Wednesday, October 14, 2009

College Football Week... 7? Preview (Oct. 17th + Surrounding)

This Tuesday football nonsense has to stop. Wednesday and Friday, too. Thursday? Keep it. But everything else needs to stop. The NCAA is a terrible organization that deserves every terrible thing that has ever been said/written/thought about it. Unfortunately, the worse you deserve the more you get. The NCAA is swimming in money. Screw 'em, they won't hire me. The Boise State game is going on right now. Obviously, I was going to pick Boise because I always do. I haven't written about Heisman hype yet this week. I haven't even really thought about the hype machine. I want to watch the game but I am frozen out by my schedule of recordings. Oh, well.

Last week I went 39-15 picking just winners. Just slightly better than the 37-15 I was the week before that. I refuse to do any real research, but I figure I'll start to remember things the more I do this little exercise. I feel burned by Georgia and Auburn because I went out of the way to write about how bad they are and then I didn't pick against them. They both lost horribly. I'll have to remember that. I did say not to trust me with FSU picks and they went out and fucked up again. They've still got a place in my heart. Winners are purple, the line is no object. Winners only. I'm 76-30, so far. Here we go:

TUESDAY
Louisiana-Monroe 16, Arkansas State 10 - Obviously, I didn't pick this one.

WEDNESDAY
No. 5 Boise State at Tulsa - I'll take credit for this one next week. Why not? I am picking Boise until their bowl game. Besides, the game is not over yet.

THURSDAY
No. 8
Cincinnati at No. 21 South Florida - this is a tough, tough game. I think USF's defense is good enough to do it. But Cincinatti is damn good. Tony Pike is a contender for best QB in the game. I won't get to watch this game, but I'll be OK with that. Selvie for Heisman?

FRIDAY
Pittsburgh at Rutgers - The Big East is pretty good. They have a lot of really strong teams that I can't quite figure out because they aren't necessarily top 10 good. I think Pitt is a good team. I think Rutgers is not. Hope I'm right.

SATURDAY
No. 20 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Texas* - I've been saying all year that Texas would wreck Oklahoma in this game. Nothing has changed from my point of view. Oklahoma should have 3 losses by the end of this game. And then they won't lose the rest of the year and will end up ranked #10 or something. And they will get rolled again in their bowl game. OU is the main argument for a playoff system in football. Well, the Big 10 is the main argument, but Oklahoma is next.
No. 7 Ohio State at Purdue - Ugh.
No. 11 Iowa at Wisconsin - I'm wishing more than guessing on this one. Get these guys (Iowa) out of here. They bother me.
Louisville at Connecticut - Corner turned for UL? I doubt it. Just assuming UConn is bad.
Northwestern at Michigan State
Delaware State at Michigan - Good thing we've got a 12 game season now. Who could stand to miss this game?
Wake Forest at Clemson - Clemson is not good. Wake beat UMd last week. ACC football is confusing.
Bowling Green at Ball State
Georgia at Vanderbilt - Biggest win of the year for Richt. Not because it will turn them around. This is the biggest win because Vandy is about as good a team as UGa can expect to beat.
Mississippi State at Middle Tennessee State
Army at Temple
Miami (OH) at Ohio
Wyoming at Air Force - Let down game. Assuming Air Force is the better team to begin with. They might not be, I couldn't be your source for that knowledge.
Nevada at Utah State
Arkansas at No. 1 Florida
No. 6 USC at No. 25 Notre Dame - I read Sarkisian's take on this and it sounded very much like he feels like UW got away with one against USC and got jobbed by Notre Dame. Or, more pertinently, that he expects USC to blow the doors off USC just like they do every year. Maybe Clausen can keep it a little close, but USC is much better overall than Notre Dame.
Minnesota at No. 14 Penn State
Texas Tech at No. 15 Nebraska - Suh won't win the Heisman. I don't think he'll be as good as expected in the league, either. But that's not based on observation so much as it is based on players like Steve Emtman.
No. 23 Houston at Tulane
California at UCLA - It would be just like UCLA to lose this game but my faith in Tedford is gone.
North Carolina State at Boston College
Rice at East Carolina
Marshall at West Virginia
Akron at Buffalo
Central Michigan at Western Michigan
Colorado State at No. 12 TCU
Virginia at Maryland - Friedgen should be able to game plan this new pro-set that UVa is using. But Maryland has some talent problems of their own.
Kent State at Eastern Michigan
Hawaii at Idaho - Idaho got written up by ESPN this week, so they should lose horribly here.
No. 4 Virginia Tech at No. 19 Georgia Tech - I can't shake the thought that both of these teams showed their true colors against Miami.
No. 18 Brigham Young at San Diego State - Marshall Faulk never won a Heisman. Ty Detmer got one. This is payback!
Stanford at Arizona - Harbaugh is turning Stanford into a decent program.
New Mexico State at Louisiana Tech - Karl Malone and his daughter disappointed me last week. Let's not make a habit of that.
No. 17 Kansas at Colorado - Todd Reesing, welcome to the Heisman race!
Baylor at Iowa State
Illinois at Indiana
Louisiana-Lafayette at Western Kentucky
UAB at Mississippi
Troy at Florida International
Texas A&M at Kansas State
Memphis at Southern Miss
Northern Illinois at Toledo
No. 9 Miami (FL) at UCF - UCF spent about 10 years on the cusp of becoming the 4th major program in the state of Florida. They might be better than FSU, finally, but it doesn't mean what it once did. Miami should be really great by the time they play USF at the end of the year. I hope both teams win out until that game.
Kentucky at Auburn - Auburn gets a bye week this week to focus on what went wrong against Arkansas.
No. 22 South Carolina at No. 2 Alabama - Don't bet on this being at all enjoyable. It should be similar to last week's Bama-Ole Miss game. I like Ingram getting some pub from ESPN this week but somebody has to notice eventually that the Tide wins because of their defense. And Mt. Cody is the key to the whole thing. Ingram is helpful, not integral.
Florida Atlantic at North Texas - Game of the week!
Navy at Southern Methodist - Go Middies!
Missouri at No. 16 Oklahoma State
No. 24 Utah at UNLV - Utah is trying hard to get in the position that Boise State now holds. It will take a few years but this is the team that rocked 'Bama last bowel season.
San Jose State at Fresno State - Ryan Mathews!
Washington at Arizona State - This game looks awful. Somebody has to win, though.