Sorry about not having a recap article this week I wasn't able to find the time yesterday to take care of that but I'm back for our new week of picks. Last week, I went 13-4 on winners and 7-9-1 ATS bringing my totals for the season to, 70-14 and 28-29-3 respectively. Now onto the week at hand we have three top 13 match-ups and a 7-8 match-up for the second week in a row. As always feel free to comment and all times Central time zone...
Thursday, September 29th, 2011:
#16 South Florida at Pittsburgh, 7:00 pm ESPN, a battle of two teams whose years have been defined by one game. South Florida became a media and fan darling by beating ND week one on a handful of Irish turnovers and have run with that momentum to an undefeated early season. Pittsburgh on the other hand is coming off back to back bad beats to Iowa and ND and looks to be a dejected team with its back firmly against the wall. Winner: South Florida 24-17 ATS: South Florida -2.5
Saturday, September 1st, 2011:
#14 Texas A&M vs #18 Arkansas (Arlington), 11:00 am ESPN, a preview of the SEC West for at least next year takes place in Arlington Saturday and we should see a pretty good game. Both these teams are coming off of disappointing performances against conference foes. A&M blew a 17 point lead at half-time in the 3rd quarter of a game in which they outscored Oklahoma State 29-9 in the other three quarters. Arkansas on the other team lost to a superior team in Alabama and looks to redeem some of their SEC buzz. Winner: Arkansas 38-34 ATS: Arkansas +2.5
Minnesota at #19 Michigan, 11:00 am BTN, this one is a mismatch I don't care what you think of Marquis Grey or the Michigan defense this one isn't close. The Gophers don't have the team defense to deal with a truly gifted player in Denard Robinson where as Grey is hit or miss at best on understanding what he's doing on the field. Winner: Michigan 45-28 ATS: Minnesota -19
Northwestern at #24 Illinois, 11:00 am ESPN2, the battle for the Land of Lincoln Trophy comes to Champagne this year as the Illini and Wildcats meet to open their conference slates. Northwestern gets Dan Persa back this week hopefully fully healthy which should help the passing game. Illinois looks like less of a certainty with this news. Winner: Illinois 28-27 ATS: Northwestern +8
Mississippi State at Georgia, 11:00 am, this one will go a long way in telling up which of these two teams will be a tough out for the contending teams in later in the year. Both teams still have a chance to win the SEC title with a win but neither has looked like they can knock off the tops in their divisions. Winner: Georgia 31-27 ATS: Mississippi State +6.5
Air Force at Navy, 11:00 am CBS, the top two service academies of the last decade face off in the first leg of the Commander in Chief's Trophy. I think this will be a fun game to watch and a nice showcase for the service academies and two good not great teams. Winner: Navy 28-27 ATS: Air Force +3
Kentucky at #1 LSU, 11:21 am, you don't get many cupcakes on the SEC conference schedule but Kentucky is looking the part this year. Winner: LSU 31-9 ATS: Kentucky +30
Nevada at #4 Boise State, 1:30 pm Versus, a rematch of a great game and upset in Reno last year comes to us in the non-conference this year. Nevada looks exactly how we expected them to look, young. Boise looks like we thought Boise would look, scary good. Winner: Boise State 48-17 ATS: Boise -27.5
Auburn at #10 South Carolina, 2:30 pm CBS, The Gamecocks host a young and slightly faltering Auburn team. Unless Auburn's defense finds a way to slow down the best running back in the country they don't have a chance in this game. Winner: South Carolina 38-17 ATS: South Carolina -10
#15 Baylor at Kansas State, 2:30 pm ABC/ESPN, RG3 is putting up ridiculous numbers this season for a surprise Bears team. Kansas State is coming off a win over the Miami Hurricanes but look to be the inferior team from a talent perspective. Winner: Baylor 38-24 ATS: Baylor -3.5
SMU at #20 TCU, 2:30 pm, this game holds Boise State's BCS hopes in the balance if SMU wins TCU falls out of the top 25 and Boise has no top 25 teams left on the schedule. SMU under June Jones is seeing it's first sustained success and upward trend since the death penalty. TCU is struggling for the first time in a while in the Gary Patterson era, and it's due to a lack of experience on both sides of the ball. Winner: SMU 28-24 ATS: SMU +13
#21 Georgia Tech at North Carolina State, 2:30 pm ABC/ESPN, the winner becomes a contender in their division the loser becomes the spoiler in their division. NC State looks like it could use Russell Wilson right about now on an offense that looks even more anemic than usual. Georgia Tech is coming off of back to back routes of so-so teams. Winner: North Carolina St. 24-21 ATS: North Carolina St. +10
Bowling Green at #22 West Virginia, 2:30 pm, Winner: West Virginia 58-17 ATS: WVU -20
Arizona at USC, 2:30 pm, these two teams are coming off of big losses last week to conference foes and both are struggling this season despite solid QB play. This one comes down to which defense stiffens up the best and which team gets the most out of their talent. Winner: USC 38-35 ATS: Arizona +13
Michigan State at Ohio State, 2:30 pm ABC/ESPN, Another see which team has what game in Columbus between Big Ten Co-Champions from last season. Ohio State has looked good, bad and ugly this season and Michigan State has looked great and horrible. This game is much like both the Miss St. at GA and Ga Tech at NC State games the winner challenges for a division title the loser most likely becomes the conference spoiler. Winner: Ohio State 24-21 ATS: Ohio State -3 (Push)
#13 Clemson at #11 Virginia Tech, 5:00 pm ESPN2, this is the most un-Clemson team we have seen this late into a season for a long time. Virginia Tech is still working out kinks on offense but the defense is a Frank Beamer defense and has held some pretty good offenses down this season. This comes down to which young QB you like better Boyd or Thomas. Winner: Virginia Tech 27-21 ATS: Clemson +7
Ball State at #2 Oklahoma, 6:00 pm, ummmm....yeah. Winner: Oklahoma 45-20 ATS: Ball State +38
#17 Texas at Iowa State, 6:00 pm FX, Iowa State pulled off the upset last year and looks to be a team on the rise to the middle of the Big XII pack. Texas looks to be at least Texas lite. Winner: Texas 24-23 ATS: Iowa State +9.5
#3 Alabama at #12 Florida, 7:00 pm CBS, Florida is better in year 1 is better than any of thought they would be, Bama is a Nick Saban coached team. Florida's offense has the most dynamic set of backs in the country, Alabama might have the best set of backs in the country. Florida's defense has speed and talent, Alabama's has at least 3 first round NFL players. Winner: Alabama 27-20 ATS: Alabama -3.5
#8 Nebraska at #7 Wisconsin, 7:00 pm ABC, Jim Delany's wet dream is here. Two top ten teams, one is the newbie one is the rising star of the conference, both are exciting (Wisconsin was top 10 in points per play last year), and both bring buzz to ABC on Saturday night. Winner: Wisconsin 31-21 ATS: Wisconsin -9
UCLA at #6 Stanford, 9:30 pm, Stanford has Andrew Luck, UCLA has Rich Neuheisel. Winner: Stanford 45-20 ATS: Stanford -20.5
Oregon State at #25 Arizona State, 9:30 pm, Arizona State is Arizona State week on the road good at home but will let inferior competition sneak up on them and keep it so much closer than it should be. Oregon State is inconsistent. Winner: Arizona State 41-17 ATS: Arizona State -18
Enjoy week 5 of the college football season.
No comments:
Post a Comment