NFL Draft 2013: 49ers Week 6 scouting trips, college game day open thread

Week 6 of the college football season is at hand, and we finally get quite a few juicy matchups on the schedule. The last few weeks we've had some ranked pairings, but they have been fairly limited. This week, we've got five ranked matchups with three involving teams all in the Top 11. I've posted some video at the bottom, which features Dan Rubenstein providing a few picks. Give it a view when you get a minute.

The big money matchups focus on the SEC, but include some other pertinent pairings. Here is a quick rundown of those matchups:

No. 4 LSU at No. 10 Florida, 12:30pm PT, CBS
No. 5 Georgia at No. 6 South Carolina, 4:00pm PT, ESPN
No. 8 West Virginia at No. 11 Texas, 4:00pm PT, FOX
No. 21 Nebraska at No. 12 Ohio State, 5:00pm PT, ABC
No. 23 Washington at No. 2 Oregon, 7:30pm PT, ESPN

It is mostly an evening slate of awesome, but LSU-Florida will be a good start. Beyond that there are some fun matchups of ranked and unranked teams. 4-1 Miami travels to a 4-0 Notre Dame (ranked No. 9), in the endless battle of "saints vs. sinners". 3-1 Iowa State travels to face 4-0 TCU (ranked No. 15) in another intriguing matchup.

The 49ers will have their scouts out and about, as Chris Steuber has confirmed they will be in attendance at USC-Utah, Utah St-BYU and Virginia Tech-North Carolina. The 49ers are continuing to "red-shirt" their rookie class, which makes me wonder how much time next year's class will get with this kind of team.

The team does have their share of free agents in 2013, but even still, a fair amount of this depth should remain intact. The nose tackle position is one area where we might see some turnover. Isaac Sopoaga and Ricky Jean-Francois are both free agents after this season. NT Ian Williams was active last week with Sopoaga out, and could get another active this week if Sopoaga gets one more week to get healthy.

Does the team look at RJF and Williams as the two-headed option to replace the 31-year old Sopoaga? Or do the 49ers try and get Ice back for another year or two? How would you handle the nose tackle situation at this point?

USC at Utah

NFL teams attending: Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, St. Louis Rams, Tennessee Titans and Washington Redskins.

Prospects to watch: Utah: S *Brian Blechen, WR DeVonte Christopher, DT Dave Kruger, DE *Joe Kruger, CB Ryan Lacy, DT Star Lotulelei, LB *Trevor Reilly, C Tevita Stevens, OT *Percy Taumoelau, RB John White, QB *Jordan Wynn; USC: QB Matt Barkley, CB Brian Baucham, OT *Kevin Graf, CB *Torin Harris, C Khaled Holmes, DE Wes Horton, OG *John Martinez, FS T.J. McDonald, RB Curtis McNeal, RB *Silas Redd, CB *Nickell Robey, FB *Hunter Simmons, SS Jawanza Starling, CB Isiah Wiley, WR *Robert Woods, SS *Demetrius Wright.

Utah State at Brigham Young

NFL teams attending: Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans.

Prospects to watch: Brigham Young: OT Braden Brown, TE *Kaneakua Friel, OG Braden Hansen, WR *Cody Hoffman, ILB Uona Kaveinga, DT Eathyn Manumaleuna, QB Riley Nelson, ILB Brandon Ogletree, OG *Houston Reynolds; Utah State: WR Matt Austin, DT Al Lapuaho, C *Tyler Larsen, CB *Nevin Lawson, OT Oscar Molina-Sanchez, RB Kerwynn Williams.

Virginia Tech at North Carolina

NFL teams attending: Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, St. Louis Rams, Tennessee Titans and Washington Redskins.

Prospects to watch: North Carolina: OG Travis Bond, S *Tre Boston, OG Jonathan Cooper, WR Erik Highsmith, OT *James Hurst, DE *Tim Jackson, DE *Kareem Martin, LB Kevin Reddick, QB *Bryn Renner, OT Brennan Williams, DT Sylvester Williams; Virginia Tech: OT Nick Becton, WR D.J. Coles, DE *J.R. Collins, WR Marcus Davis, LB *Tariq Edwards, CB *Antone Exum, CB *Kyle Fuller, DE *James Gayle, DT Antoine Hopkins, DT *Derrick Hopkins, C Andrew Miller, OT Vinston Painter, WR Dyrell Roberts, LB Bruce Taylor, QB *Logan Thomas, LB Jeron Gouveia-Winslow.