Games Worth Watching: Week 3 at LinesMaker.com

So we’re two weeks into the 2011 reg­u­lar season.

And what do we really know at this point?

Well, not much, really. It’s just too early. We do know a few things, how­ever. Includ­ing the following:

1. We know that the SEC remains the best con­fer­ence in the coun­try.: And really, it’s not very close. Believe me, it pains me to write that. But it’s real­ity. Sad, sad real­ity. The gulf between Mike Slive’s col­lege foot­ball behe­moth and every other league is mas­sive. And I don’t see how the dom­i­nance will end. This isn’t good for the game, by the way.

2. We know the Big Ten has issues.: Ohio State strug­gled against Toledo. Penn State looked second-class against Alabama. Indi­ana and Min­nesota have already suf­fered humil­i­at­ing losses. Nebraska has been hot-and-cold. Michi­gan beat Notre Dame, sure, but does any­body really have any faith in that Wolver­ine defense. About the only good thing going for the Big Ten right now is the play of Rus­sell Wil­son, who is absolutely tear­ing it up for Wis­con­sin. If the Bad­gers don’t win the Big Ten, I’ll be shocked.

3. We know Denard Robin­son is still the most excit­ing player in the coun­try.: Yeah, Michi­gan still might be a one-man show. But what a show it is.

4. We know LSU and Alabama can still play some seri­ous defense.: When these two teams get together later this sea­son, it’s going to be bru­tal. And it’s going to be beautiful.

5. We know Brian Kelly is offi­cially (cliche on the way) on the hot seat.: We also know that seat won’t cool down one bit until Kelly notches his first win of the 2011 season.

Will that win come this week? Well, find out here, as we present the Week 3 edi­tion of Games Worth Watching.

No. 15 Michi­gan State at Notre Dame (3:30, ABC): No, Kelly will not lose his job if the Irish lose this one. No, it will not quite be the end of the world if the Irish start 0–3. And no, it’s not time to start ques­tion­ing the hir­ing of Kelly in the first place. But yes, Notre Dame will find itself in a world of trou­ble if they man­age to lose this game. Their hopes for the sea­son will effec­tively be shot. Morale, which already must be near rock-bottom, will plum­met even fur­ther. And Irish nation? Well, let’s just say they’re going to be less than pleased. Michi­gan State is not a great team, no. But they are big­ger than Notre Dame along both the offen­sive and defen­sive fronts. Maybe more impor­tantly, they play with the con­fi­dence of a team that knows it can (and will) win. Notre Dame plays scared. Big dif­fer­ence there, folks. Michi­gan State 34, Notre Dame 27

No. 17 Ohio State at Miami (FL) (7:30 p.m., ESPN): Scandal-ridden Miami hopes to get their sea­son (and pro­gram) back on track as they wel­come scandal-ridden Ohio State to rented sta­dium half-packed with halfway inter­ested, some­what cyn­i­cal fans. I mean, this should have been a big game. Now, it’s just sad. Ohio State 17, Miami 14

No. 1 Okla­homa at No. 5 Florida State (8 p.m., ABC): In col­lege foot­ball, iner­tia mat­ters. Momen­tum mat­ters. Belief mat­ters. And, yes, the home crowd mat­ters. In this one, well, Florida State has all of that stuff. In less than two years, Jimbo Fisher has turned the Florida State pro­gram back into what it’s sup­posed to be — a Sun­shine State pow­er­house. He’s done it on the field. He’s done it on the recruit­ing trail. And he’s done on the pub­lic rela­tions front, too. The folks in Tal­la­has­see really believe in his guy. The play­ers believe. The alumni believe. The stu­dents believe. On Sat­ur­day night, all of that belief will pay off, and all of Fisher’s efforts since tak­ing over for Bobby Bow­den will result in a program-making win–a win that will tem­porar­ily derail the Soon­ers’ national title march, and tem­porar­ily put the ‘Noles on the cusp of their first No. 1 rank­ing in a long, long time. Get ready to party, Florida State. This will be fun. Florida State 31, Okla­homa 21

Photo: Jimbo Fisher and Florida State have a chance to make a real state­ment on Sat­ur­day against Oklahoma. ()