How To Football: Week 12 (Pt. 1: The Midweeks)

Hello all.

You’ll notice that much like LSU’s offense, we’ve picked up the tempo in the weekly How To Footballs. Due to a busy busy week on my end, we’re going to run a damn two minute drill here and preview all the midweek games. Later on in the week, if I’m not buried alive, we will have the full Saturday laid out.

Directional Michigan Shift

• Western Michigan-THE Ohio University of Ohio at Ohio (OH): With their win over Ball State last week, the Broncos surge ahead to first in the MAC West thanks to a tiebreaker over CMU. On the flip side of the coin, the Bobcats are now chasing Miami in the east due to them losing the game between last week. With a lot to play for, this one should be a pretty good game given the circumstances of weeknight football.
• Eastern Michigan-Akron: The Zips are the worst team in college football. We know this because Akron played the only real candidate for this position, UMass, and lost. Akron has not won a game all year and likely will not, even against Eastern Michigan. This game is on ESPNNEWS for a reason.

Birdemic Shift

• NIU-Toledo: Just looking at the standings and records, you’d assume that the 6-3 Toledo has a better handle on things than 3-6 NIU. But that’s not the case, as the two are separated by just one spot in SP+ and .6 spots in the percentile ranking. The only real discernible difference is that Toledo tilts more toward offensive competency while NIU is more balanced in their suck.
• Bowling Green-Miami (OH): The East-leading Redhawks travel to face Bowling Green, who would otherwise be last in the division were it not for Akron’s heroics. Don’t expect much from this game in the way of an upset.

#goacc Shift

• North Carolina-Pitt: The Tar Heels’ are 4-5 and a lot of that has to do with the fact that they’re starting a true freshman quarterback, Sam Howell. Howell really has only looked good against Georgia Tech, and they’re kind of going through a thing right now. I told you that to tell you this: Pitt has the 7th ranked defense in the nation and the 117th ranked offense. So....yeah. This Datsun is going right into the mudpit.
• Buffalo-Kent State: The MAC is one of of the most volatile conferences in terms of pecking order and is subject to change on a yearly basis. This can get really confusing not only when dissecting the top, but the middle as well. To wit: it’s November and I’m still not sure what Buffalo is about. They’re 5-4, 3-2 in conference, losing to both Miami (OH) and Ohio (OH). But they also got mudholed by Penn State in the second half alone and lost to Liberty, only to turn around and beat Temple. It’s worth it to tune in to see what version of the Bulls come out to play.

I’m Your Huckleberry Shift

• Louisiana Tech-Marshall: A lot has been made about the AAC’s top tier duking it out, but the Bulldogs have quietly been putting together one hell of a season, coming into a Friday night road trip to West Virginia. Tech is 8-1 on the year, their only loss coming from Texas. Now, they haven’t beaten a single team worthy of a compliment, but since a 23-20 clunker over Rice they’ve beaten teams by a handy margin. But this weekend is the real test, Doc Holliday’s Marshall team is scrappy as all hell.
• Fresno State-San Diego State: The Aztecs have the 19th best defense and 125th worst offense, a feat only bested by Pitt. Conversely, the Bulldogs have the 31st best offense and the 105th worst defense. It probably won’t be pretty!