The Dirty Dozen and Bottom of the Barrel: When College Football's Tummy Gets Upset
Yeah, I'm guessing if you were a fan of Georgia, West Virginia, Penn State or Washington---your Saturday night was chock full o' disappointment.
Hopefully you didn't do anything too drastic---like this guy (you need to look him up):
Which ends my lecture of stop taking a College Football game so friggin seriously. A loss is never fun, but should NEVER ruin your day. (Yes, consider this my P.S.A)
So yeah, might as well jump in go through last weeks picks because I've been bragging pretty hard on those so far this season.....
Not too bad....10-4 on the week. Picking Iowa State as the "Upset Special" win of the week helped save me. No complaints.
Overall, 48-9---which is still pretty damn good though yes, I know, I don't pick the betting line because, well, mostly because I don't understand how to do it. But I suppose that's another story for another day.....
I said on each of the OSG on CFB College Football podcasts this week (look it up on Spreaker, iTunes etc) nobody is going to beat Alabama this week and I've not seen anything to show that is wrong...but we still gotta go through the motions here kids....
THE DIRTY DOZEN
1) Alabama 7-0: Tua gets dinged and the Tide don't miss a beat against a game but clearly overmatched Missouri. Statistically this is the best offense in the FCS. Which considering the defense is solid too, should scare the heck out of everyone. 'Naitch says it best:
This Week: at Tennessee; My Pick: Alabama 43, Tennessee 21
2) Ohio State 7-0: Yes, I wish them nothing but ill will due to their self-centered denial of Evil Urban Meyer, but you can't argue with the results. Nobody can stop them--okay, Dwayne Haskins on Offense. Defense is a bit of a different issue.
This Week: at Purdue; My Pick: Ohio St. 48, Purdue 28
3) Clemson 6-0: So I may have, um, misread the dates on their schedule and picked their game last week. Though I should tell you nothing has changed in a week other than guys getting rest. Note--statistically the Tigers are the only team in the NCAA in the Top 10 on Offense....and defense...
This Week: vs. North Carolina State; My Pick: Clemson 27, NC State 23
4) Notre Dame 7-0: Debatable if the Irish are really this good. But they've run the table and played fairly well under QB Ian Book. The win over Michigan looks better every week and the schedule gets nothing but easier from here.
This Week: BYE
5) Michigan 6-1: Are the fighting Harbaugh's back? They've gotten better every week and are starting to show life on Offense with 70 points the past two weeks. Nice rebound from the opening week loss. Some tough games still left to be played.
This Week: at Michigan State; My Pick: Michigan State 31, Michigan 30 UPSET ALERT!!!!
6) LSU 6-1: Still not sure how the Tigers lost to Florida. Yeah, the schedule has been pretty good, but they haven't really dominated anyone at this point this season, but hey, winning is winning---right?
This Week: vs. Mississippi State; My Pick: LSU 27, Miss. St 24
7) UCF 6-0: Yup, UCF. And don't come at me with that "Strength of Schedule" crap. The Knights haven't lost a game since 2016, how many of you can say that about your team? Like it or not, that counts for something. And see if your team can stop[ Mackenzie Milton. Go ahead, I dare ya!
This Week: at East Carolina; My Pick: UCF 52, E.Carolina 21
8) Texas 6-1: Nice rebound for Tom Herman's team. They're in the Big 12 Drivers Seat at this point. It hasn't always been pretty, but they're winning. Play mistake free football and see where the cards fall at this point in the season.
This Week: at Oklahoma State; My Pick: Texas 27, Okie State 25
9) Oklahoma 5-1: Time to find out what the Sooners have--besides Kyler Murray and a damn good offense. If the Sooners show just the slightest Defensive improvement, they could still have a say in the Big 12 title. We'll see how that plays out.
This Week: at TCU; My Pick: Oklahoma 45, TCU 31
10) Georgia 6-1: I wasn't sold on the Bulldogs being an "Alabama Level" team and they proved it last week. Not sure why they overthought the game vs. LSU, don't run the stupid "Fake Field Goal" play that got snuffed and maybe that was a different game. Or maybe UGA is just decent but not great?? This Week: BYE
11) NC State 5-0: Oh my god! An ACC team not named Clemson in the Dozen. Well, for now anyway. Props to Coach Dave Doeren for an overachieving team with a pretty good QB in Ryan Finley. Alas, is that enough? Maybe enough to be #2 in the ACC. But unfortunately they play Clemson this week....oops...
This Week: See #2
12) Florida 6-1: Another team I'm not totally sold on. But options are few at this level. They also feature the NCAA's biggest Heel Assistant Coach, Todd "Start a Fight and run" Grantham....Maybe they'll prove me wrong. Nah....
This Week: BYE
THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL:
The good news: UCLA got off the shnide. So there's that. The bad, somehow Nebraska found yet another painful way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And someone actually raised the specter of dumping Coach Scott Frost (oh, they quickly turn)....
Yeah, that....
5) Bowling Green 1-6: Not much has gone right for the Falcons in 2018. Sure, they've actually won a game, but they've lost 6 others...and given up a ton of points in the process. Now they're looking for a new coach after Mike Jinks was shown the door after this weeks loss to Western Michigan.....Ooopsie...
This Week: at Ohio; My Pick: Ohio 42, Bowling Green 21
4) San Jose State 0-6: 52-3 loss to Army? Really guys? 3 Points?? The Spartans are pretty much a lost cause at this point, not putting up much of a fight on either side of the ball. But hey, the season is half way over now. So there's that....
This Week: at San Diego State; My Pick: San Diego State 37, San Jose State 13
3) UTEP 0-6: I'll say this--The Miners keep getting close, they only lost by three to a decent North Texas squad last week. And in my poll, its enough to get out of the very bottom. But if you're getting outscored on average 31-19 on the season, chances are, um, your team is not very good.
This Week: at Louisiana Tech; My Pick: La. Tech 31, UTEP 19
2) Nebraska 0-6: Poor Nebraska, they can't buy a break. Up 10 points on Northwestern with just 5 minutes to go, they managed to cough up a hairball, um, the lead and ended up losing in Overtime. Yeah, we realize the cupboard wasn't full, but....
This Week: vs. Minnestota; My Pick: Nebraska 25, Minnesota 24 UPSET !!!!!
1) UConn 1-5: This is one horrifically bad College Football team. They don't score much and the defense should be renamed "The Matadors"....hahahaha! I'm pretty sure this is Karma catching up to grumpy Randy Edsall, so no, I don't really feel bad for him because he's well, not a very good College Football Coach...and is as likable as, um, Urban Meyer...(insult)
This Week: at South Florida (yikes!); My Pick: South Florida 112, UConn 13
Live it, learn it, love it.....if you ever wanted to know what is going to happen in College Football, this is it. I hate spitting back a similar Top 10 to what the clearly tainted Mainstream Polls do, but it's pretty clear who the best team is and who the next 3 or 4 are. Everyone else is just jockeying for runner up at this point....
I leave you with this:
