Halloween Weekend

I gave my list to VTFerguson, and I can only imagine he is busy coming in from some ledge after last night. I'll get ten games in here, but I am just going to gloss over Clemson this time because Coastal Carolina is not even a competitor in the Big South. I'm in a hurry, so expect fewer snarky comments.

10/30 WVU (-3) @ USF

WVU looks good, only one loss to a surging Auburn (at the time). Bulls look bad lately, I'll take the 'Eers to win and cover.

10/31 - Spooky

NCSU @ FSU (-10)

Big spread. I guess everyone thinks the Noles are back? They win, but don't cover.

Ole Miss (-4.5) @ Auburn

I might go to this game. No idea, I'll take the home team to win.

Miami (-7) @ Wake

Wake doesn't look that good anymore. Both these teams are suffering from some Clemson dished out butthurt. I'd take the 'Canes if they were giving 10.

Duke @ UVa (-7.5)

I will take those points all day long. I think Duke wins outright, too, since the Cavaliers are a steaming pile of awful.

South Carolina @ Tennessee (-6)

I think that South Carolina has reached the point in their season where they stop winning games. Their offense has looked good so far, but the defenses they have played are not super impressive. The Vols have a super impressive defense. Monte eats Garcia's lunch, and he shares it with Eric Berry. But I think the Cocks cover, because Crompton has an IQ of like 8.

GT (-12) @ Vandy

Yes. Jackets. That is all.

Texas (-9.5) @ OkSU

No Dez Bryant = bad for pokes. They are kind of getting shafted by the NCAA, and that sucks for them. I'm surprised T Boone Pickens isn't trying to buy the NCAA to correct this. Texas wins and covers.

USC (-3) @ Oregon

This is the game I am most looking forward to this weekend. I think the Ducks seal their Rose Bowl fate this weekend and Quack all over the Trojans.

Florida (-15) vs Georgia

It might be all the peach scented air up here, but UGa is a team that can score points and Florida is having troubles in the redzone against the likes of Arkansas and Mississippi State. UGa doesn't offer much more defensive resistance than those two, but they're pissed off from last year and coming off of a bye and basically putting their entire season into this game and the Tech game. The rest of them don't matter. I think Georgia sneaks out a close one.

Sorry again

I have to write a story tonight for the paper and I'm not sure I'll get to this tonight. I'll give VTFerguson a list of picks tomorrow at work and if he can get to them, wonderful. Two things.

1) GOOO CLEMSON!

2) UNC @ VT (-16.5) is tomorrow night's game. I'm taking VT to win and cover. Just in case it doesn't get up in time.

Week 8 I think

This is the opposite of last week. I had a tough time limiting myself to just 11 games, so I added a bonus again. This weekend has potential implications to the top of the ACC, Big East, Pac 10 and to a lesser extent, the SEC. Let's take a closer look at how.

10/22

FSU @ UNC (-2.5)

This was a game that most folks had circled in the preseason. Little did we know that both of these teams be smelling vaguely of vomit outside of an Indian restaurant (FSU) and a dead bird you found at the beach (UNC). Luckily for the Noles, the matchup is in their favor, even with the Thursday night travel. VTFerguson pointed out to me that the Atlantic has yet to beat the Coastal, but I think is a chance for it to happen.

10/24

Boston College @ Notre Dame (-8) - Holy War

Boston College somehow turned into a quality team while everyone was watching FSU meltdown. I kind of hate on Notre Dame, but they'll probably win. I think BC covers in a close one.

South Florida @ Pittsburgh (-6.5)

USF lost a good one to the Bearcats, who might be going to the national title game. The Panthers are undefeated so far, and normally wilt in games like this. I think I'll take that chance and say it happens again.

Maryland @ Duke (-5.5)

Don't laugh, but Duke is playing some impressive football right now and Maryland apparently has enough talent to beat us, but lose to Virginia. It is fun to root for Duke, but that will quickly disappear if Cutcliffe succeeds in turning them into a winner. This is a stop on Friedgen's train ride to unemployment, Devils cover.

