Rival Views: Which top-10 road team will win this weekend?

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney don’t always see eye to eye. In this edition of Rival Views, the two debate which undefeated top 10 road team has the best chance to win this weekend.

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I’m going with Louisville even though I think Clemson wins the game. And we all know the reason why Louisville has the best shot – Lamar Jackson. A dynamic quarterback who can take over games and win them - at times by himself - is tough to handle. If Jackson has a game like he had against Florida State, Clemson has no chance.

Louisville has talent on offense in addition to Jackson as well, but the key will be its ability to play the run. The Clemson offensive line has struggled in the run game and controlling the clock will be something the Tigers want to do. If Louisville can shut down the run and force DeShaun Watson and company to move the ball strictly through the air, it can pull off the victory. In fact, Louisville is favored to win on the road, so I guess this isn’t going out on a limb.

Stanford is too banged up to pull off the upset at Washington, and Michigan is too strong at home for Wisconsin to pull off another top-10 upset, so Louisville is the team with the best chance. But I still think Clemson wins.

There are four games this weekend pitting top-25 teams against each other, and Stanford on Friday night has the best chance of winning on the road.

The Cardinal are battle-tested. They came from behind in scintillating fashion to win at UCLA last Saturday night and have also taken down USC and Kansas State to start the season. Those are hardly weak teams.

On the other hand, Washington rolled Rutgers, Idaho and Portland State to start the season – cupcake central – and barely scraped by Arizona last weekend. This team is untested and unproven although there is plenty of talent to go around.

I’m not crazy about Stanford in this spot, especially in the second of consecutive road games and on a short week, but to beat the Cardinal the opponent has to be nearly perfect and I’m not sure Washington is there yet.

Plus, Christian McCaffrey. He is a constant threat in every facet of the offense and with him on the field Stanford always has a chance to win. The defense is only giving up 12 points per game against some excellent teams, so I’ll take the Cardinal winning another tough one on the road on Friday night.