College Predictions

Last week's recap: 14 - 6.

Notable misses:

San Diego State's upset of Boise State. I also relied once again on the West Virginia Mountaineers, who appear to have been severely over ranked to begin the season. Oklahoma rebounded nicely to defeat Iowa State on the road. Texas appears to have turned their season around by defeating a tough Texas Tech squad in Lubbock. Just barely missed on Arizona, who lost a squeaker 66 - 10 at UCLA. And I started out the weekend by letting my heart get the best of my head in picking the Hokies to defeat Miami on the road.

This Week's Picks:

(10) Florida State 35 at Va. Tech 17: The Hokies have been too inconsistent on offense, despite the apparent talent of Logan Thomas at quarterback. It has taken longer than anticipated for their young offensive line to gel. The Seminoles still have BCS aspirations, especially with Florida still looming on their schedule. Florida State has too much for the Hokies on both sides of the ball.

(24) Northwestern 24 at Michigan 20: This is a tough one. Michigan is pretty good, but haven't really played well against very good teams. Whether Northwestern is "very good" is debatable, but they're good enough to take down the Wolverines in the Big House.

Iowa St. 20 at (17) Texas 31: Iowa St. isn't nearly as threatening on the road and Texas is playing much better. Longhorn fans can exhale again as they've averted what could have been a disastrous season. Mack Brown has done what good coaches do and righted the ship.

Kansas 14 at (22) Texas Tech 45: It's just about basketball season, which is good news for the Jayhawks, because that means it's also close to the end of football season. Kansas is in that small group of teams at the very bottom of the BCS conference schools. And the Red Raiders will be looking for some level of revenge after last week's disappointing loss to Texas.

(9) Louisville 27 at Syracuse 17: Midway through the season, it appeared that the Orangemen might make a run, but even at the Carrier Dome, they won't have enough to take down the Cardinals. The pressure to remain undefeated may cause Louisville a few problems, but in the end they should prevail.

Arkansas 20 (8) South Carolina 24: The Razorbacks' offense has struggled the last two games as Tyler Wilson has been uncharacteristically wild with his passes. The Gamecocks will pressure the Hogs and stuff the run. A rejuvenated Arkansas defense will keep this one close.

Army 14 at (23) Rutgers 27: Perhaps a Scarlet Knights victory can bring a bit of a positive vibe to a region ravaged by Sandy and Athena. Rutgers has Army overmatched in this one.

UL Lafayette 10 at (6) Florida 34: Florida squeaked by Missouri last week, but the Gators should enjoy the home confines of The Swamp in this one. If Georgia wins Saturday, they take the SEC East and will face Alabama in the championship game in Atlanta. I'm sure Will Muschamp will make sure his team knows it should have been them in that game.

Arizona St. 31 at (19) USC 42:There won't be a lot of defense in this one. After last week's shootout loss to Oregon, I look for the Trojans to keep it rolling against the Sun Devils. They need to keep winning to hold off UCLA for the Pac-12 South title and an eventual rematch against Oregon. Like anyone really wants to play the Ducks twice in a season.

(11) Oregon St. 27 at (14) Stanford 28: This is the second-best top 25 match-up of the weekend. This game is a toss up and I could make a case for either team. Put this game in Corvallis, and I go with the Beavers. However, in Palo Alto, I'll give the nod to Stanford.

Penn St. 24 at (16) Nebraska 27: At this point, this is probably the closest Penn St. will get to a bowl game. The Cornhuskers won't be planning any parties for the Nittany Lions, however. Nebraska has the upper hand in the Legends Division and this is probably the last game in question, with only Minnesota and Iowa left on the schedule.

(13) Clemson 34 at Maryland 17: I don't think the Terrapins can even come close to giving Clemson much of a battle in this one. It always astounds me when programs such as Maryland and Kansas fire coaches that have improved things, but aren't satisfied and want more. Well, they end up getting what they deserve, I guess.

Baylor 20 at (12) Oklahoma 31: The Sooners probably wish they had the K-State game back. Oklahoma needs to keep on winning and hope the Wildcats stub their toe not once, but twice. But it's college football, and wild things happen as the season wears on.

(15) Texas A&M 27 (1) Alabama 24: Okay, maybe I'm crazy. Maybe A&M isn't good enough to beat Alabama consistently. But as we've seen in the past, it only takes one game. I think the Tide is believing everything that is being written and said about them. I'm even guilty of giving Alabama the SEC West and assuming they'll be one of two teams in the BCS title game. But I just have a feeling about this one. 'Bama is going doMajor mismatch

(20) Louisiana Tech 38 at Texas State 20: Not a hard pick here. Major mismatch.

(2) Kansas St. 30 at TCU 24: I want to go with TCU here, but my better judgement has me sticking with the K-State. I think the more likely loss for the Wildcats will be Texas in the last game.

(5) Georgia 27 at Auburn 14: Georgia clinches the SEC East with a victory over the Tigers. Auburn really doesn't have much a chance to upset the Bulldogs. Richt has his players focused and on a roll. Don't count them out against Alabama either.

(21) Mississippi St. 20 at (7) LSU 24: LSU needs to recover from the tough loss to Alabama last week. They get to stay at home and will probably get the job done against Mississippi State. Les Miles will have his team ready to recover.

(4) Notre Dame 27 at Boston College 10: The Irish get a bit of a breather on the road. BC doesn't have anything close to the offense needed to give Notre Dame a challenge. The Pitt game was probably an anomaly. The USC game will be huge.

(3) Oregon 47 at California 17: This one will be just plain ugly. Not much more to say about it.

(18) UCLA 38 at Washington State 14: My guess is we'll see UCLA continue it's improvement against Washington State. If the Bruins can keep it up, that game against the Trojans next week looms large.

This is why I love college football. So many games, so many possibilities!