Play it forward: The week ahead in college football

Five things to watch this week in college football:

1. Remember when Oklahoma-Texas was a game you circled on the calendar? Not this year. Oklahoma enters the annual State Fair game as the dominant team while Texas, under second-year Coach Charlie Strong, is only circling wagons.

2. Georgia Tech at Clemson was one of the most anticipated games on the Atlantic Coast Conference calendar. While Clemson has held up its end, Georgia Tech has skidded to a 2-3 start with consecutive losses to Notre Dame, Duke and North Carolina.

3: California at Utah could be a preview of this year’s Pac-12 Conference championship game. Yeah, right. No, really? Cal (5-0) has the best record in the North Division after Saturday’s win over Washington State. Utah is the only Pac-12 team ranked in the top 10.

4: Northwestern at Michigan is also an improbable matchup of unlikely Big Ten Conference surprises. Northwestern has defeated Stanford, Duke and recently shut out Minnesota, while Michigan’s only defeat came in Jim Harbaugh’s debut at Utah.

5: Florida at Missouri is a key game featuring key players in the Southeastern Conference East. Missouri is the two-time defending champion while Florida is trying to reclaim the division it once dominated. The Gators are also trying to avenge last year’s 42-13 home loss to the Tigers.

—Chris Dufresne