Fun way to start the weekend. I'll take my cover any day of the week. Kudos to BNG and the rest of his Mountaineer brethren.
Louisville is now 5-5. Can you believe that? This game isn't close if WVU holds onto the ball in the second half. UL's problems are huge. Obviously they cannot play defense, but the offense was terrible on third down last night (3-of-13). And what happens when they lose their senior quarterback and best wide receiver (Harry Douglas)? Trouble in the Ville.
Where there isn't trouble is Morgantown. I was impressed with their poise. I wasn't impressed with Pat White's ability to throw the ball. The fact is that he cannot make every throw required of a top-flite quarterback. Now, he'll be fine because he's extremely special at making plays. I think we saw that late in the fourth quarter. But Mountaineer fans should be worried about finding themselves down late in the game, having to pass their way back into it. The first half is as important for WVU as it is for any Top 25 team at this point.
There's no reason this team should miss out on the BCS, though.
Last night's offensive party was supposed to kick off a weekend of marquee games that would answer tons of questions for us, as stated on Thursday. But when college football decided to climb aboard the crazy train, games this weekend lost their luster. However, that won't stop us from making some picks. Rapid-fire style this time (I'm hoping the formatting will work for the blog, we'll see). And I'm bringing a boatload at you. Take notes and tell me what you think of the format. Trying to come up with a system here.
| Game | Line | Pick | Notes |
| Rutgers @ Army | Army +18 | Rutgers | Not unreasonable to think Ray Rice will be able to give Rutgers a 3 TD lead. |
| North Carolina @ NC State | NCSU -3.5 | UNC to win | Don't feel great about this pick, but I have a feeling I won't be picking many upsets this week. NC State has been extremely inconsistent this year. |
| South Florida @ Syracuse | Syracuse +16 | USF | Syracuse is the doormat that an angry South Florida team is going to wipe its cleats on. The 'Cuse should and likely will be searching for a new coach soon. |
| Wake Forest @ Clemson | Clemson -8 | Clemson | The Tigers are hot right now and are actually in the hunt for a berth to the ACC title game. |
| Michigan St. @ Purdue | Purdue -4.5 | Mich. State | The Spartans need a win and were so close to grabbing it last week against the Wolverines. |
| Indiana @ Northwestern | NW +1.5 | Indiana | I just can't forget the Wildcats losing to Duke. |
| Michigan @ Wisconsin | Wisc +2.5 | Wisconsin | Michigan will win this game by one point. That's such an absurd prediction, but I'm assuming PJ Hill will play and Wisconsin will have a balanced attack. But we'll see some of that Michigan senior magic. |
| Alabama @ Mississippi St. | Miss. St +4 | Alabama | Mississippi State has put together a fun little season, but Alabama needs this win or a 6-4 record suddenly isn't so attractive. |
| Arkansas @ Tennessee | Even | Arkansas | Honestly, who the heck knows with the SEC anymore. But McFadden is looking strong and Tennessee is all over the map. |
| Auburn @ Georgia | UGA -1 | Georgia | The Dawgs want to control as much of their destiny as possible and I love how their running the football with Knowshon Moreno. |
| Texas A&M @ Missouri | Mizzou -18.5 | Texas A&M | Much like the WVU-UL prediction. It's just a lot of points to cover. 41-24 isn't a cover, but a dominating win. |
| Georgia Tech @ Duke | Duke +13.5 | Georgia Tech | Basketball season has started. Nobody cares. There's no reason Georgia Tech shouldn't win this game at least 24-10. |
| Kentucky @ Vanderbilt | Vandy +3.5 | Kentucky | It's time for Andre Woodson to put on a few clinics before the season is over. |
| Air Force @ Notre Dame | ND +2.5 | Air Force | Notre Dame is terrible. We'll see if Jimmy Clasuen does anything with his second shot at starting this year. |
| Texas Tech @ Texas | Texas -6.5 | Texas Tech | The luck of the Longhorns has to stop. Either they wake up and run away with this and I'm wrong (which I have been with the Big 12 all year), or TTU pulls it off. |
| UConn @ Cincy Bearcats | Cincy -5.5 | UConn | No respect for the Huskies, huh? Someone's gotta show them some love. I'm on the Randy Edsall bandwagon. |
| Florida St. @ Virginia Tech | VT -6.5 | Florida State | Frank Beamer has never beaten Bobby Bowden (0-7, I believe) and the Hokies want to win one for their coach, but I see Sean Glennon being under duress all game, assuming he starts. |
