha. Haha. Hahahahahaha. Sorry. I couldn't keep it in any longer. What a joke. I'll be watching just to see how many Syracuse defenders become roadkill thanks to Fournette and that LSU offensive line. The Lord be with whatever poor soul goes under center for Syracuse this weekend. LSU 48 - Key Janglers 13
Tennessee at Florida
Kickoff at 3:30 EST
TV: CBS
Remember when this was a marquee matchup? Many of the readers here were probably still in diapers. I don't really have any love for either of these programs. I remember Spurrier being hilariously offensive toward the Vols ("You can't spell Citrus with U-T.") when he was at Florida. While those jabs were funny, I already disliked Spurrier's attitude back then. The recent ESPN article about the Florida program during the last few years of Urban Meyer's tenure didn't improve my feelings for the Gators. Tennessee has long been one of my favorite schools to laugh at. From their sickly orange color, to their biggest fans, to the best player in their school's history losing the Heisman to the only defensive player to ever win it, they're an easy target. UT is still recovering from the whole Lane Kiffin debacle, but they've shown more life than Florida so far. UT 24 - UF 17
#3 TCU at Texas Tech
Kickoff at 4:45 EST
TV: Fox
A lot of people are putting TCU on upset alert against the Red Raiders. TCU started the year slowly and let SMU hang around for a while last week. TTU put up a lot of points the first two weeks and beat an SEC team last week. If that's all I knew, I might be worried. TCU is averaging almost 50 points per game so far this year. They dropped 82 on Texas Tech last year. While the Red Raiders have put up a few points themselves, they were only ahead of Arkansas by four going into the 4th quarter last week. They may end up scoring a combined 150 points, but I think TCU has more firepower on offense and a stronger defense. TCU 55 - TTU 34
#9 UCLA at #16 Arizona
Kickoff at 8:00 EST
TV: ABC
A classic battle of enigmatic, hard to judge Pac 12 teams. It seems like every year there are a handful of Pac 12 teams that get a lot of preseason and early season hype only to fall flat down the home stretch. UCLA may be that team this year. They just lost another defensive starter to a season ending injury and their prematurely hyped Heisman candidate QB hasn't really been lighting the world on fire. Arizona, on the other hand, has put up a lot of points and played little defense against what has to be the softest non-conference schedules outside of the SEC. Both of these teams are difficult to judge because they didn't have strong out of conference schedules and it's always hard to get a bead on the real strength of the Pac 12. Both teams probably need to drop five to ten places in the rankings to be where they ought to be, in my opinion. Arizona, with their lack of defense, is up (I mean down) first. UCLA 27 - Zona 24
#18 Utah at #13 Oregon
Kickoff at 8:30 EST
TV: Fox
How many times in the last 15 years has Oregon been so close? Three #2 finishes since 2001, three top five finishes in the last five years, two national championship game appearances. It's impressive, but it has to be excruciatingly frustrating for the Duck faithful. Despite the fact that Utah won more BCS bowls than Clemson and has more top 5 finishes in the last ten years than we have had in our entire program's history, it still feels like a mid-major program. I love pulling for the underdog and Salt Lake City is one of my favorite cities, so I like to see the Utes do well. However, even in what appears to be a slight rebuilding year for Oregon, it's hard to imagine them losing more than maybe one more game the rest of the way, and Utah shouldn't it. ORE 47 - Utah 27
ESPN
Cincinnati
Memphis
Boise State
Virginia
FS1
(21) Stanford
Oregon State
BTN
Kansas
Rutgers
ABC
(22) BYU
Michigan
Central Michigan
(2) Michigan State
ESPNN
Nebraska
ESPN2
(20) Georgia Tech
Duke
SECN
Southern
(10) Georgia
ESPNU
South Carolina
(8) LSU
Syracuse
CBSS
Connecticut
Purdue
ESPN3
North Carolina
Indiana
Wake Forest
Boston College
PAC12
Colorado
New Mexico
FSN
(5) Baylor
Maryland
West Virginia
Minnesota
ABC/ESPN2
(1) Ohio State
Penn State
(24) Oklahoma State
Texas
Virginia Tech
CBS
Tennessee
Florida
AMSN
Iowa
NBC
(6) Notre Dame
Buffalo
(12) Alabama
Illinois
FOX
(3) TCU
Texas Tech
Cal
Washington
Louisville
(14) Texas A&M
Arkansas
Vanderbilt
(3) Mississippi
Mississippi State
Auburn
(25) Missouri
Kentucky
NC State
(9) UCLA
(16) Arizona
(17) Northwestern
Wisconsin
UTEP
(18) Utah
(13) Oregon
(19) USC
Arizona State