The nation's longest winning streak should end on Saturday: On the Line

The nation's longest winning streak should be dead by 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday. No. 10 Michigan, winners of 16 straight overall and 23 consecutive at the Big House, are the defending national champions and deserve all the respect that statement implies, with a number of key players back from one of the most epic title runs in college football history.

But against Fresno State, the Wolverines looked every bit like what they are, and that is a team breaking in a new coaching staff (HC Sherrone Moore, OC Kirk Campbell and DC Wink Martindale are all new to the team and/or their roles) and almost entirely new personnel on offense. Alex Orji, the presumptive starting quarterback entering fall camp, went 1-of-2 for 3 yards. Davis Warren, the former walk-on who supplanted Orji over the course of training camp, averaged 4.7 yards per attempt. Donovan Edwards gained 27 yards on 13 touches, and Wolverines receivers totaled 34 yards on six catches. 

No. 3 Texas is one of the most experienced teams in the country. Even if Will Johnson shuts down Isaiah Bond, Quinn Ewers still has five other receivers, plus three tight ends and two running backs, to throw to. The secondary, an Achilles heel last season, now looks like a strength.

That's not to say Michigan can't win this game (noon ET, Fox). It's that there's no real reason Texas should lose it.

The CyHawk game is a proving ground for Iowa... State. The Iowa offense is continually under the microscope, but it's Iowa State who will take the Kinnick Stadium field (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS) with something to prove. Matt Campbell's team hasn't scored more than 17 against their in-state rivals since 2017, when they exploded for 41 and (amazingly) lost, 44-41. Campbell is just 1-6 in the CyHawk game. 

Iowa State ran for just 86 yards on 22 carries in their 21-3 defeat of North Dakota last week, while No. 21 Iowa limited Illinois State to 56 yards on 33 totes. 

Saturday night brings an opportunity show how far Matt Rhule's Nebraska has come in a year. Three hundred sixty-seven days before this Saturday, Nebraska went to Boulder and got pantsed by a Colorado team that would win two more games all season. 

The Huskers turned the ball over four times, trailed 36-7 before scoring with no time on the clock, and quarterback Jeff Sims went 9-of-15 for 106 yards with an interception while Shedeur Sanders threw for nearly 400. 

Colorado, fortunate to beat North Dakota State, is a rare thing in college football: a team with an elite-of-the-elite passing game that's average to below average to flat-out bad elsewhere. Have the Huskers improved enough to take advantage (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC)?

A chance, but serendipitous, meeting on the Palouse. Saturday night's Texas Tech-Washington State game (10 p.m. ET, Fox). The Red Raiders were originally supposed to visit Eugene as a return for Oregon's trip to Lubbock last September, but the break-up of the Pac-12 pushed that game to 2033 so Oregon could make room to play Oregon State instead. 

No matter how it came about, Texas Tech's first visit to Pullman comes at a time when the late, great Mike Leach's College Football Hall of Fame candidacy has been in the news. 

Leach, who died with a .596 winning percentage, would not be eligible for inclusion at this time even if he passed with a .996, but his candidacy has been a topic of discussion since his December 2022 death, and Saturday night would be a great opportunity for the two schools where Leach won 139 of his 158 games to jointly announce they will nominate him for the Hall when he becomes eligible in 2026. (Leach, along with four others, will be inducted into WSU's athletics hall of fame at halftime.)

Additional Games:

-- Arkansas at No. 18 Oklahoma State (noon ET, ABC): At 186 miles and change, Arkansas is closer to Oklahoma State than any other Power 4 school, but the Hogs and Pokes have never been in the same conference, and haven't played at all since 1980. And coming off a 4-8 season with an entire SEC slate still ahead of him, one has to wonder if Sam Pittman would get out of this voluntary trip to Stillwater if given the chance. 

-- No. 17 Kansas State at Tulane (noon ET, ESPN): Tulane beat the Wildcats in 2022, dethroning the eventual Big 12 champions while showing that the Green Wave, who would go on to win the American and the Cotton Bowl over USC, were for real. Tulane hammered Southeastern Louisiana, but this is the de facto beginning of the Jon Sumrall (24-4 as a head coach) era in Nola. 

-- Army at Florida Atlantic (noon ET, CBS SN): Army kicks off its AAC membership with a trip to Boca Raton; it's the Black Knights' first conference game since Nov. 20, 2004, when they competed as members of Conference USA. 

-- Tennessee Tech at No. 1 Georgia (2 p.m. ET, ESPN+): Credit Tennessee Tech head coach Bobby Wilder for honesty.

“If I was being honest, I would tell you I’m not thrilled to be headed to Athens, Georgia, this weekend,” Wilder said Tuesday, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “So, I’ll be dishonest and say I’m very excited to be playing Georgia at Sanford Stadium in front of 93,000.”

-- Baylor at No. 11 Utah (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox): It's Baylor's first game against a Big 12 team as a Big 12 team, but it's not a Big 12 game. The Utes' Big 12 debut will have to wait for their trip to Stillwater in two weeks, while on Saturday Utah and Baylor pay off a non-conference home-and-home that began with a 20-13 Utes win in Waco last September. 

-- Cal at Auburn (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2): Pinpointing the exact matchup would be next to impossible, but Cal at Auburn is a 10.0 on the "biggest culture clash in FBS" continuum. This is the Golden Bears' first visit to Jordan-Hare, and we're guessing it's also the last. 

-- Charlotte at North Carolina (3:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network): Mack Brown declared he was done with UNC playing App State after the Tar Heels survived the Mountaineers in double OT last September. "I've had enough," Brown said. We'll see how he feels about playing this in-state foe following the first meeting between North Carolina's flagship school and its UNC system affiliate from the state's largest city. 

-- UTSA at Texas State (4 p.m. ET, ESPNU): Jeff Traylor and GJ Kinne's relationship dates back nearly 20 years, to when Traylor was a Texas high school coach and Kinne a quarterback dropped on Traylor's doorstep. Traylor and Kinne coached together at SMU and Arkansas, and now face off for the second time after UTSA beat Texas State last September, in Kinne's second game leading the Bobcats.

These schools, located just an hour's drive apart on Interstate 35, have been rivals long before they first met on the gridiron in 2012, and a Texas State win would be a wild scene. 

-- Marshall at Virginia Tech (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW): Virginia Tech lost to Marshall on the road last season, and has dropped a game to a Group of 5 opponent in each of Brent Pry's season thus far. 

-- Central Michigan at FIU (6 p.m. ET, ESPN+): Dale!

-- South Florida at No. 4 Alabama (7 p.m. ET, ESPN): When these teams met last season, Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe did not play, while Notre Dame lacrosse midfielder Tyler Buchner threw 14 passes (completing five, for 34 yards). That is a thing that happened. 

-- No. 14 Tennessee vs. No. 24 NC State at Charlotte (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC): In an age where experienced quarterbacks are all the rage, NC State's Grayson McCall makes his 43rd career start against Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava, making his third. I'm riding with Nico. 

-- Boise State at No. 7 Oregon (10 p.m. ET, Peacock): Would you believe that Oregon has never beaten Boise? They've only played three times previously, but still. If the Ducks' run game was a disaster against Idaho (107 yards at 2.9 ypc, long of 16), while Ashton Jeanty put up 1988 Barry Sanders-type numbers at Georgia Southern. If Oregon runs the ball and controls Jeanty, the Ducks win. If not...

-- Northern Arizona at No. 20 Arizona (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+): If and when Michigan's national-best 16-game winning streak ends Saturday, the crown will move to Arizona and its 8-game streak.