On the Line: For Lincoln Riley, it's now or (maybe) never

It's now or never (maybe) for Lincoln Riley. It appears USC is going to wear the villain role as No. 20 USC and No. 13 Notre Dame (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC) meet for the final scheduled time. Whatever. If the cleat fits, you might as well wear it while walking out of Notre Dame Stadium for (perhaps) the final time.

USC is unsure about whether it wants to continue playing Notre Dame since its new conference arrangement now requires multiple trips to the Midwest fall on top of their voluntary biannual trips to South Bend. Whether they continue this specific game in the future is a top for another day, but Lincoln Riley must win these types of games if he's going to be successful at USC. 

Riley is 0-5 when traveling to the Midwest/East Coast, and the 2024 opener against LSU is the only pelt he's gathered over a ranked opponent outside of Southern California. USC isn't eliminated from CFP contention with a loss here (they're still technically in the Big Ten race) but it would be hard to believe they're good enough to overtake Ohio State and/or Indiana if they can't win this game, with a trip to Eugene waiting next month.

This is a matchup between two of the most explosive passing offenses in college football -- USC's Jayden Maiva leads the nation at 10.8 yards per attempt, Notre Dame's CJ Carr is tied for second at 10.3. So far, USC has shown more propensity for defending the pass than Notre Dame, but the Irish have faced better passing attacks than USC. 

There's also another subplot here: USC's attempt to build its off-field operation by hiring away from Notre Dame. No one did a better job of chronicling that this offseason than our own John Brice. 

First team to 30 wins, forever. For now. Should be fun.

BYU and Utah will put the war into Holy War. Last year, Utah and BYU's presidents launched a campaign called "Rival Right," in an attempt to tamper down the animosity between the two major universities in their state. Nerd stuff. Here's how last year's game ended: 

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan took the microphone in the press area to lambaste the referees, saying the game was “absolutely stolen from us.” BYU players taunted Utah fans in the end zone. A fan was arrested for throwing a water bottle that hit a BYU cheer coach in the head.

This week, a BYU fan was arrested for threatening to shoot any Utah fan unfortunate enough to cross his sight. "Anyone wearing red on Saturday is getting shot," he tweeted. His reasoning? "I'll never forget the amount of hatred I felt for Utah sitting front row for the 54-10 beat down in 2011."

This rivalry -- in which the two schools can't agree upon on a birth date, and disagree on the total number of games played -- is largely one of one being up while the other is down, and the losing side promising retribution for the blowout they just endured. 

"The hatred between BYU and Utah is nothing compared to what it will be. It will be a crusade to beat BYU from now on," Utah coach Frank Howard said in 1977, after BYU's LaVell Edwards re-inserted quarterback Marc Wilson into the game so he could break the NCAA single-game passing record in a 38-8 Cougars win. Utah won the 1978 game, 23-22. 

Neither team is down this year, though. No. 23 Utah heads to Provo (8 p.m. ET, Fox) with one loss, while No. 15 BYU is undefeated. The difference in records could boil down to the fact that Utah has already played the Texas Tech juggernaut while BYU hasn't yet.

Either way, both teams sport elite defenses, particularly against the pass, where both are in the top 15 nationally. Quarterbacks Bear Bachmeier and Devon Dampier rank 45th and 46th nationally in passing efficiency; Bachmeier is better down-to-down, while Dampier has found the end zone more often. 

This is an important game in the Big 12 race, but the stakes of this single game are higher than a simple conference championship. Whoever wins the battle of making their QB comfortable will win the war. 

SEC upstarts go into the land of giants. Where were you in 2003? Tennessee was winning in Tuscaloosa for the, as of this writing, last time. The Vols' ongoing 9-game Bryant-Denny losing streak predates Nick Saban (Mike Shula won 6-3 in 2005 in a since-vacated game) and continued throughout the entire Saban era. 

Kalen DeBoer is 10-0 at home at Alabama, and has won 25 straight home games as a head coach, period. He's also arguably the best coach against ranked teams in college football history, carrying a 17-3 record into No. 6 Alabama's date with No. 11 Tennessee (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC). That, obviously, includes three top-20 wins in three consecutive weeks, two of them on the road, so the Tide will be the opposite of phased when they line up across from the Volunteers. 

So, the best big-game coach of his time, with the longest personal home win streak in college football right now, in a place Tennessee hasn't won in a generation? "This is why you come to Tennessee, to play a game like this and a great rivalry game with Alabama," Josh Heupel said. 

No. 5 Ole Miss is probably one win -- and no upset losses -- away from a College Football Playoff berth, and that win would best be earned at No. 9 Georgia (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Alabama ended Georgia's 33-game home win streak, but the Dawgs haven't dropped a home game to anyone other than Alabama since 2019, and Ole Miss hasn't won in Athens since 1996. 

More importantly, Lane Kiffin is 0-5 in road games against ranked SEC foes at Ole Miss. The Rebels don't need to win at Sanford Stadium to compete for an SEC and national championship, but this opportunity can't be overstated. This is a program that last won the SEC in 1963, and hasn't won the conference with anyone other than College Football Hall of Famer Johnny Vaught coaching them. The schedule after this isn't all downhill, but it's as downhill as an SEC schedule can be in 2025: at No. 14 Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida, at Mississippi State. And, again, Ole Miss wouldn't even need to win all those games if they get this one.

Big if, though.

On the other side of this equation, Alabama and Georgia have won every SEC championship but one since 2014. How many swings from the SEC's middle class have they taken? How many have actually landed? It's the Tide and Bulldogs' conference until someone else takes it from them.  

