College Football Late Saturday: #2 Clemson and #17 Boston College Clash

Welcome to the late shift, which again features a host of games I would best qualify as “interesting”. Not because they will necessarily be good, but because the capacity exists for these games to get crazy in a hurry.

Let’s start with a pair of SEC rivalry games. First up, the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, between the #24 Auburn Tigers and the #5 Georgia Bulldogs. These two schools hate each other with a passion, and the series is pretty even historically, with Georgia holding a 58–56–8 lead. Georgia is a much better team than Auburn is at this point, but stranger things have happened in this rivalry. Plus, this means I get to post the unofficial Georgia theme song for our collective enjoyment.

At 4:30, another SEC rivalry game kicks off, as the #7 LSU Tigers take on the Arkansas Razorbacks for the Battle of the Golden Boot. This rivalry isn’t as long-lasting as Georgia-Auburn, since Arkansas did not join the SEC until 1992, and LSU tends to be the better team historically, but it has featured a host of Arkansas upsets over the years, including in 2007, when former Arkansas running back Darren McFadden ran all over the Tigers, who would still manage to go on and win the BCS Championship that year. This year, LSU clearly has the better team, but the Tigers have a tendency to forget how to play offense for long stretches, and they are just coming off a drubbing at the hands of Alabama, so we’ll see how they do here.

The big game of the late shift is in the ACC, where the #2 Clemson Tigers head up north to take on the #17 Boston College Eagles. Clemson is, once again, having a really good year, while Boston College is certainly having a breakout year under Steve Addazio. Still, this is shaping up to be the last major test for the Tigers - get a win and they should be able to coast into the College Football Playoffs. Old Clemson would have found a way to lose this game; new Clemson feels like one of the surest bets left outside of Tuscaloosa.

Finally, the late-night games has some potential for #Pac12AfterDark, as UC Berkeley comes down to face Southern Cal. Honestly, even outside of the obvious “root for Southern Cal’s opponent every time” stuff, I really want the Bears to win, because it would essentially remove any chance of the Trojans sneaking into the Pac-12 title game and lucking into a Pac-12 Championship and Rose Bowl berth. I mean, a UCLA victory over the Trojans would do that as well, but I’d like to not take my chances if at all possible.

Here is tonight’s full late slate:

This is your College Football Late Saturday open thread.

Go Bruins!