Five Levels, Friday Night to Saturday Night: TLP Games Of The Week, Week 8

Publication note — October 24: This column was prepared October 22 and is being published after the weekend’s games began. Records, rankings, statistics, watch listings and picks below preserve that pregame snapshot; predictions are not final scores. Army at Tulsa was the Friday selection. Check the linked official listings for current game status.

Five levels. Ten games. One weekend that starts under the Friday lights.

College football is five sports that share a name, and each one has fans who deserve a game to circle. Every level below has its own Marquee game and its own Honorable Mention, and the column climbs from the bottom to the top. Army at Tulsa was scheduled for Friday, Oct. 23. The other nine games are Saturday, Oct. 24. Every game carries a TLP Watch Score (TWS) with its actual denominator.

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JUCO

JUCO is junior college: football at two-year colleges. In California, the community college league is the 3C2A, a separate governing system from the NJCAA.

Marquee — San Bernardino Valley at Grossmont — TLP Watch Score: 40 out of 50

Two teams without a league loss meet head to head, and only one of them still has that on Sunday.

San Bernardino Valley is 6–1 and 2–0 in league play. Grossmont is 6–2 and 3–0. A Grossmont win makes it 7–2 and 4–0, and a Valley win makes it 7–1 and 3–0. The official 3C2A records include forfeits, so Grossmont’s recent run is best described as four straight wins on the field.

Grossmont beat West Los Angeles 44–13 on Oct. 10 with 518 total yards, 280 of them rushing, at 9.6 yards a play. Ethan Ford ran for 140 yards on 12 carries, and Michael Kearns III completed 10 of 14 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, plus a rushing touchdown. Those are one-game numbers, not season totals. Mason Mitchell, Grossmont’s head coach, told East County Sports after the game, “We have grown tremendously from our early part of the season.”

Valley is the defensive question for that run game. According to East County Sports’ Oct. 10 snapshot, through its first five games on the field Valley allowed 48.6 rushing yards a game, 1.4 yards a carry, and had 19 takeaways. The same snapshot has quarterback Brodie Savage at 1,053 passing yards and 13 touchdowns with two interceptions, and Stanley Burrow with three sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss. Those are Oct. 10 figures, not updated season averages. James Griffin is in his second season as Valley’s head coach.

TLP’s pick: Grossmont, 31–24. The home field and the ground game carry it, and Valley’s takeaways keep it a one-possession game. Watch whether Ford finds productive early-down runs, and whether Grossmont avoids the giveaways that powered Valley’s defense earlier in the year.

How to watch: 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific, at Griffins Stadium in El Cajon, California. No video listing is confirmed, so the official 3C2A live stats are the way to follow it.

Honorable Mention — Fresno City at Monterey Peninsula — 40 out of 50. Both teams are 5–2 and 2–0 in league play, so the winner owns the direct result in that race. Kickoff is 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific, on the Monterey Peninsula College campus in Monterey, California. The school links a live broadcast page, and the official 3C2A live stats are the alternative. TLP’s pick: Monterey Peninsula, 27–24.

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HBCU

HBCU means historically Black colleges and universities, programs that compete across several football divisions and associations. For the full HBCU experience, watch HBCU Games Of The Week. This week its featured game is Benedict at Albany State, which is this column’s HBCU Honorable Mention. The two shows score games by different methods, so their picks can differ.

Marquee — Norfolk State at South Carolina State — TLP Watch Score: 76 out of 100

A conference opener, a ranked matchup, and a defending champion on homecoming.

South Carolina State is 5–2 and No. 3 in the Oct. 19 Black College Football Poll’s FCS ranking. Norfolk State is 4–3 and No. 9. It is the MEAC opener for both. Michael Vick is in his second year at Norfolk State, and he said this week, as WAVY’s Brian Parsons reported on Oct. 20, “We know we are up against the giant of the conference.” South Carolina State won last year’s meeting 51–20.

Chennis Berry is in his third season at South Carolina State, with MEAC titles in 2024 and 2025 and the 2025 Celebration Bowl championship. The Bulldogs have won 10 straight league games across those two 5–0 seasons. Through seven games this year they averaged 43.6 points and 461.1 yards, with 30 scores on 33 red zone trips, 26 of them touchdowns. Mason Pickett-Hicks has 741 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 99 carries.