GT (-5.5) @ UVa

Don't laugh, but Virgina has the same effect on GT that Maryland has on us. Tech is now riding awfully high after upsetting the other Tech and is praying for a Tiger victory in Miami. That would be all for naught, though, if they fail here. I think they break from tradition and pull out a squeaker. GT does not cover.

Oregon St @ USC (-20.5)

This was the OICMP game for Carroll last year in Corvallis. The Beavers are quietly having a very good season, but I think that given last year's game, they probably won't let the surprise happen again, but there is no way they cover that spread.

Iowa @ Michigan St (even)

If Sparty wins this game, then the Big Ten race becomes a jumble again and nobody asks, "What about Iowa?" anymore. I don't think that happens. Iowa looks pretty legit after that week 1 scare. I don't know how the tie breakers work in this dumb conference, but I'll be they could split this game and OSU and still play in Pasadena. Hawks win.

Arkansas @ Ole Miss (-6)

The Razorbacks neary shocked the College Football landscape last weekend in the Swamp, but the zebras slowed down their getaway. I think with Petrino's leadership they'll be angry rather than let down, and throwing on the Rebel secondary will be a treat compared to the Gators', and Mallett will go nuts. Arky wins outright on the road. Houston Nutt will be down and out and then beat somebody like LSU and everybody will be shocked, and then realize, wait, Houston Nutt does that every year.

Auburn @ LSU (-8)

Auburn's star has faded pretty quickly over the past two weeks. Night game at Baton Rouge is not the place to get things going again. Tigers win! LSU wins and covers.

Tennessee @ Alabama (-14.5) - Third Saturday in October

This my second favorite named rivalries, mostly because it is sometimes played on the Fourth Saturday in October, like this year. This game will be close, but Bama will win by less than two TDs. We will see the Bear Bryant Hat Twins like 800 times.

Bonus: TCU (-2.5) @ BYU

BYU is starting to look like a fraud with their meaningful win against Oklahoma looking less and less impressive and FSU struggling. TCU wins by an impressive margin and people start talking about what we do with an undefeated TCU and Boise State.

Clemson @ Miami (-5)

I can't believe the line is that tight. But Woo! Suck it Wake Forest. I am wondering how serious they are going to take us, because we're not quite relevant yet and Miami is Da U, even though "the" is only one letter longer than "da" and proper English while U stands for University, which is an institution of learning. A win in the Shark all but punches our ticket to Tampa, and a loss gets a lot more complicated. I look for a Richard Jackson field goal towards the end of the game to put us over the edge and Dabo Swinney does in a year and half what Tommy couldn't do in 10.

Looking at our early predictions...

Since it's about halfway through the season, I thought it would be fun to look back at how we thought things would be shaping up by now. For the most part, we look a lot like our game predictions.

The only predictions of mine that don't look like an drunken, angry monkey wrote them are the Pac10 and ACC picks.

• Big East -- 1/3, really, USF still looks like a compelling team, Cincy did not fall off and Rutgers has already lost two in conference.
• Big Ten -- Didn't really make a lot of predictions, but Penn State needs some breaks to stay alive in the conference discussion. It is still not that interesting football, though. Purdue is returning to obscurity, so I'll take credit for 1/2.
• Pac10 -- Oregon looks like the team to beat in the conference, Stanford just lost a shootout to Arizona, but considering, look pretty good. Cal has been a disappointment. 2/3.
• Big XII -- A big whiff. I still think Nebraska is the tea to eat in the North, but they are currently mid pack. OU is not the team they were last year and OKSU did not build on the UGa win. 0/3.
• SEC -- Another miss. Alabama is looking like the best team in the country, Florida is really missing Harvin and Mullins, South Carolina is looking good so far (although I still maintain they could have another '07 spiral of tragicomedy where the schadenfreude is mailed out to everyone in the Palmetto State with their Bed Bath and Beyond coupons). 1/4.
• ACC -- Goodness. VT does not even have the best ACC record in its own state, let alone division; FSU is a non-factor and Clemson has to win at arguably the best team in the league right now to keep pace with Boston College, of all teams. BC needs to drop one against UMd, UVa and UNC in order for my FSU-Clemson prediction to be probable. Which, judging from that qualifier, is not. The Coastal's bottleneck includes Virginia, rather than UNC. Weird. 2/4.

