Daily briefing: On a big AAC game, coaching at Texas Tech and Wake Forest’s offense

Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:

Pay attention to Houston-SMU

This week has been circled as reckoning week in the Big Ten East. It is a measure of the low expectations of Michigan and Michigan State that both enter Week 9 undefeated but neither has reached the top five. This undervalued rivalry will be a terrific game at noon Saturday. But the second-best game of the day is not No. 20 Penn State at No. 5 Ohio State. No. 19 SMU (7-0, 3-0 in the AAC) plays at Houston (6-1, 4-0) Saturday night in a game that should decide the AAC West and will have a large impact on No. 2 Cincinnati’s ability to remain a viable playoff candidate. SMU plays the Bearcats on Nov. 20. The AAC needs SMU to win.

Finding the right fit at Texas Tech

The Right Fit, cont’d: Matt Wells didn’t fit in Lubbock, and that’s no crime. Texas Tech is a tough job for the guys who do fit in. Spike Dykes went 82-67-1 from 1986-99, and they’ve all but built a statue for the man. It’s easy to speculate that Spike’s son Sonny should replace Wells. Sonny Dykes has rebuilt the SMU program and led it back to the AP rankings for the first time since the Mustangs earned the NCAA death penalty in 1987. But Sonny also had a front row seat growing up to see how hard it is to be Texas Tech in the college football world. That’s the reason I think he wouldn’t be interested. I bet he’ll have the opportunity to say “no.”

Remarkable numbers at Wake

Poring over the stat sheet for No. 16 Wake Forest’s 70-56 victory at Army might entertain me for days. The Demon Deacons scored nine touchdowns on 10 possessions. Wake and Army combined for 1,233 yards and one punt.  The Deacs averaged 12.3 yards per snap. You may quibble with the strength of the teams that Wake has beaten to go 7-0, but if it were that easy to do, there would be more than nine undefeated FBS teams. Dave Clawson’s offense is putting up remarkable numbers. Wake has scored a touchdown on nearly half of its possessions (36 of 81, excluding six end-of-half kneel-downs), and its scoring possessions outnumber its punts by a little more than double (48/23).