College Football Late Saturday: Oregon Heads to Washington State in a Pac-12 North Showdown

Although there aren’t as many ranked opponents playing each other this weekend in college football, there are still a bevy of entertaining late matchups today.

The #22 Mississippi St. Bulldogs travel to Death Valley to take on the #6 LSU Tigers at 4:00 PM PT on ESPN. After coming off of an impressive drubbing of the then-#2 Georgia Bulldogs, LSU looks to defend their home turf in what should be a terrific defensive battle. The Bulldogs have quietly been one of the better defensive teams in the NCAA this season, only allowing an average of 12.7 points and allowing a meager 289.7 yards per game. They’ll have their work cut out for them defensively, though with a sound LSU offensive approach. The Tigers average 202.1 passing/rushing yards per game.

As for LSU, it would not be at all surprising to see starting RB Nick Brossette find the end zone in this one. The Tigers’ running back has already found pay dirt nine times this season and has proven to be a human bulldozer in the red zone. Opponents have not fared well when traveling to Death Valley over the last few seasons. So, it will be interesting to see if Mississippi State can halt that trend.

At 4:30 PM PT on Fox, the #12 Oregon Ducks face off against the #25 Washington State Cougars. This one does qualify for #Pac12AfterDark because by the time the game ends, it will be dark. This is one of the better games of the week. After all, College Game Day did go to Pullman, WA for the first time ever.

Both teams sit at 5-1, with the Ducks coming off of an enthralling 30-27 OT win over the Washington Huskies. They’ll be facing a Cougar team that is tough on offensive and on defense. While the Ducks average 482.8 yards per game, WSU is only giving up 311.2 total yards per contest this season. Oregon’s QB Justin Herbert and RB CJ Verdell will have to play well on the road in what will surely be a hostile environment.

As for the Cougars, they love to air it out offensively. Starting QB Gardner Minshew II has already racked up 2422 passing yards and 19 TDs to only 4 INTs so far this year. In one of the most vertical offenses in college football, they have WRs who are deadly on the outside. Davontavean Martin leads the Cougars with 440 receiving yards in 6 TDs. This should be a doozy.

At 5:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks, the Southern Cal Trojans travel to Salt Lake City to face the Utah Utes. Winners of 3 straight, the Trojans 4-2 will be coming into a very raucous environment when they play the Utes. This could mean trouble for freshman QB JT Daniels who has proven to be turnover happy so far this season. He’s only thrown 7 TDs compared to 5 INTs. USC’s defense will have a tough test, especially with OLB Porter Gustin missing the rest of the season with an ankle injury.

For the 4-2 Utes, they’ll look to run the ball right down the Trojans throat. RB Zack Moss has been fantastic for Utah this season, rushing for 617 yards and 7 TDs already. His game is complimented by dual-threat QB Tyler Huntley. The starting QB has thrown for 1221 yards and 7 TDs while rushing for 207 yards and 3 TDs. This surely will be an entertaining battle against two teams jousting in the Pac-12 South Standings.

That should keep you occupied until the Bruins kickoff against Arizona at 7:30 pm PT on ESPN2.

Here’s today’s full slate of late games:

This is your College Football Late Saturday open thread. Join your fellow Bruin fans commenting on all of today’s late games below, but remember to head to the UCLA game thread later to join in the discussion of the Bruins vs. the Wildcats.


Go Bruins!!!