A lot of the charm of college football comes from the games that don’t mean much to the bigger picture of the sport, but mean absolutely everything to the two schools taking the field. Most years, the annual insanity of the Egg Bowl is my go-to example of exactly why I find college football infinitely more interesting than the professional version of the sport. This is, after all, a space where Oklahoma fans are making hype reels for the surgeon who operated on quarterback John Mateer’s hand this week and it’s not even that strange.

But there’s another type of foreboding charm that our sport possesses in a way no other can really match: impending doom. You can’t ever spot a true Blood Week coming, but there are weekends where you know that bad things will happen to good teams and worse things will happen to the just okay ones.

This is one of those weeks. Twelve ranked teams are on the road, and we have four ranked matchups. Of those teams, only Georgia Tech is favored by double digits. Something is going to happen.

Of all the ranked teams in action, Vanderbilt is favored by the most points. Stop and read that sentence again. A ranked Vanderbilt team is the safest bet in college football this weekend. Something is going to happen.

LISTEN:

When Elle King came out with her cover of this song a few years ago, I had no idea that Tyler Childers had written it. To be fair, if it weren’t for the existence of this wobbly recording on his Soundcloud, I’m not sure you could trace it back to him particularly easily – it’s among the growing number of songs he just doesn’t perform live.

You should listen to Childers’ new album, Snipe Hunter, which is maybe the most fun offbeat country album since Sturgill Simpson started really experimenting with his sound a few records ago, but also go spin through his old stuff on the way.

EAT:

You’re going to want to be up early for this slate of games. From Bitter Southerner’s wonderful Seven Essential Southern Dishes, give this grits, country ham and red-eye gravy a try.

Saturday Early

No. 22 Notre Dame at Arkansas

What heartbreaking turnover will the Hogs dream up with this week? Tune in to find out!

No. 18(!!) Vanderbilt vs Utah State

Vanderbilt, a team that makes its mark as being incredibly annoying to play against, meets Bronco Mendenhall, a coach in the Hall of Being Incredibly Annoying to Play Against.

Saturday Afternoon

No. 4 LSU at No. 11 Ole Miss

Lane Kiffin says bet the over. This has early marking of a Game of the Year contender.

No. 9 Texas A&M vs Auburn

Trap game.

No. 15 Tennessee at Mississippi State

Also a trap game.

Saturday Evening

No. 5 Georgia vs No. 17 Alabama

One of these fanbases is leaving Sanford Stadium madder than hell, and it’s going to be really fun to find out who.

No. 20 Missouri vs UMass

Bank this win now, Tigers, because the rest of the slate does not look especially friendly. Then again, neither does the Mizzou defense, last seen giving up negative nine rushing yards to South Carolina.

Kentucky at South Carolina

Last chance for South Carolina to remain relevant this year. Have a feeling Mark Stoops will be more than happy to accommodate.

Yessir.

Oh my god these are great. 10/10 throwbacks, right down to incorporating that specific powder blue color that tons of teams used to use and no longer do.

Friday Night

No. 8 Florida State at Virginia

Want a fun way to turn the temperature up on Bama before the Georgia game even kicks off? Virginia is super spicy on offense this year, and could definitely put a scare into the Seminoles – who are still coasting off that opening beatdown of the Tide.

Saturday Afternoon

No. 11 Indiana at Iowa

The Hoosiers are undeniably fun, something Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz surely despises. Indiana either wins by 70 or gets choked out in a single-digit contest, with no in between.

No. 1 Ohio State at Washington

The Huskies seem to be really good and still aren’t ranked, let’s see if this is anything.

Saturday Evening

No. 6 Oregon at No. 3 Penn State

Would be a great time for James Franklin to win a big-time regular season game.

Now that Mike Gundy has been fired, re-red the delightful Channel 6 ($) interview where they had an actual interior designer rifle through the Zillow listing of his Stillwater Mcmansion; The Right Time with Bomani Jones had Spencer Hall on this week to talk about Deion, Lane Kiffin and the idiocy of letting Bruce Pearl’s son do anything important; Pitchfork caught up with Mr. Collipark for a fun review of his role in the Atlanta rap scene; Amanda Shires spoke at length about her divorce from fellow country star Jason Isbell in the latest Texas Monthly, an topic that is really hard to do well but Natalie Weiner nails; the Australian Rules Football Grand Final (what they call the Super Bowl) is this Friday night and would be a wonderful lead-in to a hopefully chaotic day of college football.