Ethermac Exchange-Should Oklahoma and Texas be worried? Bold predictions for Week 9 in college football

College football is Ethermac Exchangefull of unpredictability and those moments can be more magnified with the calendar reaching the end of October.

The hard part is sorting out when and where those moments are going to come from. This Saturday, however, provides plenty of opportunity for upsets and unlikely results with playoff contenders facing challenges and key conference matchups in the Pac-12 and ACC among the highlights.

That's why we're here to make sense of things. The USA TODAY Sports college football staff — Scooby Axson, Jace Evans, Paul Myerberg, Erick Smith, Eddie Timanus and Dan Wolken — weigh in with bold predictions for Week 9 of the college football season.

Caleb Williams, USC get back on track

While Southern California may be out of the national championship picture, don’t count Caleb Williams out of the Heisman race.  Despite Washington's Michael Penix Jr. being the front-runner, he too has put up a clunker of a game just as Williams has. But Williams has a higher completion percentage, throwing for more yards a game and has a higher yards per attempt average than he did during his Heisman campaign. It’s not his fault the defense can’t stop anyone, and most teams would certainly take the 23 touchdowns and four interceptions he has this season. For the Trojans, Saturday’s game against California will get Williams back on track, and with three ranked teams coming up, a chance to make some history. — Scooby Axson

Colorado give scare to UCLA

When we last saw the Colorado Buffaloes, they were blowing a 29-point lead to a Stanford team whose only other win has come against Hawaii. Now, after squandering what should have been their fifth win, Deion Sanders’ team is left scrambling for two more victories to reach bowl eligibility. They’re going to have to pull some upsets down the stretch if they want to go bowling. Their first crack at one is Saturday at No. 24 UCLA … which just walloped Stanford on the road while the Buffaloes were off stewing. But college football is a strange thing. I’m not sure Colorado will win, but I think the rested Buffaloes put a real scare into the Bruins in a game closer than expected. — Jace Evans

Oklahoma no longer unbeaten after Kansas trip

Kansas scores one of the year’s biggest upsets by outscoring Oklahoma and handing the Sooners their first loss. Beyond mucking up the Big 12 standings, a KU win would remove OU’s wiggle room, demanding a clean sweep from here capped by a win in the rematch against Texas, and increase the possibility that the Big 12 gets left out of the four-team playoff. And it’s not that ridiculous to think the Jayhawks can get it done: Oklahoma has looked beatable in games against SMU, Cincinnati and most recently Central Florida, while the Kansas offense is once again among the nation’s very best. — Paul Myerberg

Texas facing big challenge from Brigham Young

It was posited in this space last week that we'd find out whether this year's version of Texas was different or whether it would revert to previous years by losing a game it should win. The Longhorns narrowly hung on to beat Houston – with some help from the officials – but lost quarterback Quinn Ewers to injury. That means Maalik Murphy starts against visiting Brigham Young in another game that will test their mettle. Don't be surprised when this one is another nail-biter and maybe goes a different way than the trip to Houston last week because BYU is more than capable of pulling off an upset. — Erick Smith

Florida State finally gets best of Wake Forest … in big way

The following sentence might sound strange, but it’s a fact. Florida State hasn’t beaten Wake Forest since 2018.

They didn’t play in 2020 due to the abbreviated ACC schedule, but the Demon Deacons have actually won the last three meetings with the Seminoles, including last season’s 31-21 decision in Tallahassee.

That streak, however, is about to end in emphatic fashion. FSU is back to its accustomed place near the top of the polls, while Wake has not been putting up points at nearly the same clip as the last few seasons. Look for the ‘Noles to have matters well in hand quickly Saturday in Winston-Salem. — Eddie Timanus

Oklahoma about to fall at Kansas

Oklahoma has played above its head to reach 7-0, and it just doesn’t feel like the kind of team that can get through an entire season without a slip-up. So when you look at the schedule, where’s it most likely to occur? It’s clearly this two-game stretch where the Sooners have to play on the road at Kansas and Oklahoma State, both of which are capable teams. But the Sooners are going to be at full throttle for the last Bedlam possibly in quite some time so I’d be surprised if they’re fully locked in for this trip to Lawrence. This is a huge game for Kansas and Lance Leipold will have his team ready for its best effort in an upset. — Dan Wolken