Week 10 NATIONAL College Football Previews:

#1 Miami-#4 Notre Dame, #2 UGa-#12 Ole Miss,
#7 BYU-#3 Utah Among Compelling Matchups
(DG’s Weekly CFB YouTube Show = Below)

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Nov. 3, 2026)

The 2026 college football campaign continues Tuesday through Saturday with a compelling Week 10 schedule, highlighted by high-profile games involving the top three teams in the national rankings.

The three most intriguing contests nationally — each previewed below — include #1 Miami (8-0) visiting #4 Notre Dame (7-1) on Saturday night (7:30 p.m., NBC), #2 Georgia (7-1) traveling to #12 Ole Miss (6-2) in the same time slot (7:30 p.m., ABC), and #3 Utah (8-0) hosting #7 BYU (7-1) earlier in the day (noon, ABC). All three games have major implications for this year’s College Football Playoff.

Meanwhile, all seven of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams here in the Bold North State also are in action again this week, with 6-2 Duke traveling to NC State (still contemplating its transition from Dave Doeren), 7-1 Wake Forest hosting a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponent, App State and UNC both seeking important bounce-back victories, and East Carolina hosting 6-2 South Florida while enjoying a Friday night national television window.

Here are more details on our “Three To See” selections from this week’s national schedule:

National “Three To See,” Game One

#7 BYU (7-1) at #3 Utah (8-0), Sat., noon (ABC)

BYU and Utah share the same state, obviously, and to a degree they also share a similar story.

They were fellow members of the Western Athletic Conference for nearly four decades, from the early 1960s through the late 1990s, then they were fellow members of the Mountain West Conference all the way up to 2010.

Now they’re back together as members of the Big 12, and there are even some similarities there. In its first year as a Big 12 member, in 2023, BYU finished with a losing record (5-7). In its first year as a Big 12 member, in 2024, Utah had the same losing record (5-7).

Since then, though, the Cougars and the Utes have become two of the best programs in the Big 12. Last year, for example, long-time BYU head coach Kalani Sitake led the Cougars to a 12-2 record and a #11 finish in the AP poll. Similarly, long-time Utah coach Kyle Whittingham led the Utes to an 11-2 record and a final ranking of #14, although Whittingham then left Utah — after a 21-year tenure there — to become the head coach at Michigan.

The media-imposed nickname of this rivalry is “The Holy War,” playing on the fact that BYU is a private, Mormon university and Utah is a public, secular school, although (for what it’s worth) the Pope himself said just last week that there’s no such thing as a “holy” war.

Anyway, one of the directives for first-year Utah coach Morgan Scalley, a 47-year-old Salt Lake City native and former Utah player who has been based there for literally his entire life, is to swing the pendulum of this intense, in-state rivalry back toward the Utes.

Utah won nine in a row over BYU from 2010-19, but now the Cougars have won three in a row, albeit in very close games.

This year each team has a dangerous dual-threat quarterback with a winning track record, with sophomore Bear Bachmeier leading the way for the Cougars and senior Devon Dampier doing the same for the Utes. Over the past two seasons, each guy has a sparkling 18-2 record as a starter.

The only blemish on either team’s record this year is BYU’s 39-31 double-overtime loss at UCF, although each team has just a single victory over a ranked opponent this season — the Cougars at home over Notre Dame, and the Utes at home over Houston — so this is definitely a pivotal matchup with College Football Playoff implications, with Utah the five-point favorite.

National “Three To See,” Game Two

#1 Miami (8-0) at #4 Notre Dame (7-1), Sat., 7:30 p.m. (NBC)

This is an absolutely fascinating matchup, for all sorts of reasons.

First, fifth-year Miami coach Mario Cristobal has by far the best quarterback in college football in Duke transfer Darian Mensah and one of the top wide receivers in the country in Malachi Toney, but Notre Dame has the best defense — by far — that the Hurricanes have faced this season, with all due respect to Wake Forest and UNC, the only foes that managed to keep the Canes under 40 points so far this year.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame has a very good quarterback in redshirt sophomore CJ Carr, who is 17-3 as the Fighting Irish’s starter, and he has some quality weapons, too, including running back Nolan James Jr. and wide receiver Jordan Faison, to utilize against a Miami defense that has many good numbers but also showed plenty of vulnerability in the Hurricanes’ recent high-scoring victories over Florida State and UNC.

Another intriguing angle here is that, whereas there’s little doubt that Miami and Notre Dame are both high-quality football teams loaded with NFL-caliber talent, they’re also two of the top four teams in the national rankings without beating many high-quality opponents.

In Miami’s 8-0 start, the Hurricanes have only a single victory — 33-20 at Wake Forest — that came over anyone currently included in the top 40 of most FBS power rankings. The Canes’ second-best win so far is — take your pick — either 41-13 at Clemson, 38-35 at UNC, or 52-23 over a Pitt team using its backup quarterback.

Similarly, Notre Dame has played only one top-flight opponent, BYU, and the Fighting Irish lost that very close road game to the Cougars, 28-24. The Irish’s best win, heading into this home game against Miami, is probably its season-opening 41-13 victory over a solid Wisconsin squad, and their next-best may have been their 37-26 triumph over UNC in Chapel Hill.

Finally, in case anyone is wondering why Notre Dame is favored over an undefeated opponent in this one, it’s partly because the Irish are playing at home and partly because the Irish are expected to have the much better defense in this matchup, with end Boubacar Traore, linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and cornerback Leonard Moore leading the way.

P.S. If Mensah is going to win the Heisman Trophy — and he certainly is among the leading candidates entering November — he must play well in this extremely high-profile contest.