Though a week later than I had initially hoped, here is the debut of my weekly College Football picks. There were some close calls, and some upsets that I may have picked if the favorite were not at home. Unfortunately, as the BCS rankings, not mine, will actually matter at the end of the season (disappointing, right?), the rankings next to the team will be their BCS rank. Enjoy, and feel free to come back here Saturday to make fun of me for being wrong.
Ranked Teams
(1) Alabama 23, (5) LSU 9
I expect LSU to ride the adrenaline of playing in front of a rowdy home crowd to keep it interesting for the first half, but Alabama will put a few early drives together in the 3rd to take the fans out of it.
(2) Kansas St. 38, (24) Oklahoma St. 27
Were Oklahoma St. at home, this would be really interesting. Kansas St. will suffer a bit of a letdown after the past two weeks, but will have enough to pull out the W.
(3) Notre Dame 24, Pittsburgh 17
Another game that if the underdog were at home, could be a possible upset. Pitt is inconsistent, but Notre Dame may be overlooking them, resulting in a closer game than most expect.
(4) Oregon 52, (17) USC 24
As with LSU, USC will likely ride the home crowd to keep it close early, but Oregon's starters will be very hungry in the second half, a half that they have barely seen this year, and really open it up.
(6) Georgia 27, Ole Miss 16
Georgia is the epitome of inconsistency, and after a physically draining victory over Florida, will let Ole Miss hang around. In the end, the Rebels don't have enough firepower to make up a late deficit.
(7) Florida 34, Missouri 9
Be certain that Will Muschamp will have the Gators fired up after an awful loss to Georgia. Missouri got it's first SEC win last week, but Florida is no Kentucky.
(10) Louisville 45, Temple 30
Temple is reeling, but Louisville finds ways not to win comfortably. After the first two weeks, their biggest victory is 45-35 over Pitt. Expect a bit of separation by the end of this one, but be careful.
(11) Oregon State 30, Arizona St. 23
Handing the reins back to Cody Vaz after the surprising loss to Washington, the Beavers offense will be rejuvenated, and take down the Sun Devils who suffered a deflating loss to UCLA last week.
(12) Oklahoma 48, Iowa St. 13
Iowa St. is a respectable team, but the Sooners went crazy after their first loss, so I cannot imagine how much Stoops will have the team fired up after their second.
(13) Clemson 48, Duke 24
Duke will manage to put up a few points, as Clemson's defense is not at the same level as the Seminoles', but will have no answer for Tajh Boyd and the Tiger offense.
(14) Stanford 45, Colorado 9
Colorado has been resilient this year, but simply does not have the talent to compete with quality teams, as shown by the past two weeks against USC and Oregon. Expect the trend to continue.
(16) Texas A&M 34, (15) Mississippi St. 17
The Bulldogs were exposed in a major way last week, and while Texas A&M is not Alabama, they are still far better than any team Mississippi St. has beaten this year.
(18) Texas Tech 55, (23) Texas 30
Texas Tech will be out for blood after failing to show up against Kansas St., and come up against a vastly overrated Longhorns squad who barely squeaked out a win over Kansas (Kansas!).
(19) Boise St. 27, San Diego St. 13
Expect the supposedly rebuilding Broncos to continue to show that they are the class of the MWC against a decent San Diego St. squad that will be overwhelmed by the Boise home field advantage.
Michigan St. 17, (20) Nebraska 13
The Spartans are looking to finish strong after upsetting Wisconsin last week, and are much better than their 5-4 record indicates, while Nebraska will be overconfident after beating Michigan last week.
(21) West Virginia 45, TCU 34
Geno Smith is bound to get back on track sometime, and I think this will be the week, especially coming off of a bye. The Mountaineer defense still can't stop anyone though, so it will be close.
(22) Arizona 41, UCLA 30
This is technically an upset pick, as UCLA is at home and ranked higher in the human polls, but Arizona is a very, very good football team, and barring a letdown after the USC win, should win this game.
(25) Louisiana Tech 59, UTSA 20
Louisana Tech has a very high powered offense that will simply overmatch UTSA, who is on a 3 game skid after starting off 5-0.
Teams in MY rankings
Ohio St. 48, Illinois 10
Kent St. 38, Akron 10
N. Illinois 40, UMass 9
Other games of note
Michigan 37, Minnesota 23
Penn St. 27, Purdue 24
Washington 23, Cal 21
Arkansas 52, Tulsa 45
No comments:
Post a Comment