No team is immune to college football's upset bug this season. Georgia caught the sickness earlier this month in the form of Auburn's walk-off win inside Sanford Stadium, squandering the Bulldogs' brief stay at No. 1. While they've had symptoms in the form of close calls, the FBS' remaining unbeatens -- Miami, Utah and UCLA -- just haven't experienced the bite yet.
That could happen Saturday for the Utes, who travel to Cincinnati coming off the Bearcats' takedown of Texas Tech during the Big 12's multi-team CFP path hiccup last weekend. Utah's one of five teams on upset alert in Week 9 inside the top 25 ahead of Tuesday night's first College Football Playoff rankings reveal. Those initial opinions from the selection committee will provide some detail on the conference valuations, record strength, and the impact of quality wins this fall.
Several more could come this weekend. Ryan Day declined to name his starting quarterback for Saturday's bout with the Trojans, but the assumption is that true freshman Luke Fahey is getting the nod after relieving Julian Sayin two weeks ago against Indiana. How much does this offense change with a newcomer back there?
Will the game plan be neutered a bit against a quality opponent on the road? These are questions we don't have answers to yet, which is why this is a prime upset spot for the Big Ten's current co-leader with UCLA. "We all got to be tighter here.
We got to help a young quarterback get his first win as a Buckeye. And it's going to take our best," Day said Monday. "And that means everyone that's part of the program has got to be really good in everything that we do.
So extra focus this week. Not that we need to be focused any more; I mean, obviously, we know how good of a team USC is, and we know the talent, we know the coaches, we know everything about it. And we know what we're up against this week.
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