The question is on defense. The Bulldogs’ last two games before the Oct. 17 bye were nonconference losses, 34–31 to The Citadel and 49–39 to Charleston Southern, so they allowed 34 and 49.

Norfolk State’s best case is the ground game. Jalyn Daniels has 610 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 99 carries, and Elyjah Mitchell has 32 catches for 387 yards and three touchdowns. These are ESPN’s pregame season leaders, not starting designations.

TLP’s pick: South Carolina State, 38–28. The offense, the red zone efficiency and the home field carry it, and Norfolk State’s running game makes the Bulldogs prove their defense is back. Watch whether Norfolk State turns long rushing possessions into touchdowns.

How to watch: 1:30 p.m. Eastern at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium (Willie Jeffries Field) in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on ESPN Plus. The radio is ESPN Orangeburg, 1580 AM and 92.9 FM.

Honorable Mention — Benedict at Albany State — 36 out of 50. Benedict is 6–1 and No. 4, and Albany State is 3–4 and No. 9 in the Oct. 19 Black College Football Poll’s Division II ranking. It is a rematch of last year’s SIAC championship game and NCAA second round. Benedict beat Edward Waters 45–24 last Saturday. Kickoff is 1 p.m. Eastern at the Albany State University Coliseum in Albany, Georgia, on ESPN Plus, with Praise 105.5 on the radio and live stats from the host school. TLP’s pick: Benedict, 38–24.

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FCS

FCS is the Football Championship Subdivision: NCAA Division I football with its own national championship playoff.

Marquee — North Dakota at South Dakota — TLP Watch Score: 86 out of 100

Two identical records, a top-ten Missouri Valley matchup, and one quarterback who leads the subdivision.

North Dakota and South Dakota are both 6–2 overall and 3–1 in the Missouri Valley. North Dakota is No. 6 and South Dakota is No. 8 in the Oct. 19 Stats Perform poll. A win makes either team 7–2 and 4–1. The equal records are what earned the top score on the FCS slate.

South Dakota leads the conference at 9.2 yards per pass attempt. Austyn Modrzewski’s 178.0 passing efficiency leads the FCS in South Dakota’s school preview, and his 22 passing touchdowns are tied for second in the country. Brayden White has seven receiving touchdowns, and the Coyotes have won three straight, scoring at least 30 points in each. Matt Vitzthum is in his first year as head coach.

North Dakota’s answer starts with Jerry Kaminski, who has 21 touchdown passes against four interceptions, and with Braden Mohr, who has 7.5 sacks. Eric Schmidt is in his second year as head coach, and his team comes off a 21–10 win over South Dakota State on Oct. 17.

South Dakota won last year’s meeting 26–21 and has won the last three. This one is in the DakotaDome in Vermillion, South Dakota.

TLP’s pick: South Dakota, 31–27. The passing efficiency and the home dome carry it, and North Dakota’s pass rush makes it a fight. Watch whether Kaminski keeps pace without giveaways, and whether Mohr can get home against the most efficient passer in the subdivision.

How to watch: 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, on ESPN Plus and Midco Sports. The radio is the Coyote Sports Network, KVHT 106.3 FM, and the school links StatBroadcast for live stats.

Honorable Mention — Princeton at Harvard — 79 out of 100. Both teams are 2–0 in the Ivy League, the only two left without a league loss, so this meeting breaks a tie at the top of the standings. Harvard is 5–0, No. 15 in the Stats Perform poll and No. 17 in the Coaches poll, and it beat Holy Cross 30–7. Princeton is 4–1. Kickoff is 3 p.m. Eastern at Harvard Stadium (Tim Murphy Field) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on ESPN Plus. TLP’s pick: Harvard, 27–20.

