The Other Fifteen

Last week: 14-4

Good calls: SEC (5-1), Pac 10 (5-0). Don’t be fooled by that 14-4 record, I can’t really brag about my predictions from last week. Nothing terribly surprising happened and even when I got the predictions right, I whiffed on the margin (Auburn keeping it close against LSU? Pssshaw.)

Bad calls: I was feeling pretty good about myself following some good calls the previous week, so last Thursday I emailed a link to my weekly predictions column to Stewart Mandel, Sports Illustrated’s senior college football writer. I’ve been emailing him questions for years trying to get into his weekly mailbag. Nothing. But somehow, for some reason, he followed the link, read my column and actually sent me an email:

You’re doing a much better job prognosticating than I am. Mizzou hasn’t shown me anything the past 2 weeks, so if they pull it off, you’ll look like a genius.

You may have noticed that Texas beat the ever-loving dogsh*t out of Missouri last weekend. Sigh.  Onto the picks…

ACC

North Carolina (4-3) at #14 Virginia Tech (5-2)
Strange things always seem to happen during these Thursday night games. This should be the exception to the rule though. Virginia Tech wins.

NC State (3-4) at Florida State (3-4)
Apparently all of the dirt-shoveling over Bobby Bowden and this year’s team was slightly premature. They showed some life against UNC last week and may actually have a QB these days. FSU wins this one.

Coastal Carolina (3-4) at Clemson (4-3)
I’m tempted to make this my upset pick of the week, because if anyone was gonna lose to Coastal Carolina, it would be Clemson. They’ve got a bonafide Heisman candidate in CJ Spiller though, and his 207 all-purpose yards/game average will likely spike after this one.

Duke (4-3) at Virginia (3-4)
Thanks, Duke. The last thing we needed was another middle-of-the-pack, we-can-beat-anyone-AND-lose-to-anyone ACC team. But here you are. Virginia is favored by a touchdown, but this feels like a coinflip to me. Okay, coin flipped. I’ll take Virginia.

Central Michigan (7-1) at Boston College (5-3)
Will Central Michigan’s Dan LeFevour become the NFL’s next great and/or mediocre MAC quarterback, joining the likes of Ben Roethlisberger, Byron Leftwich and Chad Pennington? It’s possible. A big game at Boston College could put him on the national radar. I’ll take Central Michigan in the upset.

#18 Miami (5-2) at Wake Forest (4-4)
Miami keeps giving us glimpses of what they could be, then the next week they’ll remind us that they’re not there quite yet. I still think they’ll win at Wake.

#11 Georgia Tech (7-1) at Vanderbilt (2-6)
Technically, Vanderbilt is in the SEC. So technically, Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense is about to face one of those notoriously fast SEC defenses. And technically, Georgia Tech is going to win this game by 30.

SEC

#24 Ole Miss (5-2) at Auburn (5-3)
One team started the year with expectations that may have been unfairly high. The other started the year with expectations that may have been unfairly low. So who pulls it out this week: the underachiever or the overachiever? Always go with the overachiever. I’ll take Auburn.

Georgia (4-3) vs. #1 Florida (7-0) in Jacksonville
The SEC doesn’t want the media referring to this game as the World’s Largest Cocktail Party. Well, I’m calling it the World’s Largest Cocktail Party, because what a cool name for a rivalry game. What are you gonna do about it, SEC?! What’s that? Oh, no one from the SEC reads this column? Oh, no one reads this column? Hmm. Then I guess it won’t matter when I’m wrong about picking Georgia in my Guaranteed (non-binding) Upset Lock of the Week!

Eastern Michigan (0-7) at Arkansas (3-4)
Arkansas is going to win this game by 40 points. Let’s not waste anymore time on it.

Mississippi State (3-5) at Kentucky (4-3)
I gotta be honest, I don’t know anything about Kentucky. I keep saying they’re awful, but…well, they’re 4-3. And they’ve only lost to the ranked teams on their schedule (Florida, Alabama and South Carolina). I’m gonna give them the benefit of the doubt this week and pick them to win.

#21 South Carolina (6-2) at Tennessee (3-4)
I keep waiting for Tennessee to have a breakout game. And you could argue that last week was it, taking Alabama to the wire and almost beating them with a last second field goal (that was blocked). I think this is their breakout game. Gotta start somewhere, right? Tennessee in the upset.

Tulane (2-5) at #9 LSU (6-1)
I love New Orleans. And Tulane sits on a beautiful stretch of St. Charles Avenue, surrounded by majestic Victorian mansions, magnolia trees and drive-thru daiquiri stands. It’s a magical place, really. Unfortunately that won’t help them this weekend. LSU wins.

Pac 10

Cal (5-2) at Arizona State (4-3)
Another week, another slate of head-scratching games in the Pac 10. Arizona State hasn’t shown us anything, losing to every decent team on their schedule (Georgia, Oregon State, Stanford). Cal had potential, but got blown out against Oregon (42-3) and USC (30-3). Arizona State ain’t Oregon and USC. I’ll take the Bears.

UCLA (3-4) at Oregon State (4-3)
Another week, another pick against UCLA. Sorry, Bruins.

Washington State (1-6) vs. #25 Notre Dame (5-2) in San Antonio
Why the hell is this game being played in San Antonio? The Alamodome is 1,300 miles from Notre Dame’s campus and 1,500 miles from Washington State’s campus. This makes no sense. Well, both of these teams have watched that rich, fertile Texas recruiting pipeline make their competitors far better – Stanford (Andrew Luck) and Oregon State (the Rodgers bros.) for Wazzu and Texas, Oklahoma and LSU for Notre Dame. Anyway, whatever. Notre Dame wins, gets to 6-2, climbs up the rankings, inches ever-closer to a BCS berth and an inevitable blowout from one of the teams that actually deserves to be there.

#4 USC (6-1) at #10 Oregon (6-1)
You don’t need me to tell you that this is easily the best game of the weekend. USC has a more impressive win this season (at Ohio State), but Oregon has beaten some decent teams too, including Utah, Cal and the same Washington team that knocked off USC (although, let’s be honest, to say Oregon should beat USC because they beat Washington and Washington beat USC is ridiculous. You don’t think USC would bend Boise State over if they played?). Anyway. Vegas likes USC (-3) but just barely. That stadium at Oregon is gonna be rockin’. Then again, so was the stadium at Ohio State. I’ll take USC.

Big XII South Game of the Week

#3 Texas at #13 Oklahoma State
I’m so sick of picking UT games! And I’m so sick of being wrong!! Oklahoma State always seems to give Texas fits, and this game is being played in Stillwater. Still. I can’t pick against UT again. Not in this game anyway. UT wins.