Weekend Viewing Guide: College football makes its long awaited return

Scrap your weekend plans! Our TwinSpires Staff delivers nine captivating reasons to stay indoors and binge on sports.

College Football

South Carolina kicks off its season on Saturday when it hosts Eastern Illinois. In a shocking twist, the Gamecocks will be quarterbacked by Zeb Norland, who came to Columbia in the offseason to join the coaching staff as a graduate assistant, but has since been pressed into duty due to injuries. SC is favored by 40.5 points, but Norland is all the proof you need that anything can happen in college football.

Can Nick Saban put together a second straight championship season after losing 10 players to the NFL, including six in the first round? He’s done it before, and he’s favored to do it again in 2021. The Crimson Tide and new starting quarterback Bryce Young get their first test Saturday against a much-improved Miami team, led by transfer quarterback D’Eriq King.

Heisman Trophy hopeful J.T. Daniels could be the spark the George Bulldogs need to finally get over the hump and win the College Football Playoff. In his four starts for Georgia last season, the USC transfer went 4-0, including a win in the Peach Bowl. If Daniels is the real deal, we’ll find out soon enough, when he squares up with Clemson and Trevor Lawrence successor D.J. Uiagalelei on Saturday.

With players like Carson Wentz, Easton Stick, and Trey Lance, North Dakota State has monopolized the FCS spotlight in the Great Plains in recent years, but their rivals to the south are on the upswing. South Dakota State defeated NDSU last season and was just two points away from an FCS national title. Colorado State, as evidenced by their marginal favoritism (-2.5), should not take the Jackrabbits lightly Friday night. The last time SDSU faced a FBS opponent, Minnesota needed a late score to escape with a 28-21 win in 2019.

You can go ahead and put a line through UCLA’s blowout victory over Hawaii last week. Chip Kelly is still on the hot seat. But it would get a lot cooler if the Bruins upset LSU, and now is the perfect time to welcome in the Tigers, who are still rebuilding from their national title season in 2019-20. The Bruins have 20 starters back from last season, and there will be no sufficient excuses if they can’t play competitively at the Rose Bowl.

There are five matchups between top 25 teams this weekend in college football, but the most unexpected is No. 23 Louisiana-Lafayette and No. 21 Texas. Well, it’s not unexpected if you’ve been paying attention to the Ragin’ Cajuns the last couple years. Louisiana-Lafayette has a 21-4 record over the last two seasons, finished ranked 15th nationally last year, and knocked off No. 23 Iowa State in the 2020 opener. Look out, Longhorns.

UFC

The UFC heads to Sin City on Saturday for UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Till. The rough-and-ready Brunson is 4-1 in his last five fights and will look to use his superior size and wrestling ability to tap out the favored Till. 

Golf

Reigning U.S. Open champion, Jon Rahm, has been red-hot down the stretch of the 2021 PGA Tour season and will look to cap off the year as the FedEx Cup champion. To do so, he’ll need to climb past FedEx Cup points leader Patrick Cantlay at this weekend’s Tour Championship. Last year, Rahm finished fourth at East Lake, and has placed in the top 10 in four career appearances.

MLB

One of baseball’s hottest pitchers will take the mound on Sunday when Walker Buehler and the Los Angeles Dodgers face the surprising San Francisco Giants. The 27-year-old righty is undefeated in his last five starts and has become the odds-on favorite to win the National League Cy Young award at -112.