With the long weekend of football I didn't have time to write up a week 1 recap and that is my bad. I will get back to that next week, but just a quick little recap of last weeks picks. I went 15-1 on winners and 9-8 against the spread. With one week in the books, let's move forwards to week two...
Saturday, September 8th, 2012:
UCF at #14 Ohio State, 11:00 am ESPN2, Ohio State had a very solid first showing under Urban Meyer and Braxton Miller looks like this system will be a perfect fit for his talents. UCF comes off a week 1 drubbing of Akron and enters the Horseshoe with a good amount of talent on a team that has had a good amount of preseason distractions. I think you see a competitive game for three quarters before Ohio State separates from UCF. Winner: Ohio State ATS: UCF +18.5
Miami (FL) at #21 Kansas State, 11:00 am FX, Miami beat Boston College in week 1 which included some added positives in the run game, however Kansas State just has way too much talent for this edition of the Hurricanes to hang with. Winner: Kansas State ATS: Kansas State -6.5
Penn State at Virginia, 11:00 am ABC, I promise I won't be putting every Penn State game this season in the weekly picks but I thought this game was an interesting on each teams front. Penn State comes into this game after a loss to Ohio at home. Ohio is a talented team but Penn State's intensity really flatened as the second half wore on. How will this team respond on the road after a tough home loss? Will we learn anything about the Bill O'Brien era? Virginia is a team that could take a major leap in the ACC this year under Mike Locksley, will they be able to put away a team they certainly should be able to or will they play down to their opponents skill level. Winner: Virginia ATS: Penn State +10
Auburn at Mississippi State, 11:00 am ESPN, Mississippi State's home opener is a stiff SEC divisional test. MSU was a sleeper team I really liked last year and they let me down. I look forward to seeing how well their offense can keep some of the pressure off the defense which should be a solid unit again. Auburn is coming off a tough loss to rival Clemson in week 1 and is in real trouble if they don't show up to play in week 2. Losing to a non Alabama/Arkansas SEC West team will be a tough pill to swallow for the Tigers. Winner: Auburn ATS: Auburn +3.5
East Carolina at #9 South Carolina, 11:21 am SEC/ESPN3, South Carolina sneaked out a win against Vandy, partially thanks to a pass interference non-call, but the bigger issue for the 'Cocks is that Connor Shaw still hasn't been able to throw a football this week. Whether or not Shaw plays the Gamecocks should roll in this one easily. Winner: South Carolina ATS: East Carolina +21.5
Ball State at #12 Clemson, 11:30 am ACC/ESPN3, I'd love to tell all of you that Clemson has a chance to Clemson this game but Ball State just doesn't have the chops this year to pull off that kind of upset. Clemson is coming off a second straight win over Auburn and should keep this train rolling at least for now with a victory over Ball State. Winner: Clemson ATS: Clemson -27
WKU at #1 Alabama, 2:30 pm SEC/ESPN3, See Clemson, only with better players, a better week 1 win and a better head coach. Winner: Alabama ATS: WKU +40 (sure, I'll go with that)
#2 USC vs Syracuse, 2:30 pm ABC/ESPN2, Teams traveling cross country often have troubles with the time changes and it's affect on their bodies. With that in mind I think it will take USC a quarter or so to really hit it's stride against Syracuse. Syracuse themselves have to deal with the fact that they let a golden opportunity to open the season with a win against Northwestern. I think this game is close because of the outside effects but USC is a far superior team than the Orange. Winner: USC ATS: Syracuse +26
#11 Michigan State at Central Michigan, 2:30 pm ESPNU, Central Michigan started slowly against SE Missouri State last week, they pulled it out but you got to have some concern about that game. Michigan State played a sloppy game versus Boise State; Saved by a otherworldly performance by Lavian Bell, the Spartans need to cut down on the mistakes on offense if they're gonna win 11 or 12 games this year. Winner: Michigan State ATS: Michigan State -20.5
Air Force at #19 Michigan, 2:30 pm ABC/ESPN2, Does anybody really think that Michigan is gonna go back to back losses under Brady Hoke's watch, he might suit up at CB just to prove the point. Winner: Michigan ATS: Michigan -21.5