The good news is that the rest of you jokers didn't do any better. SHatter's Big East, Big Ten, ACC choices are all but out of the running. Pac10 looks tough, and it's hard to say with the SEC. Both of his national title picks are still alive, though. He looks right on the Big XII.

VTFerguson chose VT to win the ACC, which will need some breaks at this point. Wake is not a surprise this year. Clemson is disappointing me a little, but I think we are realistically about where we should be. Let's call that 1/3. He chose Rutgers, and thought Louisville would be the surprise. Surprise! They still suck. Pitt still looks ok, and leads the league. 0/3 Big Ten, he picked Penn State too, and thought Michigan would stay down and they look fine, and MSU is doing ok. 1/3. So far, OU is not going to win the Big XII, Texas has not disappointed and Kansas is chugging along nicely. 1/3. USC needs help to win the league, Cal is disappointing and UCLA might win 6 games. 1/3.

Based on that scoring:

Me: 7/19

SHatter: 2/6

VTFerguson: 4/15

Going forward, if I were to change my choices:

Big East: Rutgers Cincinnati

Big Ten: Penn State Iowa

Pac 10: Oregon

Big XII: Texas

SEC: Florida Alabama

ACC: Virginia Tech Georgia Tech

Over the weekend

Woo Clemson! We're not dead after all. We go into Miami for a pretty rough one to see if Jacory Harris is the Wicked Witch of the West or just folds under the pressure of a strong D-Line. BC looks like they have a comparatively easy road ahead of them, and without an upset over the Canes, we might need some help to get to Tampa this year. Damn you Terrapins!

Also, how about that home cooking for the Gators? Good to know it's not just the non-Tobacco Road schools in ACC Basketball that have to deal with that.

How'd we do? Let's find out:

Me: 8/11, 7/11 ATS (40/79, 39/79 ATS) over 500!

SHatter: 6/11, 4/11 ATS (43/79, 34/79 ATS)

VTFerguson: 6/11, 5/11 ATS (30/66, 22/66 ATS)

IbisFan33: Didn't play this week (20/34, 14/34 ATS) is he still alive?

Jackalt45: 9/11 (14/23) He forgot the GT-VT game? Weird.

Hopefully IbisFan33 will be back before next week.

Week 7

Fun times this week. Actually, this is kind of a poor weekend, but we'll get by. FSU has the week off to see if they can staunch the bleeding, but I just heard that GT scored another touchdown on them. We'll get to see if Clemson figured out how to move the ball from scrimmage, or if punt returns are all we got. Stay tuned, we'll see!

UGa (-8) @ Vanderbilt

Vandy is not looking like the Vandy we have grown to expect over the past few years. Then again, neither is Georgia. A crappy Bulldog team, though, is still much better than a crappy Commodores. This is the replacement for USF-Cincy, and I'm sorry. Dawgs by like 21.

Arkansas @ Florida (-25)

That is a lot of points. UF's offense has not looked quite like we expected after fireworks and explosions last year. Arkansas is coming off a big win over Auburn last week, and I really don't think they'll be in this game, but 25 is a lot of points. 'Backs cover, but there is no doubt that they are eaten and digested by the Gators.

NCSU @ BC (-2.5)

Who knows. At halftime, Amelia Earhart, Flight 19, and Atlantis all appear and the Kennedy Assassination is explained by Dr. Lou. This game will make no sense. NCSU's defense is not very good, but BC's offense smells like the dumpster area behind grocery stores. I would think that Wilson would be the safe bet, but he's streaking poorly lately. I'll take BC at home to win and cover.

Iowa @ Wisconsin (-2.5)

Iowa, after their ridiculous first week, has kept on winning. They beat Penn State on the road and now travel to Camp Randall for another tough one on the road. I have been picking against the Hawks for most of their games and it has burned me each time. I am not getting on the Corn Train.

USC (-10) @ Notre Dame

Heisman hopeful James

Clausen? Not at Men of Troy

Or in this haiku.

