College football Saturday: No. 1 Florida State hits the road in the ACC
The Seminoles get quarterback Jameis Winston back under center against North Carolina State.
Florida State wide receiver Rashad Greene hauls in a 74-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 17-17 in the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game against Clemson in Tallahassee, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. Florida State defeated Clemson 23-17 in overtime.
Mark Wallheiser/AP
After spending last Saturday night coaching the Florida State offense from the sidelines, Jameis Winston returns to his regular quarterbacking duties Saturday afternoon as the top-ranked Seminoles travel to North Carolina State for their first ACC road game.
The Wolfpack is 4-0 and welcomes Florida State to Raleigh, fresh off a 42-0 drubbing of Presbyterian at home last Saturday. The only real test N.C. State has had this season was a road game at South Florida, which they won by 32 points. They are rated 25th in NCAA total offense, averaging just over 500 yards of offense per game. North Carolina State is rated 36th in the NCAA total defense rankings.
North Carolina State is led by quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who's thrown for just over one thousand yards and ten touchdowns in the season's first four games.
Shadrach Thornton and Matt Dayes have handled the bulk of the running duties for the Wolfpack in 2014. Dayes is also a threat, catching the ball out of the backfield.
You can watch Florida State and North Carolina State play at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Saturday, broadcast on either ABC or ESPN2.
Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will play host to yet another college football game Saturday. Sixth-ranked Texas A&M meets a fast-improving Arkansas squad in a SEC West matchup that features two schools who were formerly members of the Southwest Conference.
The Razorbacks are coming off an impressive road win at Texas Tech two weeks ago and a home win over Northern Illinois last Saturday. Head coach Bret Bielema has taken the offensive philosophy he used at Wisconsin, which is to focus on the run, and brought it to Fayetteville.
Arkansas is rated seventh in NCAA rushing offense through four games, averaging over 320 yards on the ground per game. They ran for 438 yards against Texas Tech. Alex Collins leads the Razorbacks in rushing, averaging over 120 yards per game.
Texas A&M is 4-0 after rolling past SMU last Saturday. Aggie quarterback Kenny Hill has completed nearly 70 percent of his pass attempts for 1,359 yards and 13 touchdowns after four games. Six receivers, led by Malcome Kennedy, have at least a dozen catches each.
The Arkansas-Texas A&M contest can be seen on CBS, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.
There are two other games of interest this weekend. 13th-ranked South Carolina comes back home Saturday to host SEC foe Missouri. The Gamecocks went on the road to Nashville last Saturday and defeated a game Vanderbilt squad.
Missouri was ranked in the Associated Press's Top 25 last weekend when they hosted Indiana. But the Hoosiers sprang the upset, sending the Tigers to their first defeat of the season.
The South Carolina-Missouri game will be televised by ESPN, beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Finally, 16th-ranked Stanford heads north to Washington for a Pac-12 matchup. After shutting out Army two weeks ago, the 2-1 Cardinal gets back into league play. The Huskies are 4-0. After edging Hawaii by one point in their first game, Washington has averaged 49 points per game in their last three contests.
You can see Stanford and Washington on Fox, beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.