#18 Texas Longhorns at #6 Kansas State Wildcats Preview

Saturday night at 8:00 PM, Collin Klein will not only look to prove to the Heisman voters the he deserves the Heisman trophy, but he will also look to lead his Kansas State Wildcats to yet another victory this year, this time over the Texas Longhorns.

Collin Klein looks to impress Heisman
voters this Saturday against Texas.

This season the Longhorns haven't been as impressive as most years. They have an 8-3 overall record, with the three losses all coming in Big 12 play. KSU has only lost one game, to Baylor on November 17th. Kansas State hasn't had a game since then. Coming off of a loss, they'll definitely be looking to get back to their winning ways inside Bill Snyder Stadium.

Collin Klein has had a very impressive season, throwing for over 2,300 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also rushing for 787 yards and scoring 20 rushing touchdowns. Sounds like a Heisman candidate to me.

Klein has a running back behind him by the name of John Hubert. Hubert has carried the ball 158 times for 826 yards and 12 touchdowns. He is a nice reliable option Klein has, not only to pass to, but also to take the pressure off of Klein, and open up both sides of the offense for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats also have Chris Harper and Tyler Lockett at wide receiver. Both men have three receiving touchdowns. Harper has 727 receiving yards while Lockett has 579. Both will look to have a big game this Saturday and assist Klein in impressing those Heisman voters while also gaining their 11th victory of the season.

The Longhorns have other plans however. Although Texas hasn't had their best year, they have been playing well. Unfortunately for them, their quarterback David Ash is questionable, and it looks as if Colt McCoy's little brother Case McCoy will be starting at quarterback.

Case isn't a bad quarterback. Just hasn't had the experience Ash has. McCoy is currently 28/42 for 408 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. KSU will be looking to put a lot of pressure on McCoy, to force mistakes, and obviously try to force some turnovers.

Mike Davis will look to assist Case McCoy in leading
the Longhorns to a victory over KSU.

McCoy has two reliable receivers to throw to. Mike Davis is one. Davis has 51 receptions for 891 yards and seven touchdowns. Jaxon Shipley (who is the little brother of NFL wide receiver Jordan Shipley - who played at Texas with Case's big brother Colt). Jaxon has reeled in 46 receptions for 581 yards and five touchdowns.

Texas is allowing about 28 points per game while Kansas State is only allowing 20. It looks as if KSU's defense is the better D, and with Texas starting McCoy as QB, I really think they're going to have a tough time slowing down Kansas State. KSU coming off of a loss is another big factor in my eyes, as most teams coming off of a loss are that much more hungry to put another 'W' in that win column.

The Longhorns are going to have to put pressure on Collin Klein, and pretty much shut him down completely. If he doesn't burn you through the air, he'll burn you with his feet. If they can shut Klein down, they may just shut the Wildcats down. But they also have to be able to move the ball on this Wildcat defense.

This matchup is a good one. It will be a good game Saturday night on ABC.

- Matt Lytle

@mattlytle

MAC Championship: #21 Northern Illinois vs #17 Kent State Preview

The Mid-American Conference has been quite the impressive conference this season. Most notably, the Northern Illinois Huskies and the Kent State Golden Flashes. Both teams I'm sure weren't projected to do much this season, but both have broken into the Top 25. Also, both teams have only had one loss each! Northern Illinois lost to Iowa while Kent State lost to Kentucky. Both teams are also obviously undefeated in the MAC. But that stops Friday!

Friday at 7:00 PM NIU takes on Kent State on ESPN2, for the MAC Championship. And although most people probably don't look toward the MAC for a good football game, they'll be in for a treat Friday night!

Northern Illinois is led by the MAC MVP, Jordan Lynch, a red-shirt junior, has had quite the impressive season this year, throwing for 2,750 yards for 23 touchdowns and only four touchdowns. Yeah, only four...

Jordan Lynch has over 2,750 yards passing, and 39 total TDs.

He has also rushed for 1,611 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns! I know Collin Klein, Johnny Manziel, Braxton Miller and others are being hyped for the Heisman, but why this guys name hasn't come up is beyond me.

Lynch has two very capable receivers in Martel Moore and Tommylee Lewis, who have combined for over 100 receptions, 1,400 yards and 16 touchdowns. But the help doesn't stop there. Northern Illinois also has running back Akeem Daniels, who has rushed for 304 yards and eight touchdowns.

NIU is obviously ranked high in rushing yards, averaging 245 yards per game (ranking them 9th in the nation for rushing). They are also averaging 40.5 points per game, and only allowing 17.5 points per game. Very impressive numbers.