Texas Tech @ Nebraska (-10.5)

Poor Mike Leach. No pirate jokes for a while. The media only cares about his weird while he is winning meaningful games. Maybe next year, Huskers win at home, but Raiders cover.

Cal @ UCLA (-3.5)

This is where Cal gets their mojo back, since UCLA was lucky to catch the Vols early. Bears win and cover, Best finally looks better, at least.

South Carolina @ Alabama (-18)

It may be my bias showing through, but I don't think the Cocks score an offensive touchdown in this game. They haven't seen a defense remotely this good yet and were lucky to escape from UK at home last week. Bama handled Ole Miss without much trouble, and that's SoCar's marquee win. I am tempted to say that Bama doesn't cover, but what's the fun in that? ROLL TIDE against South Carolina, even though this is the third Saturday in October.

Oklahoma vs. Texas (-3) - Red River Shootout

Texas hasn't looked like the team that anyone expected them to be yet, and Oklahoma has already had trouble with injuries, even though they've lost two games by a cumulative two points. I think that the Sooners win this one.

Virginia Tech (-3) @ Georgia Tech

The pride of the ACC meets on Saturday night, and maybe GT's defense will decide to show up too. I am guessing that the game will be an exciting shootout, of sorts, because I can't remember the last time I watched a shootout involving Virginia Tech. I think the Hokies win, because if their defense stops the Jackets like twice then that'll be enough. They can.

Wake @ Clemson (-7)

This is the biggest game of Clemson's season. A win here puts us back in the mix, gives us hope for a bowl game, and shows us how we matchup against the rest of our schedule. A loss basically ends our season. BC and Clemson are looking like very similar teams this season, and BC snuck one out against the Deacs. Hopefully, that bodes well for us. Go Tigers! I don't think we win the spread, though.

It'll be a little late this week

Hey everyone, I'm a little behind the eight ball this week. I will get the picks up tonight or tomorrow morning. Regardless, I will delete the USF-Cincy game, unfortunately, because I'm slow. Unless one of you other guys posts them before I do. Otherwise, check back tomorrow.

Weekend recap

Clemson did not play, but I found myself watching the Kentucky game at South Carolina this weekend. I will make a few comments about it, but I will keep them brief, because this doesn't exactly fit the ACC theme, but still, here we go:

1. Kentucky's offense is better than Clemson's, and they are far less talented. Randall Cobb is a heck of a player and will be exciting to watch. He was used well for a drive, and then abandoned on the 2 point conversion.
2. Kentucky's defensive backfield is not very good. If I am South Carolina's offensive coordinator, I call a seven step drop every three downs.
3. The refs did not blow the play dead on the delay of game where Hartline got hurt, and that is inexcusable. This is one instance where it is fair to say that the refs screwed up and impacted the outcome of the game; Hartline isn't exactly All-SEC material, but he was substantially better than Fidler.
4. There was a bit of a scuffle between two players towards the end of the game where one guy pushed the other and the second one pushed back at the end of a play, and there was no call made. I think a lot of times, that is probably preferable to penalizing the last guy to do something. Sure, the behavior needs to be discouraged and double penalties is sometimes the norm, but nobody really gets punished in that case, either.

A few other thoughts were that Georgia might not be that good, FSU is in for a rough season, Alabama is probably going to win the SEC, and whoever wins the Atlantic is going to lose to Virginia Tech in Tampa.

Results:

Me: 8/11, 7/11 ATS (32/68, 32/68 ATS)

SHatter: 7/11, 5/11 ATS (36/68, 30/68 ATS)

VTFerguson: 6/11, 4/11 ATS (24/55, 18/55 ATS)

IbisFan33: Didn't play this week (20/34, 14/34 ATS)

Jackalt45: Didn't play this week (5/12)

Week 5

Holy crap. I missed most of the games this weekend because Clemson was the noon game and Georgia was the 3:30 and Mandy was down on football and I wasn't super excited about it either. We have a bye at least, and by Sunday, FSU will have a worse record than us again. I can only imagine how their fans are feeling, judging by our meltdown (and the trustees calling Bowden out), and we've been a little more prepared for disappointment than they have. The difference is our coaching staff is really, really cheap.