| Illinois @ Ohio St. | Ohio St. -15 | Illinois | I'd say to win, but the game is in Columbus. Last year it was a close one and Ohio State has regressed (aka gotten younger) and Illinois has progressed (aka gotten older). But OSU has too much to play for at this point. |
| Arizona St. @ UCLA | UCLA +6.5 | Arizona State | Of course UCLA will win this just to keep screwing things up. I'm not buying into that. Arizona State is playing good football and will win by at least a TD. |
| Kansas @ Oklahoma St. | OkSt +5.5 | Oklahoma State | THE BUCK STOPS HERE. My Pokes upset was so close last week, but I didn't jump off the bandwagon. |
| Virginia @ Miami | Mia -3.5 | Miami | I loved Kirby Freeman going 1-14 last week for 80-something yards and a TD (3 picks). Kyle Wright is now the starter. Either way, the defense will shut down UVA's very so-so offense. |
| Florida @ South Carolina | SoCar +6.5 | Florida | Who really knows with the SEC anymore. But South Carolina's defense can't keep up with Florida's insane attack. |
| Southern Cal @ California | Cal +4 | Southern Cal | John David Booty will play like the QB that everyone expected him to be back in August. |
| Boston College @ Maryland | Mary +5.5 | Boston College | Matt Ryan is better than anything the Terps have to offer. |
Comments (9)
Adam, there is one constant in your picks, and that is the fact that the year has been so crazy, that it almost seems as if you were making each pick saying ...but I could be wrong. And you would be right. Last week was the first week that there was no craziness. That things played to some kind of form. Oh, your Pokes? Alum or just a fan?
Like the new format. My only suggestion would be to keep the way you list the lines consistent. Sometimes you listed the underdog i.e.: UCLA +6.5, but then picked ASU and other times you listed the favorite: VT -6.5, but then picked the underdog.
And speaking of listing the favorite (VT) -- stop hatin' !!! I called the win over BC earlier in the year (should have been) and I am calling this one this weekend. VT rolls. Geez, if I didn't know any better I would never guess you went there. I know you're a Florida kid and all, but c'mon, have a little faith in our Hokies brotha.
i couldn't agree to stank more.
Nice pick re: OSU vs. Illini - You should have gone with your instincts and pick them to win outright.... now lets see how ASU UCLA works out... then Kansas tonight!
B&G, just another typical week of college football. Glad that Illinois won, I think that for the most part people agree LSU & Oregon are better teams. Kansas convinced me last night, and ASU played their typical lets fall behind early and make it interesting game. No such thing as an ugly road win.
Woman on ESPN just said that we could end up with a Oregon-Kansas Championship game, and no one would care. Wrong. I would love that. New blood...and if people do not want that, then they know the only solution is a 16 team playoff.
I'm with you Paul... I remember my father talking about Army, ND, Oklahoma, and after that Alabama, then when I was old enough it was PSU, Nebraska, Clemson, UCLA, OSU, Miami...
It's nice to see that the 85 scholarship rule has allowed us to enjoy the emergence of USF, the re-emergence of LSU, of football at KSU, of Rutgers and ASU.
NCAA mens basketball has Gonzga... now we have similar situation with teams like USF and Boise State.
Besides how boring would it be if the only thing Adam wrote about was Notre Dame game after game and year after year.
Miami shutting down UVa's "so-so" offense, huh...?
B&G, and they could use the bowl cities, and make huge weekends out of it. Imagine a doubleheader on Thursday & Friday with a quadrupleheader on back to back Saturdays. And yes, all of the conferences should get their champions in the tourney. With a caviat that unlike basketball where there are 1,000 conferences, that it would take extraordinary circumstances for a new league to get a automatic bid. Need those half dozen at larges, so that, last year, for example, both OSU & Michigan would have gotten in. The TV ratings would be huge, and the presidents will eventually have that to overcome their "concern" about how much time the players miss school. Even though the semesters are usually over, and football players miss the least amount of class time than any other collegiate athlete. Settle the title on the field.