Washington vs. Purdue
We’ve had light snacks, hors d’oeuvres, and pre-dinner cocktails this week, but now we’ve made it to Friday and what is an appetizer trio in advance of Saturday’s main course, where we have six Top 25 vs. Top 25 matchups, including 4 vs. 5, 6 vs. 14, and 13 vs. 9. But, we also get our first power-conference game of the week here on Friday, as we get Washington vs. Purdue out of the Big Ten.
We’ll also have encore performances from the American and Sun Belt, who were both in action on Thursday. Memphis vs. Tulane and App State vs. Coastal Carolina will be alternate options for those who aren’t interested in the Huskies vs. Boilermakers battle. That game features my favorite bet for Friday, but all three games will get some words here.
Odds from Circa Sports as of October 14, 8:50 a.m. PT; check out our Circa Betting Splits and DraftKings Betting Splits. See all of our Week 7 College Football Picks and Predictions.
Washington vs. Purdue (-3.5, 52) Prediction
8 p.m. ET (FOX)
Pick: Purdue -3.5
Washington fans seem to be excited about seeing Elijah Brown get the start, as the Stanford transfer and former Mater Dei starting QB was 28-of-39 for 251 yards and three touchdowns against Iowa in last week’s 41-24 beatdown. Credit to Brown, who came in for the final drive of the first half and played the rest of the game, but Iowa did lead 27-3 at halftime and answered both of Washington’s third-quarter TD drives.
Brown only had 175 pass attempts at Stanford over two seasons, backing up Ben Gulbranson, who had a 9/10 TD/INT ratio, and now Florida State starter Ashton Daniels, who had a 10/12 TD/INT ratio. Maybe Brown is some sort of savior for the Huskies, but I don’t know that I fully see that. Truth be told, while everybody around the program is upset with the way that the whole Demond Williams Jr. saga played out over the winter, where the team and player had agreed to $4 million for 2026 and then Williams wanted to enter the transfer portal, he’s probably still the team’s best option at the position.
He’s been sacked 19 times and only has 2.9 yards per carry for a team averaging just 3.1 yards per tote. The Huskies offensive line hasn’t gotten a whole lot of push this season, despite playing just the 65th-ranked schedule per Jeff Sagarin. Purdue, on the other hand, has played the seventh-ranked slate per his rankings.
Barry Odom seems to have the Boilers going in the right direction. Sophomore running back Fame Ijeboi had 195 yards on 31 carries against Minnesota last week and QB Ryan Browne has a 9/1 TD/INT ratio with a 68.9% completion rate. In conference games against UCLA, Illinois, and Minnesota, the Purdue offense has racked up 6.83 YPP. Washington has just 4.79 YPP against Minnesota, USC, and Iowa.
Odom, a long-time defensive position coach and coordinator, hasn’t gotten that side of the ball rolling yet, but this could be a decent spot against the Huskies. While Brown provided a spark last week, the former four-star recruit hasn’t been able to crack the lineup with some iffy QB situations before. Also, the Huskies defense has surrendered over six yards per play in three conference games, so the Boilermakers have a good chance at winning the field-position battle here.
Other Friday Games
Memphis (-7, 55) vs. Tulane: Memphis had a bye after their game against UT Martin and rolled Charlotte 59-8 in the next game. They followed that up with a 38-13 win over UAB. Tulane hasn’t scored more than 28 points in a game and that was against South Alabama in Week 2, so the Green Wave may struggle to keep up in this one, especially if it plays close to the total. This is a big step up in class for Memphis off of their last three games and their strength of schedule ranks 130th per Sagarin, while Tulane’s is 59th. I really don’t think Tulane is any good, as they’ve downgraded on the field and on the sideline relative to the last few seasons, but I need to see Charles Huff’s team up to the task against somebody halfway decent before laying these kinds of road numbers.
App State (-1, 49) vs. Coastal Carolina: The Mountaineers were putrid on offense last week, accumulating fewer than 160 yards against Old Dominion. The weather was bad, but still. It was a dismal effort with an offensive-minded head coach who recently had a bye to work on smoothing out some rough edges. That said, the Chanticleers aren’t very buttoned-up this season either, as first-year head coach Ryan Beard has played four one-score games thus far with the Chants on the right side of just one of them. Coastal probably has the better QB, so I’d lean that way, but Deuce Bailey has been sacked 18 times already and protecting the quarterback was a major issue at Missouri State when Beard was there. It seems that has carried over to his new gig.
Check out picks from VSiN hosts and guests on this game and all of the Week 7 games on our Pro Picks Page.
