NCAA Football Week 13 Primer (With Picks)

Jerry Kill eating ice cream in a snow storm is now the most Big Ten thing ever. But, can his Gophers break through this week against Nebraska?

 By Andy Dougherty (@AndyDougherty10) with a cameo by Joe Parello (@HerewegoJoe)

As the regular season nears its end, the pressure builds for the nation’s top teams to keep their playoff hopes alive. Overall, the contenders face easier opposition in Week 13 than they have in months, but this year’s many surprises have shown that no team can afford to take any opponent for granted.

Game of the Week

No. 8 Ole Miss at Arkansas

Arkansas will provide the first legitimate test for Ole Miss since a crushing loss to Auburn on November 1st. Ole Miss had what Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly would call a “glorified bye” on November 8th, beating the Presbyterian Blue Hose 48-0 at home (yes, there is a real football team called the Blue Hose). The Rebels then had an actual bye last week. Their October win over Alabama has kept them in playoff contention despite their two losses, and they have another shot at a big win when Mississippi State comes to town next week.

NCAA Football Weekend Primer: The First College Football Playoff Rankings

Despite a disappointing finish in Death Valley last week, quarterback Bo Wallace and Ole Miss are still right where they want to be.

 By Andy Dougherty (@AndyDougherty10)

Since the 1930s, fans of college football have relied on the AP Poll to assess the best football teams in the country. This week, the AP Poll gained a new rival.

College Football Playoff Rankings

On Tuesday, October 28^th, a selection committee released the first ever College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings. The same committee will release its final rankings on Sunday, December 7^th, and the top 4 teams in those rankings will qualify for the College Football Playoff. Mississippi State holds the distinction of being the first No. 1 ranked team under the current system. Florida State, Auburn and Ole Miss round out the top 4.

Undefeated powerhouses Mississippi State and Florida State are the consensus picks as the nation’s top 2 teams. The CFP and AP rankings both place Auburn in the top 4. But after those initial similarities, the two rankings start to diverge quite a bit. 

Studs and Duds: A Big Week for D-Bag QBs

By Jeremy Conlin and Joe Parello

Studs and Duds is a weekly feature on Suite Sports. Who had a good week? Who had a bad week?

Studs:

Hugh Freeze

On Signing Day 2007, Freeze was an assistant on then-Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron's staff when the Rebel coaches received the bad news that the nation's top prospect, Joe McKnight, was committing to USC instead of Ole Miss.

At the time, it was considered a minor miracle that McKnight was even considering the hapless Rebels, and Orgeron was considered to be the nation's best salesmen in the recruiting game.

Well, the student became the master on Signing Day 2013, as Freeze did was his mentor could not: close the deal on the best high school football player in the country. When Robert Nkemdiche committed to the Rebels, it not only gave some much needed punch to their pass rush, it legitimized Oxford as a Blue Chip destination once again.

The fact that Ole Miss would also add five star Florida offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil on Signing Day and already had five star receiver Laquon Treadwell "in the boat," led to the Rebels earning a consensus top-10 recruiting ranking.

It also led to speculation that they had to be cheating. Heck, even I labeled them as "The Program that Has No Business Recruiting this Well." It's also amusing, because back in late 2006, Orgeron joked that if McKnight committed to the Rebels, they would be investigated by the NCAA.

But Freeze, who prior to Wednesday was best known for being Michael Oher's high school coach in The Blind Side, claims this class is full of natural "ins" with recruits and kids really recruiting for the program. We'll see how it works out when they get on campus, but on the recruiting trail, Freeze is the top stud in the country.

-JP