Showdown Saturday: Predictions for 2 games that could alter College Football Playoff picture

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football (remedial tackling instruction manuals sold separately at Connecticut, where the Huskies are surrendering 54.5 points per game):

[More: Can ‘Bama be stopped? | 5 upswing teams | 10 worthwhile unbeatens]

FOURTH QUARTER

SHOWDOWN SATURDAY, LIMITED EDITION

There aren’t a lot of marquee games this week, but there are two collisions of top 10 unbeatens — both kicking off at the same time Saturday night — that could resonate all the way to Selection Sunday. The Dash takes a quick look at each:

Ohio State-Penn State (31). Where: State College. When: 7:30. At stake: Winner becomes the last unbeaten in the Big Ten, gets a leg up in the Eastern Division and greatly enhances the College Football Playoff résumé.

Key matchup: Penn State’s run defense against Ohio State running backs J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber. The Nittany Lions were creased for 245 rushing yards by each of the two Power Five opponents they have faced this season, first Pittsburgh and then Illinois. The Buckeyes have two backs capable of big games (Weber sprained a foot against Tulane on Saturday but Urban Meyer said he will play against PSU).

X-Factor: It’s a Whiteout night game at Penn State, one of the most raucous atmospheres in the sport. Dwayne Haskins has showed zero nerves in his first season as the starting QB, but this will be a different situation. Penn State also has a tendency to play very near its ceiling against the Buckeyes under James Franklin, upsetting them in 2016 and nearly pulling off upsets in 2014 and last year.

Dash pick: Ohio State 35, Penn State 32.

Stanford-Notre Dame (32). Where: South Bend. When: 7:30. At stake: Teams with some good wins look to add a very good win to the résumé in what could be the last heavyweight non-conference game of the 2018 season. Notre Dame probably needs it more, for playoff purposes, because of the lackluster nature of the four remaining opponents from the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cardinal still has collisions left with Washington and Cal, plus games against Utah and Washington State.

Key matchup: Bryce Love against Notre Dame’s defense — specifically in the area of big plays. Love was the biggest home-run hitter in college football last year, with 13 runs of 50 yards or more, 15 runs of 40-plus and 24 runs of 30-plus yards. He hasn’t gotten untracked yet this season, and this figures to be a hard week to do it. The Fighting Irish haven’t allowed a single run of 30 or more yards this year, and just three of 20-plus.

X-Factor: Does this matchup favor the fast starter or the hard finisher? Notre Dame is the former, outscoring opponents 79-32 in the first half but only 47-45 in the second half. Stanford is the finisher, outscoring opponents 47-34 in the first half and 69-20 in the second plus overtime — including the miracle rally at Oregon on Saturday.

Dash pick: Notre Dame 27, Stanford 21.

COACHING INTRIGUE GAMES

Three Saturday games with some drama involving the men on the sidelines:

Mullen Bowl (33). Dan Mullen takes his new team, Florida, to face his old team, Mississippi State, in Starkville. Bulldogs fans have been remarkably uncharitable toward the guy who stayed nine seasons and took them to six straight winning seasons, the school’s longest streak since the 1940s. Mullen did his part to inflate the game last spring, grandiosely proclaiming, “I don’t know if there will ever be a bigger game played in the state of Mississippi.” Know this: The sound of cowbells will be a lot less welcome on the visitor’s side of the field than Mullen was accustomed to on the home side.

Texas at Kansas State (34). Bill Snyder is 78 years old, which means it’s always reasonable to speculate on when he may be ready to hang it up. That speculation got a restart Saturday when he was lamenting his team’s short-yardage play in a lopsided loss to West Virginia: “I can’t coach a team that can’t get six inches,” he said. Maybe that was just a moment’s frustration, or maybe he’s starting to think about getting out. Early returns indicate that this will be a long year for The Snyde; his team has been pounded by its only two Power Five opponents to date.

Florida State at Louisville (35). Two fan bases highly dissatisfied with their coaches. FSU isn’t in much of a position to do anything about it, with Willie Taggart just four games into his tenure. Louisville, however, is a different story — the Cardinals have fallen apart offensively post-Lamar Jackson and are currently 124th in the nation in total offense. Bobby Petrino was brought back five years ago — to widespread outside mockery — because of his offensive acumen. If Petrino doesn’t have scoreboard appeal going for him, there isn’t much to like.

RUINOUS DRINKING GAME OF THE WEEK

In The Dash’s never-ending quest to keep the readership tipsy, here is this week’s cliche-based drinking game: Chug every time you hear a player refer to his teammates as “brothers” (36) or the team as a “family.” The Dash is all for togetherness, group bonding and real team unity. But sometimes the family/brotherhood thing becomes a forced mantra — especially when the family dynamics resemble the Bundy’s from “Married … With Children.”

STAT OF THE WEEK

Virginia Tech (37) is 22-5 under Justin Fuente, a very good record with the promise of continued success over the long term. But the Hokies also have had some astonishing pratfalls in Fuente’s two-plus seasons — none worse than the disastrous loss to four-touchdown underdog Old Dominion on Saturday.

Virginia Tech has lost five times under Fuente as a favorite — three times as a double-digit favorite, and all three losses by double digits: 31-17 to 20-point underdog Syracuse in 2016; 30-20 to 14-point ‘dog Georgia Tech the same season; and now the Old Dominion flop. Last year the Hokies also were drilled by Miami 28-10 as a two-point favorite and lost 28-22 to Georgia Tech as a three-point fave.

Fuente’s first head-coaching job was at Memphis, where being an underdog came naturally (at least early on in his four-year tenure). His teams seem to perform more comfortably in that role.

COACH WHO EARNED HIS COMP CAR THIS WEEK

Bobby Wilder (38), Old Dominion. After guiding the Monarchs to 10 wins and their first-ever bowl in 2016, life hasn’t been as easy for Wilder. ODU slid to 5-7 last year, then staggered out of the gate an ugly 0-3 this season with losses to Liberty and Charlotte. But Saturday ODU pulled off the biggest win in its modest school history with that seismic upset of Virginia Tech. Putting 495 passing yards on a Bud Foster defense — second-most allowed in Tech school history — is something the Monarchs can brag about forever.

COACH WHO SHOULD TAKE THE BUS TO WORK

Chris Ash (39), Rutgers. Yeah, he took on a ridiculously difficult job — but after some progress last year in his second season the Scarlet Knights have drastically regressed. Being routed by Ohio State is grimly inevitable. But following that up with blowout losses to Kansas and Buffalo is utterly humiliating — for the school and the Big Ten. And make no mistake, the Mid-American Conference Bulls took their foot off the accelerator Saturday after roaring to a 35-6 halftime lead. It could have been worse than the 42-13 final. Rutgers has been outscored 149-30 in its past three games, and only one of them was against a powerhouse. Atrocious.

POINT AFTER

When hungry and thirsty in the occasionally feisty* college town of Champaign, Illinois, The Dash recommends a visit to DESTIHL Restaurant and Brew Works (40) right downtown. Try the chipotle chicken sandwich. Avoid the beer-battered bacon (no need to batter something as perfect as bacon). And definitely indulge in a Vertex IPA or two.

(*As for the feistiness: keep your head on a swivel at a gas station on North Neil Ave. The Dash pulled in for a fill-up last Friday and wound up witnessing a full-on brawl inside between two women that wound up behind the cash register, with haymakers flying until the fight ended in a hair-pulling stalemate and a call to the cops. It was more intense than the subsequent Penn State-Illinois football game.)

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