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Week 3 college football open thread: Stanford, Cal and Alabama-Texas A&M

We provide an open thread for discussion about all the great college football action going down in Week 3. Stanford travels to Army, Cal hosts Ohio State and Alabama-Texas A&M takes the cake!

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Mike Zarrilli

Welcome back for another week of college football! For west coast fans, the Stanford Cardinal get going early this morning with a 9 a.m. PT kickoff at Army. It will be interesting to see how the Cardinal come out of the gates with such an early start. For more on Stanford, check out Rule of Tree.

It's a full day for Bay Area football fans, as Cal hosts No. 4 Ohio State at 4 p.m. The Buckeyes are a 15.5 point favorite, coming into Memorial Stadium a week after Cal had to scratch and claw its way to a 37-30 victory over I-AA Portland State. The Sonny Dykes era is off to a bumpy start, so we'll see if they can manage even a moral victory against Ohio State. For more on Cal, check out California Golden Blogs. For more on Ohio State, check out Land-Grant Holy Land.

The big game of day, however, is at 12:30 when No. 1 Alabama heads into College Station to face off against No. 6 Texas A&M. From a pure football perspective, this game is huge considering the Aggies went into Tuscaloosa and shocked the Tide last year. Alabama will be looking for revenge in a game with early national title implications. Of course, this is also going to be just as much about Johnny Manziel. CBS apparently will have a dedicated Johnny Football camera keeping an eye on the always interesting quarterback. To learn more about this game, checkout Roll Bama Roll and Good Bull Hunting. GBH has a great graphical preview of the game.

From Trevor Woods: While A&M has the advantage of home field, Manziel is going to have his hands full against a stout Crimson Tide defense. Bama linebacker C.J. Mosley has the ability to bottle Manziel up and limit what he does running the football. I expect to see Mosley spying Manziel for most of the game, this will be a fun matchup in the game. Mosley is an All-American who possesses great instincts, a solid run stopper, and capable of playing pass coverage. Last season, Mosley put up 99 tackles, four sacks, and two interceptions.

A prime sleeper candidate in this years draft could be A&M running back Ben Malena. Now a senior, Malena looks to improve on his 808 yards on just 138 carries (5.86 yards per carry) and 8 touchdowns. If the Aggies are going to beat Bama again, they're going to need Malena to have a decent game, and that is going to be an uphill battle against the best defense in college football. Last season he had 14 carries and 50 yards.

For West coast fans, there is also an interesting UCLA-Nebraska matchup in Lincoln, as the No. 16 Bruins look to build on last week's blowout of Nevada (sorry Kap!). For more on UCLA, check out Bruins Nation. For more on Nebraska, check out Corn Nation.

