Originally Published: September 15, 2005

It's a game of confidence in South Bend and L.A.

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By Rich Podolsky
Special to ESPN Insider
It will be interesting to see if Charlie Weis and Bob Stoops can get their teams to focus this week against difficult opponents. Weis and Stoops, however, are in very different situations. Weis' Notre Dame team is coming down off of a wonderful victory at rival Michigan. Stoops' Oklahoma squad is trying to recover from a horrible home loss to TCU two weeks ago, and an even more horrible showing at home last week, barely defeating Tulsa.

The Irish host Michigan State, which has won its last four visits to South Bend and can't be all that happy about Notre Dame's publicity, or its undefeated record. Oklahoma visits powerful UCLA out west, and will need all of its weapons to try and match scores with the Bruins. Unfortunately, the Sooners are severely limited in the weapon department this year. Which is one reason UCLA is one of our best bets this week. Miami, looking to avenge last year's loss to Clemson, is the other.

Thursday

Utah -3½ over TCU: Believe it or not, Utah is going to be much more difficult to deal with than Oklahoma was for TCU. Forgiving TCU's loss to SMU, while still celebrating its historical upset of the Sooners, you can't overlook Utah's much more complicated and versatile offense. The Utes have far more weapons for TCU to defend than in their opener, when all they had to do was stop OU on the ground. Utah also has great special teams and very good defense. If TCU's Tye Gunn has another 16-for-36 performance (with three picks) like he did vs. SMU, this will be much easier for Utah.

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