Kent State isn't far behind NIU in passing yards, being ranked 11th in the nation with an average of 241.5 yards per game.

Kent State's QB, Spencer Keith has had a good season as well, throwing for over 1,500 yards, tossing 11 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He has also punched four touchdowns into the endzone.

Kent State also has two very reliable running backs in Dri Archer and Trayion Durham.

Dri Archer has a total of 18 TDs this season.

Dri Archer has 138 carries this season for 1,337 yards. He has scored 14 rushing touchdowns. He also has 30 receptions for 458 yards, and four receiving touchdowns. Quite a dual-threat, he is quite the weapon Spencer Keith has at his side.

Trayion Durham has rushed the ball 236 times for 1,176 yards and scored 14 rushing touchdowns just like Archer.

Kent State's receivers haven't had quite the year as Northern Illinois'. The Golden Flashes have Josh Boyle and Eric Adeyemi as their two top receivers. They have combined for over 500 yards receiving, and 6 total touchdowns.

Both teams have been quite impressive this year. It has been fun watching them, and this game Friday should be very entertaining.

I just don't see Kent State being able to slow down Jordan Lynch. With Lynch being able to throw the ball, or rush it, he seems to be quite an unstoppable QB. I think the NCAA needs to look at this guy for a few more awards than what he's already got. But that's just my opinion...I'm just a writer!

I have NIU winning in this championship game! Make sure to tune into ESPN2 Friday night at 7:00!

Northern Illinois: 42
Kent State: 31

- Jackson McNamara

@jacksonmcnamara

Louisville Cardinals at Rutgers Scarlet Knights Preview

Thursday night at 7:30, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights will play host to the Louisville Cardinals in a Big East showdown. Although it looks like Rutgers has the conference locked up, depending on this outcome, and the Cincinnati/UConn outcome, quite a few teams could win a share of the Big East Championship.

Teddy Bridgewater will look to overcome
a broken wrist this Thursday.

Louisville sophomore quarterback Teddy Bridgewater broke his left (non-throwing) wrist. But he will still play against the Rutgers. Although, the Rutgers defense is ranked 4th in the nation when it comes to points allowed, Bridgewater is going to tough is out. Rutgers defense however, is looking to give Bridgewater a rough game.

Bridgewater has been having a very good season. He is 247/359, he has thrown for 3,189 yards, and has thrown 23 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Very impressive stats for the sophomore.

Rutgers sophomore quarterback Gary Nova will be looking to lead his team to a victory on home turf. Nova has thrown for 2,282 yards this season, 20 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. Impressive amount of touchdowns, but the 13 interceptions brings a level of concern. Although Louisville is giving up an average of 24.5 points per game.

Both teams' junior running backs will be looking to take the load off of their quarterbacks a little, and open up the running game so each team have multiple options. Louisville running back, Jeremy Wright, hasn't quite hit 1,000 yards yet, so far rushing for 723 yards this season. He has also scored nine rushing touchdowns. Wright is actually back up running back to Senorise Perry, who unfortunately is out for the season with a torn ACL.

Gary Nova has thrown for over 2,000 yards this season.

The Scarlet Knights' running back Jawan Jamison has eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark, and has also punched in four rushing touchdowns.

Both teams also have a group of very capable and reliable wide receivers.

Louisville has DeVante Parker and Andrell Smith, who have combined for over 60 receptions, 1,000 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns. Meanwhile Rutgers is equip with Brandon Coleman and Mark Harrison, who have combined for over 70 receptions, nearly 1,000 yards receiving and 14 touchdowns.

On paper, these teams look very similar. Louisville does average nearly 90 more yards per game in passing, but with Teddy Bridgewater injured, I'm not surprised how dangerous their passing game will be.

Bridgewater won't be effective taking snaps from center, but will have to take snaps from the Pistol or Shotgun formations. He also won't be able to use the play-action pass like he has done so much this year. That is clearly an issue that somehow the Cardinals will have to overcome. In the end, I really could see either team win this one. It's definitely a matchup to watch Thursday night at 7:30 PM on ESPN!

- Matt Lytle

@mattlytle

Welcome Kelsey Billings to the Project CFB Team

We would like to officially welcome Florida State Seminoles senior cheerleader Kelsey Billings to the Project College Football team! Kelsey was our guest picker last week. We began then to speak to her about coming on board here to write about college football. She was very excited about the opportunity and is looking forward to writing her first preview later on this week.

We encourage you to follow Kelsey on Twitter @kelseybillings. Also check out her blog at www.SeminoleSpearIt.wordpress.com.

