ITB's Slate of Eight: Week Five

Week Five rolls around folks and we've got an absolutely humongous Slate of Eight for you all to tune into as we are at the doorstep of one of the Top 5 greatest rivalries in all of sports; the Red River Shootout. Joining us today we've got Allen Kenney aka Blatant Homerism from the Boomer Sooner website Blatant Homerism. Allen joins us to not only hit on the big OU-Texas match up but break down the rest of the week's games as your fifth official "Slate of Eighter" to join the fray. With such a great week coming up this was the first time whittling the games down to eight was an issue and if we've left your game off the chart drop it into the comments or on the twitter machine and I'll give you my thoughts on it just for the giggles.

So here's what you're going to hear Allen and myself wax philosophically on this week:

Texas A&M - Oklahoma State
Penn State - Iowa
Virginia Tech - NC State
Wisconsin - Michigan State
Miami - Clemson
Stanford - Oregon
Alabama - Florida
Oklahoma - Texas

As you can see folks The Slate has got a great distribution this weekend with two trips to Big Ten Country, two jaunts into Big XII world, a shot out to the west coast for a huge Pac-10 contest, two solid looks into the ACC and of course the required heavy lifting of the SEC. Which game is the most important? That's a tough question since there are so many conference and national title implications with several of these match ups.

We'll take on the Aggies and Pokes first for a chance to see them play someone who isn't the Sisters of the Poor or Our Lady Assumption for their first Big XII contest. Iowa looks to remain on track against the Nittany Lions who were saved by a Bernard Pierce injury just a week ago. Someone rocks the Tar Heel boat by picking the Wolfpack to beat up on the Hokies in Raleigh and we get to see who is more real; Wisconsin or Michigan State. Allen and I get into the Kyle Parker vs Jacory Harris battle of extreme orange down in Tiger Town as both teams' have defenses that could cause problems for the quarterbacks.

When we get to the big three games we lead off with Stanford, a team that someone picked back in April to win the Pac-10, as the Cardinal travel up to Eugene to play the Ducks in Autzen. For the second straight week Andrew Luck will be on the national stage proving to folks why those in the know have already crowned him as the nation's best quarterback; ahead of Mallett and whoever else you want to run up the flag. Speed vs Power in this game and while Allen is right about Oregon has looked outright fantastic moving the football I think we get to see a repeat of Stanford out muscling the Ducks.

The Gators hit their stride just in time for this contest to get very interesting. Trey Burton is in the mix as a guy that could give Alabama problems and the Tide looks to recover from a week that saw them look vulnerable early but resilient late. Expect to see heavy doses of the rushing attack as McElroy works back into the swing after the minor injury he suffered a week ago. This should be a defensive slugfest and with the line opening at Bama -9 it is clear where Vegas has cast their lot. Florida has been impressive in just one week this season and in their first "real" contest I think the inexperience of Brantley shows itself in a big way.

Which brings us to the Red River Shootout. We hit all the odds and ends of this game as we discuss where each team stands going into Saturday. The Longhorns limp in off the embarrassing blow out loss to UCLA in Austin while the Sooners are reeling, albeit a lot less than Texas, following their nail biter in Cincinnati where they proved themselves incapable of stopping the mobile quarterback. The biggest concern here will be how Texas approaches this contest given their clear need to find an identity on the offensive side of the ball. From the looks of the Longhorn and Sooner defense we should be gearing up for a hard hitting slugfest and unless Texas somehow conjures up an option attack with a mobile quarterback I expect the Crimson and Cream to pull this one out.

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