College Football Week 10 - Games and players to watch

Good morning New York Giants fans!

Happy Saturday and welcome to Week 10 of the college football season.

You might notice that the format of our weekly look at college football is a bit different than past weeks. We couldn’t do our usual spotlight podcast with Joe traveling this week, and so rather than get off schedule I decided to go back to the older format.

We also don’t have many really compelling games to watch this week. I would definitely encourage everyone to turn on their game of choice for each time slot, and I encourage everyone to use this as your open thread for today’s college football action.

Personally, I’ll be watching the game between Oregon and Washington in the Prime Time slot.

That being said, there are two games that caught my attention this week.

Games to watch

(16) Ole Miss vs. Liberty

SEC Network - Noon

Ordinarily I try to avoid recommending games that aren’t on major networks. After all, it just wouldn’t be fair for me to suggest readers watch a game they might not have access to. But if you can get eyes on this game, it might be worth watching. This year is most definitely not expected to be a good year to need a quarterback. However, we also know that quarterbacks almost always set the big board and dictate how the draft ultimately shakes out.

This game just so happens to feature two of the top — and perhaps the top two — quarterbacks in the upcoming draft.

On the Ole Miss side of things is Matt Corral has made waves as an ascending prospect and was drawing comparisons to Joe Burrow prior to Ole Miss’ loss to Alabama. Scouts want to figure out whether his progression over the course of this year is who he will be at the NFL level, or a byproduct of the offense he’s in.

Liberty QB Malik Willis is an electric athlete who’s quick-twitch has drawn comparisons to Lamar Jackson. Willis is a red-shirt senior who transferred from Auburn to Liberty, and they’ve molded their offense around his skillset. His ability to make defenders miss and throw from outside of the pocket — or pull the ball down and pick up yardage with his legs — has become a major threat for defenses.

Neither of these quarterbacks are “prototypical” NFL passers. Both are relatively undersized and depend as much on their ability to move as their arms to stress defenses. The good news is that the NFL is (finally) accepting that non-traditional quarterbacks can win in the Pros. There’s a good chance we could hear both of these young men’s names called early as teams look for a “new age” quarterback around whom they can build their offense.

(14) Texas A&M vs. (13) Auburn

CBS - 3:30pm

This is our only game between ranked teams today, so I just had to point it out.

While the 2022 NFL Draft doesn’t project to be a good one on the offensive side of the ball (and at the quarterback position in particular), it does appear strong on the defensive side. While there is still a lot of football left to be played and the whole draft process left to go, we could see as many as five cornerbacks drafted in the first 20 picks.

Auburn has a pair of athletic cornerbacks in Roger McCreary and Nehemiah Pritchett who could find themselves pushed up to the first round in most other years. That could mean that either would be a steal on the second day of the draft.

On the TAMU side of things, I want to look int the trenches. Obviously, offensive lineman Kenyon Green is probably THE player for Giants’ fans to watch this week. We’ve already spotlighted him, and he should be one of the very best offensive linemen at any position in the whole draft. Green has few weaknesses and should be a plug-and-play starter for whoever drafts him.

The other Aggie to watch is defensive tackle DeMarvin Leal. Leal possesses a long, lean frame weighing in at 6-foot-4, 290 pounds and is TAMU’s highest rated recruit since Myles Garrett. Leal is a versatile lineman who has lined up all over the Aggie’s defensive front, and should be able to start immediately at 3-technique, 4i-technique, and 5-technique for just about any NFL defense. He is still developing as a pass rusher but has the athleticism, change of direction skills, and raw power to be effective once he is able to match his technique with his athletic traits.