What to Know
- We rank each game with our NBC 6 not-so-scientific system.
Rival (noun) - a person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.
It’s the one game each season where the records don’t matter and everything else flies out the window when it comes to playing your hated rival – and for several South Florida teams, it’s a good things records don’t matter as it has been a first two months to forget.
In college football, the Miami Hurricanes set to hit the road to face their biggest rivals knowing that a likely bowl berth is on the line – while in the NFL, the Miami Dolphins return to the field after a Monday Night showing that has critics again insisting that the team has begun a major tank job for the first pick in the draft.
At the same time, FIU looks for a win that could solidify a third straight bowl berth for the Panthers while a battle in Jacksonville could help decide a berth in the College Football Playoff – but before we get to that, we rank each game with our NBC 6 not-so-scientific system.
Miami Hurricanes at Florida State Seminoles (Saturday)
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For a game that once decided the national champion over a near two-decade span in the 1980s and 1990s, the teams come in with four losses each for the most combined setbacks since their game in 1975 – and with the schedules each team faces ahead of them, there is a decent chance that the loser of this game could be staying during bowl season in 2019.
Both teams come into the game off important wins last week – the Canes, behind quarterback Jarren Williams, getting the upset win on the road over a favored Pittsburgh team while the Noles were able to hold on to a halftime lead and get the win over Syracuse. With two straight wins in the series, a victory for Miami would extend their longest win streak since they took six straight games in the early 2000s.
FIU Panthers vs. Old Dominion Monarchs (Saturday)
With their three game win streak coming to an end in a big way last week, head coach Butch Davis gets ready to lead the men from Southwest 8th Street back on the field needing two wins to make it to a bowl game for a third straight time – which would be the longest streak in school history.
The Monarchs, who limp into the game with just one win this season, seem to be the easiest victory left with games that follow including a road trip to rival Florida Atlantic along with a “home” game against Miami inside Marlins Park and the regular season finale against Marshall on the road.
Florida Gators vs. Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville (Saturday)
It’s not out of the norm for this game to mean a lot in the college football world – but this game might be the biggest in the series history of these hated rivals as the winner not only becomes the front runner to take home the SEC East crown, but likely has an inside track on getting one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff for this season.
A win by Georgia would be their third in the row in this series – which would be just the second time they have won that many games in the series in the last 30 seasons – while a win by the Gators would give them an inside track on making it to Atlanta for the first time since the 2016 season.
Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets (Sunday)
Yes, the NFL team in South Florida still has to play the final nine games of their season – something that might seem a little unnecessary after giving up a 14-point lead in their loss Monday against Pittsburgh and reigniting the idea that the team is losing games on purpose to obtain the top pick in April’s draft.
Meanwhile, the Jets come to town with more wins – well, with one win – as the teams meet for the first of two games over a six week period in a rivalry that used to decide the champion of the AFC East and now could arguably be the worst game of the season in what could be the Dolphins’ final realistic chance to get a win this season.
Other State Games
In college football, the UCF Knights are back home for a noon game against Houston while Florida Atlantic hits the road to take on Western Kentucky. The FAMU Rattlers will be home as a ranked FCS team when they face Delaware State.
In the NFL, the Jacksonville Jaguars have a 9:30 a.m. kickoff this week as they are in London for a divisional showdown with the Houston Texans while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on the road again this weekend when they travel to Seattle for a showdown with the Seahawks.
