RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

When conference schedules were announced ahead of the 2024 college football season, there was one specific date – October 12th – that fans across the country were circling.

This is the day when fall weddings go unattended, youth football games are best finished by noon, and brunch simply doesn’t happen unless there are four different college football games showing on four screens.

This weekend, more than most, could be a college football Saturday to remember. But just last weekend — when four of the sport’s top 11 programs lost to unranked opponents — we had something like that, too.

This Saturday is marked by separation. Who is real? Who isn’t? Who can take another decisive step towards winning the national title?

Here are the top five games to watch this weekend:

No. 9 Ole Miss at No. 13 LSU (7:30 p.m. ET)

This game features the SEC’s two most productive passers. Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart leads the Alliance – er, conference – in passing yards and ranks second in the Empire – er, league – in passing touchdowns. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, meanwhile, ranks first in passing touchdowns and second in passing yards.

While both programs still have to face Georgia later this year, Ole Miss could put itself in a better position with a win. Lane Kiffin’s team doesn’t play Alabama or Texas this season and will likely be the favorite in every game except the Dawgs.

Ole Miss could use another big game from wideout Tre Harris, who leads the nation with 147.5 yards per game, and running back Henry Parrish Jr., who averages 106.6 yards per game per game and in each of Ole Miss’s yards ‘Past has scored a goal five games.

LSU, still undefeated in SEC play, could use this opportunity to take full advantage of Georgia’s loss to Alabama and Alabama’s loss to Vanderbilt. With a win, LSU would join Texas A&M (idle) and Texas (with a win against Oklahoma) as the only undefeated teams in league competition.

No. 4 Penn State at USC (3:30 p.m. ET)

Normally we only see these two in the Rose Bowl in the postseason. But with USC joining the Big Ten, the Nittany Lions And Trojans will meet again in the regular season for the first time since 2000.

While USC has won each of its last three games against Penn State, the Trojans are floundering. Losses to Michigan and Minnesota – hardly the class of the Big Ten this year – have left USC with just one Big Ten win this season. However, USC is 3-0 in the Coliseum this year.

Both the location and the opponent provide Penn State with an opportunity to show that they are just as strong on the road as they are in Beaver Stadium. The game in Los Angeles will be the Nittany Lions’ first road game since August 31st. With a win, PSU joins winner Ohio State-Oregon and Indiana as the conference’s last undefeated Big Ten teams and inches closer to its first appearance in the College Football Playoff.

The return of tailback Nick Singleton could prove crucial in this game. He didn’t play last week in PSU’s 27-11 win over UCLA on Oct. 5, and it showed. Penn State managed just 85 yards without him, and Singleton managed at least 100 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown in every game he played in 2024. The Trojans defense was dragged around the walls like Hector Troy by Minnesota’s rushing attack for 193 yards.

No. 18 Kansas State at Colorado (10:15 p.m. ET)

Colorado is looking to move to 5-1 for the first time since 2018, upset a Top 25 opponent, move to the top of the Big 12 title race and perhaps break into the AP Top 25 for the first time this year. However, CU is just 1-5 against top 25 opponents of the Deion Sanders era.

While quarterback Shedeur Sanders has thrown for 331 yards per game and 15 total touchdowns while completing 70.1 percent of his passes, he is getting hit – a lot. He was sacked 17.0 times – the most by a Big 12 signal-caller this year.

And then there’s Travis Hunter, who continues to show why he should hold the Heisman at the end of the year. He is the first player in the last 30 years to record 10 career touchdown catches and five interceptions, and those are just his FBS numbers. He leads the Big 12 in receptions with 46, has an average of 112 receiving yards per game, has caught six touchdowns, recorded two interceptions, has not allowed a single pass and is playing an average of 132 snaps per game.

The Wildcats are looking to post their first 5-1 start since 2022 — the year K-State defeated undefeated TCU to win the Big 12 championship — and they have another standout quarterback to do it. Avery Johnson totaled 319 yards and five touchdowns in K-State’s final game. But the only loss K-State has suffered was on the road – a 38-9 loss at BYU – and that game is at Folsom Field.

No. 1 Texas vs. No. 18 Oklahoma (3:30 p.m. ET)

The 120th edition of the Red River Rivalry pits the nation’s No. 1 team, Texas, against the team it has lost to in 17 of the last 25 years: Oklahoma.

But this one Earlier are a two-touchdown underdog with a true freshman at quarterback, a depleted receiving corps, a patchwork offensive line and a rushing attack that’s as lethal as a whiny Care Bear. OU’s third-down conversion rate (5 of 26) is atrocious in SEC play. But since the QB change from Jackson Arnold to Michael Hawkins Jr., the offense has done a better job of not giving the ball away.

Hawkins completed 10 of 15 passes and racked up 230 total yards in OU’s win over Auburn, and Oklahoma’s defense has allowed just 16 points per game this season. But it doesn’t bode well that OU gave up 338 passing yards to an Auburn that hasn’t mounted a credible passing attack against SEC opponents in the Hugh Freeze era. In fact, in the Tigers’ 2024 season opener, Alabama A&M is the only other team to have allowed 300 yards rushing to Auburn with Freeze as head coach.

Texas now boasts a top-10 offense and a top-five defense and is seeking its first 6-0 start since 2009, the last year it played for the national title. No one has scored more than 14 points on the Texas defense, and the Texas offense averages 45 points per game. The Longhorns are also bringing starting QB Quinn Ewers back into the saddle. You are the favorite. They should win this year. But it’s OU-Texas. So the hatred runs deep. And even if Texas is elite, the river runs red.

#2 Ohio State in 3rd place Oregon (7:30 p.m. ET)

From the moment Oregon joined the Big Ten, this was the game we wanted. Ohio State was embarrassed at home Ducks the last time they met. This year they’ve proven they’re the class of the Big Ten, and Saturday’s game at Autzen Stadium could be the first of three meetings this year. I expect the winner of this game to tie the No. 1 team’s headband around his afro.

The Ducks have won 34 of their last 35 games in Autzen. However, they face an Ohio State team that has beaten each of its opponents by 28 or more points. This is the first time in school history Buckeyes achieved this feat in the first five games of a season.

Buckeyes freshman Jeremiah Smith is averaging 97.2 receiving yards per game and has scored seven touchdowns this season, while the Buckeye defense is the nation’s best-scoring defense, allowing just 6.8 points per game. No opponent has scored more than 15 goals against OSU this season.

The Ducks have won 20 of their last 22 games and appear to be emerging as the type of team we expected them to be in the preseason. Even after his worst performance as a Duck last week, when he threw two interceptions in the same game for the first time since 2022, Dillon Gabriel was surgically efficient. He leads the nation with a 77.8 completion percentage, averages 304 total yards per game and has thrown 14 touchdowns this season compared to just three interceptions.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and host of The Number One College Football Show podcast. Follow him at @RJ_Young.

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