Additional Games:

-- Louisville at No. 2 Miami (7 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN) 
-- No. 25 Nebraska at Minnesota (8 p.m. ET Friday, Fox): Ranked teams are 1-3 so far this season in weeknight road games. The Canes and Huskers challenges are opposite here. Miami has played one game since Sept. 20; Nebraska is playing their second Big Ten road game in seven days.

-- North Carolina at Cal (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): How many of us will stay up too late watching this train wreck? Put it this way: A 37-15 Cal win would be North Carolina's best result against a Power 4 foe so far this year.

-- No. 10 LSU at No. 17 Vanderbilt (noon ET, ABC): LSU is the higher-ranked team, but Vanderbilt is favored. Garrett Nussmeier has fired five touchdowns against four interceptions in four games against the Power 4 so far, and LSU hasn't scored more than 20 in any of thos games. 

-- No. 12 Georgia Tech at Duke (noon ET, ESPN): Darian Mensah has played fantastic football in Duke's 3-game winning streak, hitting 63-of-86 throws for 802 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions. 

-- Washington at Michigan (noon ET, Fox): Sherrone Moore, 10-7 as Michigan's full-time head coach in games in which he's not suspended for and 6-5 in Big Ten competition, showed up to his press conference this week wearing a blue collar jacket. That doesn't really work when you're 17-0, and it sure doesn't work when you're 10-7. It works even less when you're 10-8. 

-- Baylor at TCU (noon ET, ESPN2): The Holy War isn't the Big 12's only rivalry with religious undertones. Baylor and TCU have been playing the Revivalry (don't fall for the corporate name) since 1899; TCU owns a 59-54-7 lead, thanks to their 8-2 record since 2015. At 1-2 in Big 12 play, TCU desperately needs this one -- Sonny Dykes is 10-11 in Big 12 play after 2022.

-- No. 14 Oklahoma at South Carolina (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network): Oh, how the vibes shifted in one afternoon in Dallas. John Mateer was bad on Saturday, so if he returns to form, OU should be fine. Then again, Mateer isn't getting any help from his run game. Double then again, South Carolina's run game isn't any better than OU's. That might be why Mateer and Sellers have 10 combined touchdown passes across 293 attempts. Should be a fun one.

-- West Virginia at UCF (1 p.m. ET, TNT): In the You Can Go Home Again Bowl, Rich Rod and Scott Frost are looking to win their first Big 12 game of their 2.0 tenures against each other. 

-- Purdue at Northwestern (3 p.m. ET, BTN): At the time I'm writing this, the Big Ten's $2 billion equity deal that would extend the B1G's Grant of Rights for another 20 years has not been approved. If that remains the case by Saturday afternoon, there will undoubtedly be some nervous comparing-of-notes conversations in the Purdue and Northwestern tailgates.

-- No. 1 Ohio State at Wisconsin (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): Is this Luke Fickell's final game at Wisconsin? That's the only question to ask around this program at this point.

-- No. 4 Texas A&M at Arkansas (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): Texas A&M and Arkansas agreed to a 10-year deal to play their series, then a non-conference game, at Jerry World. Judging by the attendance, their fan bases wanted out by, oh, about 2014. But the deal was extended when A&M joined the SEC, and so now Aggies-Hogs moves back on campus for good. A&M is 12-1 vs. Arkansas since joining the conference.

-- SMU at Clemson (3:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network): That the rematch of a thrilling ACC Championship is reduced to ACC Network pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

-- UNLV at Boise State (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1): A rematch of the last two MW title games, and quite possibly a sneak peak at the third. UNLV is still looking for its first win over Boise State as an FBS member -- they joined what's now FBS in 1978, and last beat Boise in 1976 -- but they've also literally never lost a game under Dan Mullen.

-- UTSA at North Texas (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+): We documented last week's blown opportunity, and now Eric Morris has to get his team and his fan base re-engaged as the Mean Green look to stay in the AAC race and snap a 4-game losing skid to the biggest rival they've got right now.

-- No. 22 Memphis at UAB (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2): Memphis already owns the longest active win streak in FBS (nine games), and they look to push that streak to double digits for the first time since the Tigers ripped off 15 straight from 2014-15.

-- No. 8 Oregon at Rutgers (6:30 p.m. ET, BTN): You're going to find this hard to believe, but this is the first Ducks-Scarlet Knights meeting ever.

-- No. 21 Texas at Kentucky (7 p.m. ET, ESPN): Oklahoma proved to be a great matchup for Texas in all the ways Florida was a terrible one for the Longhorns -- namely, the existence of a downhill running game. Kentucky operates much more like the Gators than the Sooners; we'll see what Texas learned.

-- Penn State at Iowa (7 p.m. ET, Peacock): AD Pat Kraft said he'll do everything in his power to help interim head coach Terry Smith win the full-time role. That will largely depend on helping the coaches coach Ethan Grunkmeyer, who is now Penn State's starting quarterback, after throwing all of 13 passes to this point. 

-- Maryland at UCLA (7 p.m. ET, FS1): Speaking of interims winning their way into the job, how much longer does UCLA have to look like a completely different team under Tim Skipper for that start to talk in Westwood? And while we're on the topic, why has Jerry Neuheisel gotten all the credit for UCLA's turnaround and Skipper none? The CFB casual likely believes Neuheisel is actually UCLA's head coach. 

-- Florida Atlantic at No. 19 South Florida (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU): A shame Tom Herman won't be around to reenact this friendly postgame handshake.

-- No. 16 Missouri at Auburn (7:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network): After three straight heartbreaking losses, one of two things will become of Auburn this week -- they'll find a way to beat Mizzou, or they'll get blown out. No in between.

-- Florida State at Stanford (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): My goodness. Pac-12 After Dark has turned into the ACC Late Night Pit of Misery this weekend. UNC on Friday, then FSU on Saturday. This one should probably come with a parental advisory warning.