The Saturday Meal Plan is a helpful guide put together for you to maximize the results of your college football diet. Just enough to leave you feeling full, but not so much you spend your entire Sunday in the bathroom.
Breakfast
Main Course - #2 Ohio State vs. Indiana - Noon - ESPNYou know what the real problem is with the ACC and Big East being so awful/mediocre this year? It really leaves the early menu of games leaving a lot to be desired. I mean, I have Ohio State and Indiana as the morning's best option.
Think about that for a second. Ohio State and Indiana. A game which hasn't seen the Hoosiers get within more than 19 points of the Buckeyes in every meeting since 2002 -- though the teams didn't meet in 2007 or 2008. The good news for Indiana is that the 19-point loss came last season, with Ben Chappell at quarterback.
The Hoosiers offense has been very impressive this season, but the Buckeyes will be by far their biggest test six weeks into the year. Considering that we can't be sure just how healthy Terrelle Pryor is, and the struggles the Buckeyes had in Champaign last week, this game could prove to be more interesting than you'd think.
Side Orders: Should that game go the blowout route, your other options Saturday morning would be the ACC fare of North Carolina State and Boston College. One is a team looking to rebound from its first loss, the other is a team that is having its three quarterbacks pick a number between 1-10 to see who gets to start. If you prefer something else, you can watch Georgia and Tennessee fight to see which school's season is more far gone than the other. It's a must win for Mark Richt, because a loss to Tennessee at home would only send him to the hospital with third-degree burns on his backside.
Lunch
Main Course - #19 South Carolina vs #1 Alabama - 3:30pm - CBSIf there's one thing I think we can all be certain at this point of the college football season it's that Alabama is the best team in the country. There's a bit of a gap between them and Ohio State and Oregon, but after the Ducks, things drop off quite a bit. That being said, going in to Columbia to take on the Gamecocks shouldn't be a cakewalk for the Tide.
What I think will be the key to this one is if Marcus Lattimore can do anything against the Alabama defense. While the Alabama defense is barely giving up nine points a game, they are allowing an average of 101 yards per game on the ground.
Though even if the Gamecocks do get a ground game going, they still have to stop Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, which no one has done to this point ('Bama is averaging 230 yards a game rushing). Considering the Gamecocks allow 128.3 yards a contest on the ground, I'm not sure they're up for the challenge either.
Side Orders: Listen, if people are taking this Michigan/Michigan State game so seriously that they're willing to die in order to see it, maybe you can take a few hours of your Saturday and do the same. There is never a bad time to watch Denard Robinson play football, as he is without question the most dangerous one-man show in the sport right now. If that's not good enough for you, check out Arkansas and Texas A&M. One team has a quarterback who lives up to the hype, and the other has a quarterback who lives up to the hype on one series and then proceeds to get that hype lodged in his throat, suffocating himself and his team. See if you can tell which one is which.
Dinner
Main Course - #14 Florida vs. #12 LSU - 7:30pm - ESPNThis game will be interesting for plenty of reasons, but perhaps none more so than the battles between the fans in the seats. Watch as LSU and Florida fans argue about which team's offensive coordinator is going to drive some student to the top of the nearest bell tower with a sniper rifle sooner. Then watch the other fan base tell them that if their offensive coordinator climbed up that same tower he'd only manage to fall out before getting a single shot off.
Then watch both fan bases fall into each other's arms in tears, unified in despair. Then they'd smile when both agreeing that if it were Les Miles atop that tower, he'd kill 40 people before going to trial and being found not guilty on some technicality.
Side Orders: Though the rivalry between Florida State and Miami has lost some of its luster the last few years, the fact is both teams come into this game ranked and looking to stay on top of their respective divisions in the ACC. Or you can watch Stanford try to run its win streak over USC to three games in Palo Alto as Ed Orgeron yells incoherently from home thanks to that staph infection in his leg.
