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Jackson's bold predictions for Week 8 of the 2025 college football season, including picks for Alabama, Duke, Ole Miss, Penn State, Vanderbilt, and Maryland.
Maybe this is said every year, but the 2025 college football season has been filled with more surprises than I can remember in previous years. We've seen several preseason national title contenders toe the line of irrelevance, and several Power 5 head coaches have already been let go. Making predictions for this season is already difficult enough, so let's continue to go big with bold predictions.
In this article, we'll try to predict the headlines at the end of Week 7. As we have seen, anything can happen on any given Saturday, so let's take a look at some potential outcomes before they play out.
Below, read about the bold calls for Alabama, Duke, Ole Miss, Penn State, Vanderbilt, and Maryland.
Alabama Dominates Another Third Saturday in October
After Nick Saban dominated this historical rivalry, the Third Saturday in October is back to meaning a lot to both programs, and it has College Football Playoff implications once again. The books favor Alabama at home by around a touchdown, but the gap feels wider between these two teams, especially given Tennessee's struggles on defense.
Both offenses have the quarterbacks and weapons to light up the scoreboard, but the Alabama defense has been and should be viewed as far superior to the Tennessee stop unit. Among the 16 SEC teams, the Vols rank 14th in yards allowed per game (393.8), 15th in points allowed per game (29.3), and 16th in passing yards allowed per game (257.8).
Alabama receiving leaders through Week 7:
1. Germie Bernard - 28 rec, 412 yds, 5 TDs
2. Ryan Williams - 21 rec, 336 yds, 3 TDs
3. Isaiah Horton - 21 rec, 270 yds, 4 TDs
4. Lotzeir Brooks - 13 rec, 216 yds
5. Josh Cuevas - 15 rec, 154 yds, 2 TDs(pic via @AlabamaFTBL) pic.twitter.com/DIiT4RfUYB
— Sidelines - Bama (@SSN_Alabama) October 12, 2025
Tennessee's defense has been able to make impact plays, though. It ranks second in the country in total sacks (26) and sixth in the country in takeaways per game (2.2). However, Ty Simpson has thrown just one interception through 189 passing attempts, and Alabama ranks second nationally in turnover margin (+9).
Combine all these factors with Tennessee's road woes under Josh Heupel, and it's not a recipe for a Big Orange win. The Vols have not lost a home game against a team not named Georgia in the last three years, but Heupel's team is 1-4 on the road against ranked teams in the last six opportunities. All four of those losses came by multiple possessions. The one win came against Oklahoma last year, which ended up finishing 6-7.
Duke Hands Georgia Tech Its First Loss of the Season
Duke got out to a 1-2 start to the 2025 campaign, but it has since ripped off three consecutive wins as quarterback Darian Mensah has settled in. Over his last three games, Mensah has completed over 70% of his passes for 802 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions. The Blue Devils have won by an average margin of 22.6 points.
Needless to say, Georgia Tech should provide a significantly tougher test than NC State, Syracuse, and Cal, but the Yellow Jackets are looking beatable after mostly unimpressive wins over Wake Forest and Virginia Tech. The three-point win over Clemson in Atlanta now looks far less impressive than it did at the time.
If Duke wants to pull off the top-15 upset, its rushing attack will be key. The Blue Devils average 157 rushing yards per game, while the Yellow Jackets rank last in the ACC in rushing defense (169.5 YPG). Ultimately, it should be a tight contest, but I'm taking Duke at home in a virtual coin flip.
Vanderbilt Becomes First Team to Score 30+ Points on LSU
The LSU Tigers rank fifth nationally in points per game allowed (11.8) and have not surrendered more than 24 points in a game this season, but I think that will change in Week 8. Vanderbilt was an offensive juggernaut in its first five games of the season, averaging 49 points per contest.
Then, it ran into Alabama's stifling defense on the road and was limited to just 14 points. However, the Commodores still accumulated 333 total yards. But two red zone (three total) turnovers sabotaged their chances to put more points on the board.
In Week 8, the Dores are at home and off a bye week, so we can expect Diego Pavia and the Vandy offensive staff to come out with new wrinkles and ways to attack the stellar LSU defense. It would be a shocker if Vandy scored significantly more than 30, but that number is within reach here.
DORES STRIKE FIRST pic.twitter.com/0RKh9tSO2G
— #17 Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) October 4, 2025
This is Vanderbilt's first time being favored against LSU since 1948 and its first time being a favorite in the last 51 SEC games. Clark Lea and Pavia have given us plenty of reason to believe.
Penn State Beats Iowa on the Road
Drew Allar is out for the season, and James Franklin was fired just weeks after leading the No. 6 team in the country in overtime. Things have happened fast in Happy Valley, but the Nittany Lions still have six games to go before they can close the book on this disastrous campaign.
We've seen UCLA, Virginia Tech, and, to a lesser extent, Arkansas come out and play with a new spark after their head coaches were fired, so it will be interesting to see if Penn State can do the same. It seems like all the air came out of the Penn State locker room and program after the crushing close loss to Oregon, and it spilled over against UCLA and Northwestern. With a new face leading the team, can they regroup and compete with at least the mid-level Big Ten squad? Surely, they can.
This is still a talented team with weapons on offense and freaks on defense, and Ethan Grunkmeyer was a highly-touted recruit in the class of 2024. Penn State needs to win this one in typical Big Ten fashion; lean on its ground attack, shut down the Iowa offense, and grind out a close victory.
Ole Miss Wins in Athens
Ole Miss is undefeated and ranked higher than Georgia, but the Bulldogs are more than a touchdown favorite on some books, and ESPN Analytics gives Georgia a 69.8% chance to win at the time of this writing. It's not easy to beat Kirby Smart at home. Only Alabama has done so since 2019. But Georgia is clearly mortal based on what we saw from them against Tennessee, Alabama, and Auburn.
The Rebels are ranked No. 5 in the country, yet they might not be getting all the respect they deserve. Sure, they sleepwalked through a win over Washington State, but Lane Kiffin's 2025 team has proven it can win a low-scoring defensive battle, a shootout, a game in which it came out slow, and everything in between.
SHEEESH CAYDEN 👀@Cayden_X_Lee x #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/96KX7zNTX9
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) October 11, 2025
The Rebels whooped the Bulldogs last season in Oxford, and while I don't expect a virtual blowout two years in a row, I do expect Ole Miss to come out on top. Kiffin's offense could have its way with an unimpressive Georgia defense.
Maryland Snaps UCLA's Two-Game Winning Streak
Since the moment DeShaun Foster was fired, Nico Iamaleava has tallied 477 total yards, eight touchdowns, and no interceptions in just two games. He's playing at another level during the short stretch, and UCLA is officially favored against Maryland in Los Angeles this weekend. Not so fast!
Maryland started the season on a 4-0 run before two close losses against Washington and Nebraska, two of the better teams in the conference. The Terps' defense forced three interceptions by Dylan Raiola just a week after forcing Demond Williams Jr. into his first interception of the season. Maryland was in the driver's seat to win each of their last two games before unfortunate blown leads.
The matchup with UCLA is the spot where I expect them to get it right. Iamaleava will come back to Earth, at least for this week.
