Week Nine NATIONAL College Football Previews:
#1 Miami-UNC, #2 Ohio State-Southern Cal,
#17 Florida-#3 Georgia Among Top Matchups
(DG’s Weekly CFB YouTube Show = Below)
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Oct. 28, 2026)
The 2026 college football campaign continues Tuesday through Saturday with a compelling Week Nine schedule, highlighted by high-profile games involving the top three teams in the national rankings.
The three most intriguing contests nationally — each set for Saturday and previewed below — include #1 Miami (7-0) visiting North Carolina (4-3) on Halloween night (7:30 p.m., ABC), #2 Ohio State (6-1) traveling to Southern Cal (6-2) in the same time slot (7:30 p.m., NBC) and #3 Georgia (6-1) taking on #17 Florida (5-2) earlier in the day (3:30 p.m., ABC) in Atlanta rather than at that Southeastern Conference rivalry’s century-long home in Jacksonville, Fla.
Meanwhile, all six of the Bold North State’s other Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams also are in action again this week, with #14 Wake Forest aiming to continue its impressive rise in the Top 25, Appalachian State hoping to build on its thrilling victory last week over previously undefeated JMU, Duke seeking to improve to 6-2, and NC State playing its first game since coach Dave Doeren’s recent dismissal.
Here are more details on our “Three To See” selections from this week’s national schedule:
National “Three To See,” Game One
#17 Florida (5-2) vs. #3 Georgia (6-1), Sat., 3:30 p.m. (ABC)
In the history of college football, this is one of the greatest examples of taking a very important rivalry and building a deep, fun tradition around playing the annual games at a celebrated neutral site instead of just rotating them back and forth between the two campuses.
The other best example is Texas-Oklahoma, which is played pretty much every year at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, a location that’s almost equidistant between those two campuses. Army-Navy is another good one, although after decades of that game being played exclusively in Philadelphia, more recently it’s been rotated among a half-dozen different cities in the Northeast.
This Florida-Georgia game, which for a long time was celebrated — and still is, by many — as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” has been played for nearly the past century in Jacksonville, Fla., with only extremely rare exceptions, although this year and next year are two of those exceptions.
This year’s Florida-Georgia game will be the first that’s not in Jacksonville since 1994 and 1995, when the schools decided to have just a single game each at their home stadiums in Gainesville, Fla., and Athens, Ga., respectively. Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to the early 1930s, which was right before this rivalry began to settle in Jacksonville.
Now, nearly a century later, the rivalry is taking a two-year break from Jacksonville, because the usual venue — now called EverBank Stadium — is going through a major renovation.
So, this game on Saturday is at the glitzy Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which is only about a 90-minute drive from Athens, and next year’s game will be at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, which is only about a two-hour drive from Gainesville.
Although this year’s contest is one of the only ranked-on-ranked games of the entire FBS weekend, Georgia is a double-digit favorite over Florida.
The Bulldogs have won eight of the last nine in this rivalry, and coach Kirby Smart’s squad is really angry right now, because they’re coming off a shocking home loss to middling Auburn.
Meanwhile, under first-year head coach Jon Sumrall (formerly of Tulane), Florida has been one of the most volatile teams in the entire country — good enough to beat Ole Miss and Texas, but also shaky enough to lose to both Missouri and South Carolina.
The Dawgs’ biggest advantage in this one may be when fifth-year senior quarterback Gunner Stockton, trying to bounce back from his three-turnover debacle against Auburn, directs one of the nation’s most prolific offenses against a Florida defense that’s giving up more than 28 points per game, one of the worst numbers in the SEC.
National “Three To See,” Game Two
#1 Miami (7-0) at UNC (4-3), Sat., 7:30 p.m. (ABC)
Believe it or not, North Carolina has won five consecutive games in this rivalry, with each of those head-to-head victories over Miami coming during the recent Mack Brown Part Two tenure in Chapel Hill.
However, the Hurricanes are a two-touchdown favorite this time, even on the road, because they’re playing at the highest level on both sides of the ball in the ACC this season, with averages of 49 points per game offensively and just 15 points per game defensively.
UM’s Darian Mensah, a Duke transfer, may be the top quarterback in all of college football, and sophomore Malachi Toney is among the best wide receivers in the country.
On defense, coach Mario Cristobal‘s squad is giving up an ACC-best 60 rushing yards per game, which could prove problematic for UNC’s offense, a run-first attack that ranks next-to-last in the league at just 336 yards per game of total offense.
