This is where the getting gets good. We're nearing the homestretch of the college football season where games grow in importance and pressure on coaches and teams increases. The Week 9 schedule includes five games matching ranked opponents that have College Football Playoff implications as teams fall out of contention and others elevate their status.
These increased stakes can lead to surprising performances or shocking upsets. But with so many potential pitfalls this Saturday, where will those unlikely results come from? That's why we're here to make sense of things. The USA TODAY Sports college football staff — Scooby Axson, Jordan Mendoza, Paul Myerberg, Erick Smith, Eddie Timanus and Dan Wolken — weigh in with bold predictions for Week 9 of the college football season.
Vanderbilt has lived a charmed existence this season, beating Alabama and Kentucky, with their only two losses being by a combined seven points. Texas comes to town this week and has had a few days to marinate what went wrong in their home loss to Georgia. The No.
25 Commodores are no slouch and will give the Longhorns a fight, but Texas is too talented where it matters most, and that will show up in the second half. Vanderbilt's fans will be relegated to staying in their seats by the game's end, and the goalposts, which made a two-mile trek and ended up in the Cumberland River after the Crimson Tide upset, won't leave the stadium. For as much attention Colorado gets, not enough of it is being focused o.
