College football on television this weekend (Nov. 4-6)
Beth Mowins will be on the play-by-play, along with analyst Kirk Morrison and sideline reporter Dawn Davenport, when ESPN2 televises the Kentucky-Tennessee football game from Kroger Field at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
The 54-year-old Mowins has been at ESPN since 1994, calling football, basketball, softball, soccer and volleyball. In 2017, she became the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game when she handled play-by-play for the Broncos-Chargers, the second game of a Monday Night Football doubleheader on opening weekend.
Mowins’ hero? None other than former Kentucky First Lady Phyllis George, who was a broadcasting pioneer as a sportscaster on the NFL Today pregame show on CBS in the 1970s.
“That kind of lit the spark,” Mowins told MLB.com this summer. “I just turned to my mom one day and said, ‘Hey, can I do that?’ And of course, my mom, in all of her greatness, said, ‘Yes, you can.’”
Morrison is a former NFL linebacker with the Raiders, Jaguars and Bills. In addition to doing college football for ESPN, Morrison is on the Los Angeles’ Rams pregame and postgame shows. Davenport is a former Auburn volleyball player who has been working for ESPN since 2013.
A 34-7 winner over Tennessee last year in Knoxville, Kentucky hasn’t beaten the Volunteers in back-to-back seasons since 1976-77. Meanwhile, Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker leads the SEC in pass efficiency.
In Saturday’s only game matching AP Top 25 teams, No. 13 Auburn travels to College Station to play No. 14 Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. on CBS. Auburn is fresh off a 31-20 win over Ole Miss. The Tigers are 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the SEC. Texas A&M is 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the league. The lone team to best Alabama this season, A&M is a 4.5-point favorite Saturday.
There are plenty of other interesting matchups Saturday, starting with former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze returning to Oxford as Liberty takes on the Rebels. That’s a noon start on the SEC Network. Liberty is 7-2. Ole Miss is 6-2 and a 9.5-point favorite.
Freeze was the head coach at Ole Miss from 2012 to 2016 before the Rebels ran into NCAA trouble and Freeze resigned following a personal scandal. He’s gone 25-8 in three seasons at Liberty.
Besides the obvious homecoming angle, the game features a battle of two quarterbacks with NFL potential. ESPN’s Mel Kiper ranks Liberty’s Malik Willis as his No. 1 draft-eligible quarterback for 2022. Kiper ranks Ole Miss’s Matt Corral at No. 2. Willis has thrown for 21 touchdowns with just six interceptions. Corral has thrown for 15 scores with just two interceptions.
Corral injured his ankle early in Ole Miss’s loss to Auburn last week. “It looked really bad when it happened — like season-ending, broken,” Rebels Coach Lane Kiffin said. “That’s how he felt it was, but it wasn’t.”
No. 1-ranked Georgia plays host to Missouri at noon on ESPN on Saturday. The Bulldogs are a 38-point favorite, thanks in part to a Mizzou defense that is dead last nationally in run defense, allowing an average of 283.9 yards per game. Should be a walk for the Dawgs.
No. 6 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, Ohio State will be trying to impress the committee when the Buckeyes travel to Nebraska for the “Big Noon” game on Fox. Scott Frost is on thin ice in Lincoln. His Cornhuskers are just 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the Big Ten. The former Nebraska quarterback is just 15-26 in four seasons at his alma mater.
Hoping to follow up on its big win over Michigan last Saturday, Michigan State travels to upset-minded Purdue for a 3:30 p.m. start on ABC. Jeff Brohm’s Boilermakers have already pulled off one shocker this season, surprising then No. 2 Iowa 24-7 in West Lafayette on Oct. 16. Can Brohm do it again against the fifth-ranked Spartans?
The Boilermakers will have to contain Kenneth Walker, who rushed for 197 yards and scored five touchdowns in the Spartans’ win over Michigan. “Their offense is suited exactly for him and built around him,” Brohm said. “Running the football, power football, running downhill, getting it to him multiple ways, trusting in the running game because you have a really good defense and understanding that they’re not going to beat themselves.”
Underrated by the CFP committee at No. 6, undefeated Cincinnati plays host to Tulsa at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN2. The Bearcats are 8-0, but lacked style points in wins over Navy (27-20) and Tulane (31-12) in their last two games. Tulsa is just 3-5 on the year. UC needs to win and win big.
College Football Playoff Top 10
- 1. Georgia
- 2. Alabama
- 3. Michigan State
- 4. Oregon
- 5. Ohio State
- 6. Cincinnati
- 7. Michigan
- 8. Oklahoma
- 9. Wake Forest
- 10. Notre Dame
At one time, LSU-Alabama was a showcase Saturday night game on CBS. No more. With LSU Coach Ed Orgeron out the door at season’s end, the SEC West matchup is a 7 p.m. game on ESPN. Alabama is 7-1 overall, 4-1 in the conference. LSU is 4-4 overall, 2-3 in the league, and searching for a new head coach.
Closer to home, Louisville plays host to Clemson at 7:30 p.m. on the ACC Network. Scott Satterfield’s Cardinals have lost three of their last four to fall to 4-4 overall. U of L is 2-3 in the ACC. Obviously suffering a down season, Clemson is 5-3 overall and 4-2 in the conference. The Tigers defeated Florida State 30-20 last week.
“To play a team like Clemson and all the tradition and history and what they’ve been able to accomplish,” U of L’s Satterfield said this week. “I have a ton of respect for them. To be able to beat a team like that this year would be incredible. It would be a huge notch on our belt to be able to beat them.”
Eastern Kentucky travels to Stephen F. Austin for a 5 p.m. game on ESPN Plus. The 6-2 Colonels are looking to run their win streak to six games, the longest since 2014. Stephen F. Austin has won two straight and is 5-3 overall. The Lumberjacks defeated EKU 24-6 last season in Richmond.
Here’s the college football television/streaming schedule for Thursday (Nov. 4) through Saturday (Nov. 6).
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
