Finally week 1 of the college football season is upon us. There are a bunch of games tomorrow night, which means that it's time to make my week 1 picks. First, a brief primer. I used to hate having to look up what time this or that game started every Saturday afternoon and even worse, what channel is it on? So I started putting together a list of all the games on TV each week so I could find what I was looking for or even forgot about. Pretty soon, several friends asked me to email it out to them each week so they would have one as well. Not long after that, I started adding the spreads to the games and picking every game against the spread.
I am by no means trying to come across as some sort of expert in this field. I think I was about 55% last season. Theoretically, you could flip a coin on every game and you should go 50% so I'm nothing special here. This is just for fun.
SI.com has been a big help to me in doing all of this because they post a TV schedule every week. All I had to do was add in the spreads and viola! This year, they have added all the espn3.com games which, whatever. They also seem to have omitted all the BTN games for some reason. I am not going to go through every one of my picks here because you don't care and that's overkill. My thought is I'll highlight a few games that are big ones or just interesting and that'll be it. So here we go.
Must See
These are the marquee games of the weekend or games that are going to be really good (not always the same thing).
TCU at Baylor. Well, TCU lost a few pieces including their starting Quarterback. Baylor can't stop anyone but RG III is a bad dude and they are playing at home. This should be a good game and could open some people's eyes to the fact that Baylor is not as awful as they've always been. I'll take the Bears and the six.
Northwestern at Boston College. NW is the darling darkhorse pick this year in the Big Ten (side note: I refuse to use the moniker B1G. It's stupid. I wish it would go away. /end mini-rant) and not without reason. Dan Persa can play and the guys around him aren't bad either. Boston College has kind of been a train wreck lately. Give me the guys in purple and the points.
Boise State at Georgia. Georgia will be better this year than they were last year, but they aren't back to where they've been. Mark Richt is a damn good coach that the Dawgs will wish they had back once they finally run him off. I think UGA would have been better off playing this game between the hedges rather than at the Georgia Dome. Sterile environment or rowdy campus crowd? Put me on campus and create that true homefield advantage every time. Too much is being made of Kellen Moore losing Pettis and Young to the NFL. They're still good and I'll take them and give the three and a half.
Oregon vs LSU. This game has lost a little luster with all the goings on in Baton Rouge the last few weeks, but make no mistake, it will still be a pretty good game. LSU will be without several key pieces, but they have plenty more bullets in the chamber. I am looking forward to seeing the Oregon offense go up against the Tiger defense. That's going to be fun. The other way around, not so much. Oregon is too much and pulls away a little towards the end. Give me the Ducks and you can have the two.
Interesting
Akron at Ohio State. The Luke Fickell era begins. 34 is a lot of points for a team in flux. I'll take the Zips and the points.
Minnesota at USC. The Gophers played Troy tough last year, only losing by 11. New coach Jerry Kill has shown a tendency to get a lot out of a little. What's USC gonna look like? Should be interesting to see what these teams are all about. Give me the Trojans.
South Florida at Notre Dame. What I want to know is, how good is Notre Dame going to be this year? I'm afraid the answer is going to be, pretty damn good. I'll give the 10 and take ND.
Western Michigan at Michigan. Duh, of course this is interesting to me. Seriously though, how will Denard and the new offense look? How much does he run? Can the defense stop anyone? Can anyone kick the ball? Lots of question marks. This game makes me nervous. See my game preview on Friday for my pick on this one.
Rice at Texas*. The 'Horns have a new coordinator on both sides of the ball and boy did Mack Brown hit a home run with both of these guys. He went to Boise State and got Bryan Harsin to be his new OC. If you have seen any Boise State games over the last couple of years, you know what this guy is about. Then he went to Mississippi State and hired his new DC, Manny Diaz. Michigan fans will remember him from the bowl game disaster in which his defense gave Denard all kinds of problems and blitzed on just about every snap. I can't wait to see what these guys do with all the talent in Austin. I'll take Texas.
*This game gets an asterisk because I'm not sure it counts as a TV game. As of right now, the Longhorn Network only has one carrier: Verizon. How many people out there even have Verizon for their TV service? I'll assume none of you have your hands up. They better strike an 11th hour deal or two or this game isn't going to get seen by too many people. Burnt Orange Nation is getting a little nervous about that down here...
If I Were a Gamblin' Man...
A.K.A. I really like these lines:
- Syracuse giving six and a half to a bad Wake Forest team
- BYU giving a FG at Ole Miss - I don't know why on this one, just a feeling
- Maryland getting five and a half at home against a disoriented and reeling Miami team
As always, please feel free to leave me a comment and tell me all about my glorious brilliance or tell me why I'm a freakin' idiot. Enjoy the games!
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