This weekend, though, is pretty much the all-SEC weekend, as far as interesting matchups go. Since we're off, I'll pick the surrogate team I've been loving on, Oregon. The big news out of Eugene is that they might reinstate Blount for the Stanford game. I think he's lucky to get it, and that's Oregon's business, but if they feel like he's done enough, then I wish him the best.

Also, I think that excessive celebration penalties are dumb. And makeup calls, too.

We had a newcomer last week, let's take a look at how we all did:

Me: 7/12, 5/12 ATS (24/57 [42%], 25/57 [44%] ATS)

SHatter: 5/12, 3/12 ATS (29/57 [51%], 25/57 [44%] ATS)

VTFerguson: 5/12, 4/12 ATS (18/46 [39%], 18/46 [39%] ATS)

IbisFan33: Didn't play this week (20/34 [59%], 14/34 [41%] ATS)

Jackalt45: 5/12 (really 13, but I'll let him slide, even though he didn't pick against the spread)

Games

BC @ VT (-13.5)

I am pretty surprised by BC's wn ove the Noles, but don't really see them winning again. VT wins by the length of the Hokies' wattle. BC covers.

Auburn (-2.5) @ Arkansas

Auburn is on a tear right now. Arkansas's defense s not nearly as good as UT's. So Auburn? Yes and please.

Maryland @ Wake Forest (-11)

I hate Testudo. It would be kind of reassuring to see the Terps win, so we can have some sort of hope that maybe we lost to a team that isn't abysmal, but I on't think that's the way it's gonna be. I had this whole thing written about a Deac stomping on a turtle shell and kicking it like in Mario, but the spread is 11 and that's just too many. Maryland covers.

Houston @ Mississippi State (-1)

This is a really weird matchup. Houston just got beat by UTEP. MSU was one play away from beating LSU. What do we do? Cougars, I guess.

Georgia @ Tennessee (-1)

Lane Kiffin better win a game or the Vols are going to start to feel kind of ridiculous. (Start? Who sad that?) Too bad this won't be it. Gnger Ninja wins and AJ Green gets flagged for celebrating on Rocky Top for no real reason.

Alabama (-5.5) @ Ole Miss

I am starting to come around to the idea that Alabama might be the best team in the country. Ole Miss needs to show some spunk. But at less than a touchdown, I would put all kinds of money on the Tide.

Kentucky @ South Carolina (-10)

It is hard to tell how good (bad) Kentucky is (or SoCar, for that matter) because we don't have a lot to go on. UK beat two crappy teams and lost to the two best teams in the nation. South Carolina surprised some (read: me) by beating Ole Miss and NC State. I think the Cocks win, but I don't think their defense is as good as people think it is. Cats cover.

Vanderbilt (-10.5) @ Army

Vandy, I guess. You're welcome, Jackalt45.

Oregon (-3.5) @ UCLA

A rare Pac10 road win happens here. Oregon looks like it got over its hiccups in Boise. Look for the Ducks to punch the Bruins when they are not looking by more than 4 points.

GT @ FSU (-2.5)

The marquee ACC game of the weekend puts the Triple Option up against the Triple Losers (I can say that because Clemson has 3 losses too). The Noles had one stolen right at the last minute on a fumble in the end zone. I think Tech is gonna do what they do and run for literally a zillion yards and win this game. Bonus Prediction: FSU fans stop laughing at the Allstate commercial with the Bobby Bowden grill.

Florida (-7.5) @ Louisiana State

Two of the four remaining unbeatens in the SEC meet up for the biggest game of the weekend. LSU looked just good enough against an average to bad Georgia defense and nearly choked the game away. It is unclear if the Gators have actually been trying n any of their games so far. Yes, Tebow got concussed and vomited and it shouldn't be funny, but we're only human, right? I think UF is good enough to win with or without Tebow, but I think the Tigers keep it close enough to cover.

Biggest Flops of the Season So Far

5.) Florida State

4.) Florida State

3.) Florida State

2.) Florida State

1.) Barack Obama

I don't want to talk about it