And remember to keep coming back to our site to see check out all of Kelsey's articles.

Project College Football Awards Semi-Finalists

We are toward the end of the regular college football season, so what better time than now to present our awards semi-finalists, but also the clever names that we have named our awards! Now, first of all I wanted to explain, that we wanted to name the awards after two really good players for that position. So, you may not see the names "Rice", "Howard", "Griffin", "Sanders", or "Flutie". We still respect and honor those individuals, but wanted to use names from a more recent time.

Although, Coach of the Year we went with more legendary coaches just for the simple fact that you can't really judge exactly how great a coach will be until they have been out of coaching for a long time (I won't name names, but there is a certain coach that would have easily had this award named after him until unfortunate recent events).

Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M



We also very well could be adding more trophies as we go. We're just flying by the seat of our pants!

So without further ado...

"Tebow-Dorsey Award"
(Best Quarterback)

Johnny Manziel (TAMU) - 3047 Yds, 21 TDs, 7 INTs

Matt Barkley (USC) - 3273 Yds, 36 TDs, 15 INTs

Geno Smith (WVU) - 3361 Yds, 35 TDs, 5 INTs

Tajh Boyd (CLEM) - 3367 Yds, 33 TDs, 11 INTs

AJ McCarron (ALA) - 2291 Yds, 21 TDs, 2 INTs

EJ Manuel (FSU) - 2785 Yds, 21 TDs, 6 INTs

Aaron Murray (UGA) - 2986 Yds, 28 TDs, 7 INTs

Teddy Bridgewater (LOU) - 2858 Yds, 21 TDs, 5 INTs
Collin Klein (KSU) - 2306 Yds, 12 TDs, 3 INTs



Kenjon Barner of Oregon



"Williams-Peterson Award"

(Best Running Back)

Kenjon Barner (ORE) - 1426 Yds, 19 TDs

Montee Ball (WISC) - 1417 Yds, 17 TDs

Ka'Deem Carey (ARIZ) - 1585 Yds, 19 TDs

Stefphon Jefferson (NEV) - 1564 Yds, 20 TDs

Edwards-Fitzgerald Award"

(Best Wide Receiver)

Marqise Lee (USC) - 1605 Yds, 14 TDs

Terrance Williams (BAY) - 1518 Yds, 11 TDs

Stedman Bailey (WVU) - 1260 Yds, 20 TDs

Quinton Patton (LT) - 1267 Yds, 11 TDs

"Woodson-Laurinaitis Award"

(Best Defensive Player)

Damontre Moore (TAMU) - 12.5 Sacks

Manti Te'o (ND) - 6 INTs

Quanterus Smith (WKU) - 12.5 Sacks

Anthony Barr (UCLA) - 12 Sacks

"Nugent-Janikowski Award"

(Best Kicker)

Steven Schott (BALL) - 23/28, 52 Long, 44/45 XP

Dustin Hopkins (FSU) - 22/26, 56 Long, 56/57 XP

Quinn Sharp (OKST) - 21/27, 51 Long, 55/55 XP

Jeremiah Detmer (TOL) - 21/26, 47 Long, 44/47 XP

Caleb Sturgis (FLA) - 20/24, 51 Long, 28/29 XP

"Mesko-Sepulveda Award"

(Best Punter)

Alexander Kinal (WAKE) - 3645 Yds, 61 Long

Darragh O'Neill (COLO) - 3137 Yds, 61 Long

Justin DuVernois (ILL) - 2933 Yds, 72 Long

Mike Sadler (MSU) - 2811 Yds, 70 Long

"Yost-Bryant Award"

(Coach of the Year)

Nick Saban (ALA)

Brian Kelly (ND)

Chip Kelly (ND)

Urban Meyer (OSU)

Bill O'Brien (PSU)

Freshman of the Year

(We will name this award after it's first recipient, at the end of this season)

Johnny Manziel (TAMU)

Marcus Mariota (ORE)

Devin Funchess (MICH)

TJ Yeldon (ALA)

Keep in mind that these are our awards, you do have the right to disagree. However, if you want to let us know who you think should be considered for a certain award, please let us know in our comments, but lets keep it clean, and not have arguing or bickering.

Also, the names of the awards are final, so those are non-debatable.

Thank you for reading and following Project College Football!

#12 South Carolina Gamecocks at #11 Clemson Tigers Preview

This Saturday night at 7:00 PM, the #12 South Carolina Gamecocks take on the #11 Clemson Tigers. This will be the 110th meeting between the two rivals. Currently, Clemson leads the all-time rivalry record 65-40-4, however South Carolina has won three straight against the Tigers.

