College Football Late Saturday: #11 Oregon vs. #16 Auburn Takes the Spotlight

Welcome to the late shift where the interesting games of the opening Saturday of college football live.

Let’s start with the clear headliner, which is the matchup between the #11 Oregon Ducks and the #16 Auburn Tigers. This is the clear highlight game of the entire weekend as it’s the only game between two teams ranked in the AP Top 25. Putting the game at Jerry World in Dallas (Yes, I know that’s neither the name of the stadium or the city it’s located in. Just let me have this.) is another sign of how big this game is, especially to both teams and their hypothetical national championship aspirations. That actually leads well into one of the storylines of this game as both teams last met in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. UCLA head coach Chip Kelly was leading the Ducks back then and the Ducks could very well have won the game had the referees actually done their job and ruled that Michael Dyer was down, which he was. There are a bunch of more current storylines as well. Auburn always seems on the verge of attempting to rid themselves of Gus Malzahn, who was the offensive coordinator of the Tigers in that BCS Title game, while Oregon is trying to prove that they actually have returned and aren’t just making a bunch of noise about being back. Oh, and both teams have a penchant for blowing up at a moment’s notice. This game should be fun!

The game UCLA fans will be sadistically interested in kicks off at 7:30 pm PT when the Southern Cal Trojans begin their season by hosting the Fresno State Bulldogs. Again, I cannot stress enough how funny it is that Clay Helton is still in charge at Southern Cal. UCLA fans probably still have nightmares about last year’s game against the Bulldogs and the only way to cleanse those thoughts is to watch the Bulldogs turn around and do the same thing to the Trojans. Plus, you can almost guarantee that there will be more Fresno State fans than Southern Cal fans at the game, which will be hilarious.

Beyond that, the only other mildly interesting game is the #3 Georgia Bulldogs opening up SEC play by traveling to play the Vanderbilt Commodores. I don’t think this is a game Vandy can win, but it is a conference game and the first game of the season. So, strange things could theoretically happen. The Boise State Broncos face the Florida State Seminoles in what was supposed to be a “neutral site game” in Florida. This game has been moved from Jacksonville to Tallahassee due to Hurricane Dorian. If this game actually gets played, it has some potential.

Here is tonight’s full late slate:

This is your College Football Late Saturday open thread.


Go Bruins!