College Football Game of the Week: No. 18 Pittsburgh vs. No. 20 SMU

Despite not receiving the honor to have College Gameday this week, the No. 18 Pittsburgh Panthers will travel to Dallas to face off against the No. 20 SMU Mustangs in a game that will shake up the ACC standings as we creep closer to conference championships.

Pitt is going into the game as one of the eight remaining undefeated teams in college football, being 7-0 and coming off a huge win against Syracuse where they had five interceptions including three pick-sixes and beaten the Orange by a score of 41-13. All night the Panther faithful were enjoying themselves, being loud from start to finish and even donning some interesting attire in the student section.

For the Panthers, their standout player this year has easily been freshman quarterback Eli Holstein. The signal-caller has put up some impressive numbers in his first year so far, having 2,091 total yards and 20 touchdowns. He has played a big role in the success Pitt has had this year and it’ll be interesting to see how he finishes off his freshman campaign.

SMU has also had a hot start to the season, being 7-1 (4-0 ACC) themselves. Last week they played the Duke Blue Devils, where they narrowly won 28-27 in overtime when Duke elected to attempt a two-point conversion to win the game and failed to convert.

The star on offense for the Mustangs is senior running back Brashard Smith. Smith, the former Miami Hurricane, transferred in hopes of getting more action on the field. Up to this point of the season, he has not disappointed, putting up 745 rushing yards along with nine rushing touchdowns. These stats put him as one of the most productive runners in the ACC this year.

Last week, Smith logged 139 total yards and two touchdowns on the way to the team's victory.

The all-time record in this matchup is completely even, being 2-2-1 in the 5 previous games they have played. The most recent game was in 2012, where SMU beat Pitt 28-6 on home soil.

Heading into the game the Mustangs are considered the favorites by 6.5 points. However, counting out the Panthers while they are on their winning streak would not be smart.

It will be interesting to see who comes out on top with the implications this game will have on the inevitable ACC Championship game later this year. Both SMU and Pitt are undefeated in conference play, so a loss here could ruin a team's chance of getting in the conference championship especially with Miami and Clemson also without a loss in conference play up to this point.

Charles Wesolowski is a first-year majoring in journalism. To contact him, email

cjw6772@psu.edu.