Saturday, September 14
TIME (ET) MATCHUP TV PPV MOBILE TICKETS
12:00 PM No. 5 Stanford at Army CBS Sports Network Buy on StubHub
12:00 PM No. 7 Louisville at Kentucky 885 available from $75
12:00 PM Akron at No. 11 Michigan BTN 3,853 available from $35
12:00 PM Tulsa at No. 14 Oklahoma 1,809 available from $50
12:00 PM No. 16 UCLA at No. 23 Nebraska Buy on StubHub
12:00 PM Bowling Green at Indiana 362 available from $10
12:00 PM Western Illinois at Minnesota BTN 1,457 available from $10
12:00 PM Virginia Tech at East Carolina FOX Sports 1 381 available from $79
12:00 PM Georgia State at West Virginia 1,736 available from $22
12:21 PM Southern Miss at Arkansas ESPN 3 1,595 available from $16
12:30 PM Louisiana-Monroe at Wake Forest ESPN 3 279 available from $5
12:30 PM New Mexico at Pittsburgh ESPN 3 3,515 available from $2
1:00 PM Eastern Michigan at Rutgers ESPN 3 970 available from $8
1:00 PM Fordham at Temple ESPN 3 722 available from $6
Postponed Fresno State at Colorado
2:00 PM Youngstown State at Michigan State BTN 1,774 available from $15
3:00 PM Boston College at USC Pac-12 Network 3,573 available from $37
3:30 PM No. 1 Alabama at No. 6 Texas A&M CBS 2,294 available from $71
3:30 PM Tennessee at No. 2 Oregon 1,923 available from $90
3:30 PM Nevada at No. 10 Florida State 2,230 available from $16
3:30 PM Cal Poly at Colorado State 18 available from $35
3:30 PM Georgia Tech at Duke 421 available from $21
3:30 PM Stony Brook at Buffalo ESPN 3 11 available from $50
3:30 PM Delaware at Navy CBS Sports Network Buy on StubHub
4:00 PM Wagner at Syracuse ESPN 3 Buy on StubHub
4:00 PM Ball State at North Texas Buy on StubHub
4:00 PM Northern Colorado at Wyoming 54 available from $20
5:00 PM Northern Illinois at Idaho 13 available from $46
6:00 PM No. 19 Washington at Illinois BTN 747 available from $47
6:00 PM Iowa at Iowa State FOX Sports 1 409 available from $132
6:00 PM UCF at Penn State BTN 1,467 available from $24
6:00 PM Howard at Old Dominion Buy on StubHub
6:00 PM Bethune-Cookman at Florida International 69 available from $11
6:30 PM Southern Utah at Washington State Pac-12 Network 252 available from $21
7:00 PM No. 4 Ohio State at California FOX 5,497 available from $59
7:00 PM Kent State at No. 8 LSU 1,204 available from $9
7:00 PM Vanderbilt at No. 13 South Carolina 2,699 available from $45
7:00 PM Mississippi State at Auburn 1,735 available from $45
7:00 PM Florida Atlantic at South Florida ESPN 3 845 available from $3
7:00 PM Nicholls State at Louisiana-Lafayette ESPN 3 Northwestern State at Cincinnati ESPN 3 208 available from $20
7:00 PM Massachusetts at Kansas State Buy on StubHub
7:00 PM Memphis at Middle Tennessee 26 available from $34
7:00 PM Eastern Washington at Toledo ESPN 3 20 available from $18
7:30 PM Lamar at No. 12 Oklahoma State 1,305 available from $26
7:30 PM Western Kentucky at South Alabama ESPN 3 Buy on StubHub
7:30 PM Maryland at Connecticut ESPN 3 1,380 available from $15
7:30 PM Kansas at Rice CBS Sports Network 36 available from $48
8:00 PM No. 21 Notre Dame at Purdue Buy on StubHub
8:00 PM No. 25 Ole Miss at Texas Longhorn Network 4,623 available from $15
8:00 PM UTEP at New Mexico State ESPN 3 6 available from $35
8:00 PM Marshall at Ohio 196 available from $20
8:00 PM Weber State at Utah State ESPN 3 174 available from $10
9:00 PM Western Michigan at No. 17Northwestern BTN 3,220 available from $1
10:00 PM Oregon State at Utah FOX Sports 1 341 available from $19
10:00 PM Central Michigan at UNLV 213 available from $17
10:30 PM No. 20 Wisconsin at Arizona State 2,837 available from $34
10:30 PM UTSA at Arizona Pac-12 Network 975 available from $5


+Cajuns+20130914">Buy on StubHub 7:00 PM Northwestern State at Cincinnati ESPN 3 208 available from $20 7:00 PM Massachusetts at Kansas State Buy on StubHub 7:00 PM Memphis at Middle Tennessee 26 available from $34 7:00 PM Eastern Washington at Toledo ESPN 3 20 available from $18 7:30 PM Lamar at No. 12 Oklahoma State 1,305 available from $26 7:30 PM Western Kentucky at South Alabama ESPN 3 Buy on StubHub 7:30 PM Maryland at Connecticut ESPN 3 1,380 available from $15 7:30 PM Kansas at Rice CBS Sports Network 36 available from $48 8:00 PM No. 21 Notre Dame at Purdue Buy on StubHub 8:00 PM No. 25 Ole Miss at Texas Longhorn Network 4,623 available from $15 8:00 PM UTEP at New Mexico State ESPN 3 6 available from $35 8:00 PM Marshall at Ohio 196 available from $20 8:00 PM Weber State at Utah State ESPN 3 174 available from $10 9:00 PM Western Michigan at No. 17Northwestern BTN 3,220 available from $1 10:00 PM Oregon State at Utah FOX Sports 1 341 available from $19 10:00 PM Central Michigan at UNLV 213 available from $17 10:30 PM No. 20 Wisconsin at Arizona State 2,837 available from $34 10:30 PM UTSA at Arizona Pac-12 Network 975 available from $5