Whereas Florida State came close to shocking Miami two weeks ago, the Seminoles did so largely because their dual-threat quarterback, Ashton Daniels, hurt the Hurricanes with his arm and legs. UNC’s sixth-year senior QB Billy Edwards Jr., while a solid performer and a good decision-maker, does not scare defenses with his running ability and has only a handful of big-play downfield throws this season.
In the history of the Associated Press college football poll, which started in 1936, UNC has only one victory over a top-five opponent in the history of its program.
That win came over Miami and in Chapel Hill and on Halloween weekend — sound familiar? — back in 2004, with John Bunting as the Tar Heels’ head coach and future NFL kicker Connor Barth booting the 42-yard game-winning field goal as time expired in the Heels’ 31-28 triumph over the #4-ranked Hurricanes at Kenan Stadium.
This year’s Carolina squad has far more high-end talent than it did a year ago, including Jordan Shipp (possibly the best in-state player at any in-state school this season) at wide receiver, Ohio State transfer Jelani Thurman at tight end, Xavier Lewis at defensive tackle, Syracuse transfer Derek McDonald at middle linebacker, and Greg Smith at safety, among others.
The expectation, though, is that the Tar Heels — who have one-possession victories over TCU, Pitt and Duke this season, but also one-possession losses to Clemson and Syracuse — will be outclassed by the Canes, just as #3 Notre Dame offered too much for the Heels to handle four weeks ago, when the Irish mostly controlled the line of scrimmage on their way to a 37-26 victory.
One major concern for Carolina’s offense against Miami is obvious passing situations, because the Tar Heels’ tackles haven’t been very good in pass protection this season, and the Hurricanes — led by junior defensive end Marquise Lightfoot and All-SEC Missouri transfer Damon Wilson — have one of the most effective pass rushes in the ACC.
National “Three To See,” Game Three
#2 Ohio State (6-1) at USC (6-2), Sat., 7:30 p.m. (NBC)
There are now about a dozen college football head coaches who make $11 million per year or more, and the two guys in this matchup — Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Southern Cal’s Lincoln Riley — are among them.
With such big dollars come huge expectations, of course, and right now there is an enormous contrast between Day, who may have the best long-term resume among active college football coaches, and Riley, who previously had a very successful five-year run at Oklahoma (including an average record of 11-2 with the Sooners, back when they were in the Big 12) but hasn’t been able to come close to that level of success at USC, which is now a member of the uber-challenging Big Ten. Riley’s average record over his first four seasons with the Trojans was roughly 9-5.
If you’re wondering whether that lofty description of Day’s resume is an exaggeration, consider the cold, hard facts. His career record through 101 games at Ohio State is 88-13, and his conference record is 59-5.
Among all FBS head coaches who led their teams in 100 or more games in the history of the sport, Day’s 87 percent winning rate ranks behind only that of legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne, who finished at 88 percent way back in 1930.
Day led Ohio State to a top-10 season in each of his previous seven years in Columbus, including the national championship in 2024, and right now he has the Buckeyes firmly in the mix for their sixth College Football Playoff appearance in the past eight years.
Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney are the only active head coaches with two national championships, and nobody should be surprised if Day joins that club at some point in the coming years, too.
Regarding this matchup on Saturday night, both Riley and Day will enter it in a crisis mode of sorts.
For Riley, there is both the desperate need for a signature victory — #2 Ohio State certainly would qualify — and, in the more general sense, the necessity for USC to be more competitive specifically on defense.
Riley, an offensive guru from the Mike Leach coaching tree who worked under Ruffin McNeill at East Carolina from 2010-14, has another effective offense with the Trojans and another prolific quarterback in fifth-year senior Jayden Maiava, but his team once again ranks in the bottom half of the Big Ten in many defensive statistics.
With Ohio State (a six-point favorite) averaging Big Ten bests of 39 points and 476 yards per game, that USC defense will be under scrutiny once again.
Meanwhile, Day’s crisis — if that’s the right word — is that he’ll be without star quarterback Julian Sayin (upper-body injury) for the remainder of the season.
Sayin’s former backup, Lincoln Kienholz, is now the very effective starter at Louisville, so the Buckeyes will turn to some combination of undersized true freshman Luke Fahey (a three-star recruit known for his leadership and work ethic) and five-star redshirt freshman Tavien St. Clair, a 6-foot-4, 235-pounder some recruiting websites considered the #1 overall prospect — at any position — in the high school Class of 2025.
NOTE: For the in-state edition of our Week Nine college football preview, including analysis on the highest-profile games, plus schedules and TV/streaming options for all 32 teams (FBS, FCS, Division Two, Division Three) in the Bold North State, please click HERE.
