College Pick'em - Week 3

Wow, so this is what it's like on the big stage. Beautiful women and expensive booze galore, I could get used to this. Mike is really slumming it this week letting me come over from the Nittany Line and post on his site, but I'm not above whoring myself out. There are some tough games this week, it's actually more difficult to write up your thoughts on games as opposed to just going with your gut instinct, because it really starts putting doubts in your head. I'll list them in the default order they came up on the College Pick'em page, interpret your own confidence in my selections:

1 USC at 14 Nebraska

This can be the Bill Callahan experiment "statement" game at Nebraska. Normally, I would lean toward Nebraska in an upset, but after LSU and Oklahoma laid some serious beat downs last week and Nebraska had a lot of trouble at Wake Forest, I completely expect to see USC come out, guns blazing and motivated, erasing any voter doubts that might have popped up after the Idaho game.

Pick: USC

Florida St. at Colorado

FSU looked bad, bad, bad against Clemson, until the Tigers tried giving the game back and then struggled with UAB this past week. Colorado has no running game to speak of, but Hawkins is supposedly a pretty darn good QB, he ain't playing intramurals brother. I cannot in good conscience give a vote of confidence to Bobby Bowden and think FSU wilts in the elevation.

Pick: Colorado

BYU at Tulsa

BYU comes off their PAC-10 schedule after splitting a win against Arizona and loss at UCLA. Tulsa beat Louisiana-Monroe two weeks ago and that's all. What does it all mean? I don't know, probably lots of passing in this game.

Pick: BYU

21 BC at 15 Georgia Tech

Defense, look for lots of it here at least in theory. Boston College really thrived on turnovers against NC State and needs Matt Ryan to handle the pressure Tenuta loves to bring on quarterbacks. I think Tashard Choice is just effective enough and Taylor Bennett is able to avoid crippling Reggie Ball-ish mistakes.

Pick: Georgia Tech

9 Louisville at Kentucky

Wow, make sure all the lights in the scoreboard work, I wouldn't be surprised to see more than a hundred points posted on it. Louisville looked horrible on defense last week and Kentucky has far more weapons at its disposal than Middle Tennessee. Kentucky needs to show it's more than just this season's chic SEC "surprise" pick. Last team with the ball probably wins this one.

Pick: Kentucky

16 Arkansas at Alabama

Marcus Monk is out for the Razorback and while they have the incredible running game, the loss of their best receiver pretty much kills the little passing they did do. McFadden is great enough to elude 11 guys, but not on every play. I'm still not sure what to make of Saban's Crimson Tide yet, but gonna reach with them here.

Pick: Alabama

Notre Dame at Michigan

Notre Dame wasn't too bad against us, but they need to throw some downfield balls if they plan on winning any games this year. I'm wondering if Weis puts some rudimentary spread offense on the field against Michigan, meanwhile Mike Hart is gonna go bananas on Notre Dame's defense, it's a battle of freshman QB's in a race to not be 0-3. Look for the Notre Dame defense to die in the second half, but will Michigan's show up at all? Notre Dame probably knew not to expect great things this year, but Michigan did, can they ever recover the pieces of this season. Get the bucket of kittens ready for Lloyd.

Pick: Notre Dame

10 Ohio State at Washington

Ohio State's first two games have been ugly and Washington scored a big win over Boise State. That being said, the Buckeye defense is damn good. Just a side question, what if Ty Willingham starts this year 3-0 and Charlie Weis is 0-3? What were the reasons for Notre Dame firing him again?

Pick: Ohio State

22 Tennessee at 5 Florida

EDSBS is spending hate week tearing apart Tennessee and I expect Tebow to do the same, lighting up the Vols with both the run and pass. They may have given up too many points to Troy, but I think the Gator defense knocks Ainge out of the game, but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

Pick: Florida

Pitt at Michigan State

Pitt has had a lot of problems with injuries and weren't deep to begin with, plus they're coached by the "Wannstache." McCoy should get his yards, but Michigan State gets the points and the win.

Pick: Michigan State