Connor Shaw looks to lead South Carolina past
rival Clemson this Saturday at 7:00 PM

South Carolina will be led by junior quarterback Connor Shaw. Shaw, who has been a pretty precise passer, has also shown his scrambling skills this season. He has proven that he is one tough quarterback, taking numerous hits in games, and still continuing on. He has thrown for over 1,700 yards with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also has three rushing touchdowns to his name.

South Carolina's passing offense is ranked 75th in the nation, averaging about 222 passing yards per game. However Clemson's defense has allowed an average of 24.7 points per game (ranking them 47th in the nation for points allowed).

The Gamecocks running game hasn't been the greatest this season, most likely because junior Heisman hopeful running back Marcus Lattimore was injured earlier in the season. Senior Kenny Miles has taken the running back spot and has a little over 300 yards to his credit. He has also punched in two rushing touchdowns.

Tajh Boyd has 3,367 yards, 33 TDs and 11 INTs this season.

Clemson is led by junior quarterback Tajh Boyd, who is 240/353, for 3,367 yards, 33 touchdowns, and only 11 interceptions. He also has eight rushing touchdowns so far this season. Boyd looks to have a very good performance against South Carolina, and he definitely will need to with South Carolina's points allowed rank being 13th in the nation.

Boyd has two very reliable wide receivers in DeAndre Hopkins and Sammy Watkins. They have combined for over 1,700 yards receiving, and 18 touchdowns. Boyd also has tight end Brandon Ford as a nice target also. Ford has reeled in 8 receiving touchdowns this season.

Clemson is averaging 332 yards passing per game, which gains them the rank of 9th in the nation in passing yards. They are also ranked 4th in points scored, with an average of 44.6! That isn't only because of their passing game. Their running game isn't too bad either.

Clemson's running back, senior Andre Ellington has also had a pretty good season, rushing the ball 186 times for 959 yards and eight touchdowns.

Last year's game, South Carolina put a whooping on Clemson, winning 34-13. I see this game being a lot closer. Although Clemson is ranked a lot higher in passing yards and points scored per game, South Carolina's defense has been very good this season. With the addition of having Connor Shaw at the reigns as quarterback, you definitely can't count the Gamecocks out.

It's probably true in most games, but I'm going to say that the team with the most takeaways is going to win this game. Clemson is going to have to put pressure on Connor Shaw, making him one dimensional, and shut down the Gamecocks' backup running back. If they can successfully do that, they'll win this game. But if they let Connor Shaw have his time, and be able to throw or run when he needs to, he can shred this defense.

Should be a good one going down Saturday night at 7:00 PM ET. The game will be broadcast from Memorial Stadium on ESPN. You don't want to miss this one.

- Matt Lytle

@mattlytle

Week 13 Staff Picks

Last week due to a few upsets, our staff didn't have a very good week of picks. Matt went 1-6 while The Sports Messiah went 3-4.

This week we added Jackson McNamara to the staff as a writer, so he will be in on the picks, as well as a special guest picker that we have this week.

The Sports Messiah couldn't get his picks in until Saturday morning, so he didn't get to pick the USF vs Cincinnati game.

A lot of rivalry games this week, and a lot of solid matchups. Let's see how our staff picked them.

Matt Lytle (@mattlytle) [overall record: 6-12]
Cincinnati over USF
Michigan over Ohio State
Oregon over Oregon State
Florida State over Florida
Oklahoma over Oklahoma State
South Carolina over Clemson
Notre Dame over USC

The Sports Messiah (@thesportsmessia) [overall record: 11-7]
Ohio State
Oregon
Florida
Oklahoma
Clemson
Notre Dame

Jackson McNamara (@jacksonmcnamara) [overall record: 0-0]
Cincinnati over USF
Ohio State over Michigan

Florida State Seminoles Cheerleader
Kelsey Billings

Oregon over Oregon State
Florida over Florida State
Oklahoma over Oklahoma State
South Carolina over Clemson
Notre Dame over USC

And now for our guest picker... We had the privilege to meet senior Florida State Seminole cheerleader Kelsey Billings on Twitter. After speaking with her a little about her love for college football, she agreed to be our first ever guest picker. So let's see how Kelsey picks this week.

Kelsey Billings (@kelseybillings) [overall record: 0-0]
Cincinnati over USF
Michigan over Ohio State
Oregon State over Oregon
Florida State over Florida
Oklahoma over Oklahoma State
Clemson over South Carolina
Notre Dame over USC