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GROUP OF SIX

The Group of Six is the six FBS conferences outside the Power Four: the American, Conference USA, the Mid-American, the Mountain West, the Pac-12 and the Sun Belt. The name Group of Five was in use during the 2012 negotiations for the playoff that replaced the BCS in 2014. It became six after ten of the Pac-12’s twelve schools left in 2024, and the Pac-12 rebuilt and relaunched on July 1, 2026 with nine full members, eight of them playing football. The reviewed records identify no separate Group of Six admission process; the College Football Playoff’s rules now list it with the other five, and this season the highest-ranked team from those six conferences, champion or not, gets an automatic playoff spot. These conferences compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the sport’s top division, alongside the Power Four.

Marquee — Western Michigan at Toledo — TLP Watch Score: 64 out of 100

The defending MAC champion visits a home team that has allowed three sacks all season.

Both teams are 5–2. Western Michigan is 3–0 in the MAC, and Toledo is 2–1. The defending champion and Ohio are the league’s two remaining unbeaten teams in conference play, and a Toledo win at home pulls it back toward the lead. The quality score is modest, but ESPN’s Football Power Index gives Toledo 53 percent, a close matchup, and that is model probability, not betting information.

Toledo leads the MAC at 36.3 points, 459 total yards and 273.4 passing yards per game. John Alan Richter has 1,853 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and one interception, and Adjatay Dabbs has 468 receiving yards and five touchdowns. On defense, the Rockets have 21 sacks and have allowed three. In a 34–14 win over Eastern Michigan on Oct. 17 they had six sacks and 16 hurries and allowed 34 rushing yards, and Andrew Zock had two sacks, nine hurries, nine tackles and a forced fumble. Mike Jacobs is in his first season at Toledo and is 5–2 there, after going 99–25 over 11 seasons overall.

Lance Taylor is in his fourth season at Western Michigan. Jalen Buckley has 542 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, and Broc Lowry has eight touchdown passes and one interception.

Western Michigan won last year’s meeting 14–13 on Sept. 20, 2025. Toledo is 19–3 at the Glass Bowl since 2023.

TLP’s pick: Toledo, 30–27. The protection and the pass rush carry it, and Buckley keeps Western Michigan within one score. Watch whether Buckley keeps Western Michigan on schedule, and whether Toledo can pressure without losing the run matchup.

How to watch: noon Eastern at the Glass Bowl in Toledo, Ohio, on CBS Sports Network. The Rocket Radio Network is free through UTRockets.com or the Varsity Network app.

Honorable Mention — Army at Tulsa — 60 out of 100. This is the Friday game. Army is 4–2 and Tulsa is 4–3, on Military Appreciation Night, and ESPN’s model gives Army 51.4 percent. Army’s Cale Hellums has 719 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns, and Tulsa’s Oran Singleton Jr. has 474 receiving yards and four touchdowns, both from ESPN’s pregame leaders. Kickoff is Friday, Oct. 23, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, 7:30 p.m. Central, at Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on ESPN2. TLP’s pick: Army, 28–24.

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POWER FOUR

The Power Four is the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern conferences: college football’s biggest and richest conference group, at the top of the FBS landscape.

Marquee — No. 14 Houston at No. 10 Utah — TLP Watch Score: 76 out of 100

An unbeaten team at home, a team on a four-game winning streak, and College GameDay on campus.

Utah is 6–0 and 3–0 in the Big 12. Houston is 6–1 and 3–1, with four straight wins (AP poll, Oct. 18). ESPN’s Football Power Index ranks Utah 13th and Houston 18th and gives Utah a 67.1 percent chance. That is model probability, not betting information. At 76, this is the Power Four’s top score, ahead of Ole Miss at Texas at 71.

Morgan Scalley is the first Utah head coach to start 6–0 in his first full season, and Utah has won 12 straight dating back to 2025. Willie Fritz is in his third season at Houston.

Houston averages 220 rushing yards a game and allows 82.6, sixth nationally in Houston’s own preview. Utah averages 486.5 total yards and 40.2 points, and allows 14.8 points and 88.7 rushing yards. Utah’s opponents have a passing efficiency of 101.35, third in the FBS in Utah’s preview. These figures come from different schedules, so they describe the teams, not the game.

Conner Weigman threw for 343 yards and five touchdowns in Houston’s 35–32 win over Oklahoma State on Oct. 17. He has 20 touchdown passes and two interceptions this season. Houston has three receivers with at least five touchdown catches: Patrick Overmyer with seven, Amare Thomas with six and Koby Young with five. Devon Dampier has 15 touchdown passes and four interceptions for Utah, and Wayshawn Parker has 597 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.