Purdue at #22 Notre Dame, 2:30 pm NBC, Notre Dame should win this game, on a talent basis, better coach and it's at home, but the Golden Domers made a trip across the atlantic just one week ago and I think we will see some adverse effects of this trip this week. Purdue welcomes back suspended QB TerBush who from the sound of Danny Hope out of practice will more than likely be your week two starter for the Boilermakers. Winner: Purdue ATS: Purdue +14
#24 Florida at Texas A&M, 2:30 pm ESPN, The first of two welcome to the SEC games this weekend, Florida travels to Kyle Field to take on the Aggies. Florida comes off what can only be described as a lackluster performance in it's opener against Bowling Green. The Gators offense looked out of sorts with both QB's under center, while the defense looked good but bent too much against an average at best MAC team. A&M hasn't played yet this season after it's week one game against La Tech was cancelled by Hurricane Issac. A&M introduces a new offense, QB and coach heading into the 2012 campaign. Winner: Texas A&M ATS: Texas A&M -1
Iowa State at Iowa, 2:30 pm BTN, Iowa State won this game behind Steele Jantz and the hubris of Paul Rhodes, this years game promises to be equally as intriguing. Iowa comes in after escaping a scare from Northern Illinois which highlighted some issues in the secondary and efficiency on offense. Winner: Iowa State ATS: Iowa State +5
#13 Wisconsin at Oregon State, 3:00 pm FX, Last years game in Madison was so lopsided Oregon State decided to punt backwards to help there defense. Duff'd it Oregon State should be better, and Wisconsin played a rough game game against Northern Iowa last week but I don't see that factoring into this game too much as Wisconsin rolls. Winner: Wisconsin ATS: Wisconsin -7
Fresno State at #4 Oregon, 5:30 pm Pac-12, Fresno should be a well coached football team that will be middle of the road in the MWC. Oregon is an extremely well coached team and is one of the four beset teams in the country. Winner: Oregon ATS: Oregon -35
Washington at #3 LSU, 6:00 pm ESPN, Steve Sarkisian believes he has his best team in his Washington tenure and much of that revolves around QB Keith Price who should give us a much better indication of how good the depth is in the defensive backfield. LSU should be able to move the ball against this Washington defense, whilst the LSU defensive front should bulldoze the Huskies offensive line. Winner: LSU ATS: LSU -23.5
ULM vs #8 Arkansas, 6:00 pm, See: Alabama & Clemson and place Arkansas in the middle. Winner: Arkansas ATS: Arkansas -30.5
#16 Nebraska at UCLA, 6:30 pm FOX, This will be a match-up of two teams that saw better quarterback play on the field week 1 than they have in many moons. Nebraska rolled Southern Miss on the arm of Taylor Martinez who looks to have fixed some of the kinks in his motion. UCLA rode redshirt freshman Brett Hundley to a clobbering of Rice. Winner: Nebraska ATS: UCLA +6
#7 Georgia at Missouri, 6:45 pm ESPN2, The second of the welcome to the SEC games, pits Missouri up against Georgia. Pregame bickering should add a little more fun to our enjoyment of the lead up but this game comes down to how Georgia deals with the suspensions on defense against a Mizzou attack that should have a bit of explosiveness to it. Georgia's old man offense should have some success against the Tigers to the dismay of some. Winner: Georgia ATS: Georgia -2.5
New Mexico at #17 Texas, 7:00 pm LHN, If you've watched college football the last couple season, you know New Mexico. Same for Texas. This shouldn't be close. Winner: Texas ATS: Texas -39
#18 Oklahoma State at Arizona, 9:30 pm Pac-12, I missed this game when I wrote this and I apologize Oklahoma State looked very impressive in a week 1 win over Savannah State, but Arizona's win was better versus Toledo. I don't think this is the upset of the week but Arizona should cover this and make the Cowboys sweat out a victory. Winner: Oklahoma State ATS: Arizona +10
Duke at #25 Stanford, 9:30 pm, This should at least be interesting, Stanford is coming off a lackluster performance against San Jose State and Duke is coming off a whacking of FIU. I don't know what to make of either of these teams at this point so I think I'll wait til this game is over to pass judgement on either. Winner: Stanford ATS: Duke +15
Well that's it for the week 2 picks and because of the hectic week this was finished despite that all encompassing allure of Pittsburgh-Cincinnati. Enjoy your football and look Sunday for a recap of the week that was.
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