PFF’s 2026 regular-season player grades, updated Oct. 21:

PFF grade	Conner Weigman	Devon Dampier
Overall	90.3	88.4
Passing	86.7	90.1
Big-time throws	8	16

Weigman has the higher overall grade, and Dampier has the higher passing grade. These are player grades, not team grades, and they describe the season so far, not Saturday.

Houston won the last meeting in 2024, 17–14, on a walk-off field goal. Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City hosts this one, and Utah’s preview reports a 27.7-point average home victory margin this season.

Five keys

1. Win the early downs. Houston’s 220 rushing yards a game meet Utah’s 88.7 allowed, and Parker’s ground production meets Houston’s 82.6 allowed.
2. Let the quarterback efficiency travel. Dampier’s 90.1 passing grade meets Weigman’s 86.7.
3. Finish drives against Utah’s scoring defense. Houston has three receivers with at least five touchdown catches, and Utah allows 14.8 points a game. Watch touchdowns versus field goals.
4. Protect the football. Weigman is 20 touchdowns to two interceptions and Dampier is 15 to four.
5. Create explosive passing answers when the run stalls. Weigman’s 343-yard, five-touchdown game meets a Utah defense that ranks third in the FBS in opponent passing efficiency.

TLP’s pick: Utah, 31–27. The home field, the scoring defense and Dampier’s passing efficiency outweigh Houston’s ceiling. Watch early-down rushing success for each side, Houston’s touchdowns versus field goals, and the first explosive pass.

How to watch: 10:15 p.m. Eastern, 8:15 p.m. Mountain, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, on ESPN. The radio is ESPN 700 AM and 92.1 FM, and the school links StatBroadcast for live stats.

Honorable Mention — No. 7 Ole Miss at No. 19 Texas — 71 out of 100. Ole Miss is 5–1 and Texas is 4–2 (AP poll, Oct. 18), in the Saturday night game on ABC. Texas’s Colin Simmons has 10.5 sacks, and the pressure he can put on Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is the question. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. Eastern, 6:30 p.m. Central, at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. TLP’s pick: Ole Miss, 28–24.

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The week in one line

Forty out of 50. Seventy-six. Eighty-six. Sixty-four. Seventy-six. One game at every level, and every one of them has a question left to answer.

Pick your level. Find your game. Then watch it.

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SOURCES

PFF grades are from PFF’s 2026 public player profiles, filtered to NCAA, regular season, updated Oct. 21, and cover the two quarterbacks above only. There is no comparable PFF table for the other levels or for team grades, so those segments use official team, school and conference sources.

Other sources: each school’s game center, schedule, statistics, roster and coaching pages; official game notes, recaps and previews from the schools involved; the 3C2A schedule and standings; the AP Top 25 and Coaches poll (Oct. 18); the Stats Perform FCS poll (Oct. 19); the Black College Football Poll (Oct. 19); ESPN’s Football Power Index and game data; WAVY’s Oct. 20 report on Norfolk State; East County Sports’ Oct. 10 report on Grossmont; the NCAA Division I football championship page; the College Football Playoff selection protocol; and the rebuilt Pac-12’s official launch announcement of July 1, 2026. Broadcast, streaming and radio details are as of Oct. 22, 2026. Verify all entitlements before kickoff.

Official previews, schedules and supporting sources:

• Utah October19 preview and Houston October20 preview, school CDN
• Weigman PFF, Dampier PFF
• Toledo October22 preview, South Dakota October19 preview, UND schedule
• Grossmont Oct10 game story, Ramon Scott, SBVC coach appointment, MPC school football page
• SC State October15 preview, Parsons/WAVY via Yahoo, SC State specific game notice
• Harvard October21 preview, Tulsa promotions, ESPN October19 broadcast listing
• Stats Perform poll, ESPN FPI, ESPN rankings, 3C2A schedule
• CFP current protocol, Pac12 July1launch, Mandel November13,2012, CFP revenue context

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Harry B. and TLP use AI to research and assist in the publication of this article. AI makes mistakes, so please check for yourself.