This Week In College Football

Last Week: 10-4 (Damn me for switching my Arizona pick)

Season Total: 29-6 (What’s up “experts” on ESPN?)

The first set of games is about to start so I’ll try and make this quick.

Top 10

· Georgia at #2 Auburn-Let’s get this out of the way, Cam Newton is ineligible. No, he hasn’t been ruled ineligible yet but any reasonable person knows that he is. However that doesn’t mean he won’t play. Interestingly Georgia’s best player, wide receiver A.J. Green, missed the first 4 games of the season due to problems with the NCAA. In those games Georgia went 1-3 while averaging 24.3 points-per-game. Since his return they’ve averaged 40.3 points-per-game & gone 4-2. While Auburn has the 55^th ranked scoring defense & has won 3 home games this year by 8 points or less. Make no mistake; even with Newton Auburn could lose this game. Could…

Auburn 41, Georgia 34 (If Auburn does the right thing & benches Newton: Georgia 37, Auburn 27)

· San Diego State at #3 TCU-San Diego State’s actually pretty good, they’re a solid 7-2 & one of those losses was by only 3 points to Missouri. Problem is TCU is awesome.

TCU 34, SD St. 10

· Louisiana-Monroe at #5 LSU-Expect LSU to comfortably win this bye week.

LSU 41, LM 3

· Indiana at #7 Wisconsin-Indiana played their best game of the year laws week, they lost to Iowa 18-13. That should tell you everything you need to know.

Wisconsin 37, Indiana 13

· Kansas at #8 Nebraska-Remember when people were accusing Auburn of racism for not hiring Turner Gill (KU’s coach)? Well, maybe Auburn was just smart (or new they could just buy players so the coach didn’t matter). Regardless KU stinks & it would be embarrassing for Nebraska not to put up 40 points.

Nebraska 48, Kansas 10

· Penn State at #9 Ohio State-Penn State has revived their season with 3 straight wins (getting Joe Paterno his 400^th win last week), & if they were at home I’d be tempted to pick them.

Ohio State 30, Penn State 20

· #10 Oklahoma at Texas-Texas beat Nebraska earlier this season & they have elite talent so they can never be completely counted out. However 4 straight home losses hints pretty strongly that Mack Brown has lost this team. Also Ok St. has a ridiculously good offense.

Ok St. 34, Texas 23

Games Between Ranked Teams:

· #19 Mississippi State at #12 Alabama-Both of these teams sit at 7-2 & the Bulldogs are the team with momentum as they’ve won 6 games in a row. Thing is in those 6 games they played only one ranked team & Bama may have two losses, but neither was at home.

Bama 27, Miss St. 14

· #24 Kansas State at #17 Missouri-Missouri’s lost 2 in a row since their win over then #1 Oklahoma (How long go does that seem?), & now they have to face a solid Wildcat team. I like Mizzou though because they’re 6-0 at home & K-State’s only played 2 road games all year.

Mizzou 31, K-State 20

· #23 South Carolina at #22 Florida-If a Steve Spurrier return to the swamp wasn’t dramatic enough the winner of this game plays in the SEC championship. This game’s a tossup & win that happens in college football you always take the home team.

Florida 26, SC 21

PAC-10:

· #1 Oregon at California-The good news for Cal: they’re 4-0 at home where they average 47.3 points-per-game. The bad news: They’re 0-4 against winning teams against whom they average only 15.3 points. Also they’re playing Oregon.

Oregon 45, Cal 16

· #6 Stanford at Arizona State-ASU may be 4-5 but 3 of those losses are by a combined 5 points. With the exception of the Cal game they’ve been a decent team, though their defense remains disappointing, & their only home loss is to Oregon. Of course they’re playing a Stanford team whose only loss is to the #1 team on the road & that features the best pro prospect in college football at quarterback. Also we’re talking about Jim Harbaugh against Dennis Erickson.

Stanford 38, ASU 27

· Washington State at Oregon State-In the last month Oregon State has lost to both Washington and UCLA making this a must win if they want to make a bowl (their last 3 games are against USC, Stanford, & Oregon). They’ll win.

OSU 33, WSU 17

The Arizona Game

USC at #18 Arizona-To say the least this game is intriguing. Both teams are currently perceived as being in worse shape than they actually are. USC’s in the midst of a 2-year ban from post-season play & they’re a disappointing, for USC, 6-3. However in 2 of those losses they had the lead in the last minute. Which tells you what their problem is, an underachieving defense. While their offense is in the top 25 in every major statistical category their defense is 76^th in scoring defense despite (or perhaps because of) having former NFL defensive guru Monte Kiffin (Lane’s dad) as their defensive coordinator. This team could use the lack of a bowl game as an excuse to lapse over their last four games, or as a rallying point to finish strong, I expect the latter.

Last year Arizona blew a chance to go to the Rose Bowl against Oregon (students who pre-maturely rushed the field you will never be forgiven), but saved their season with wins over ASU & USC (a bigger win then most people give it credit for). Now they’ve blown another chance at the Rose Bowl when they forgot to show up against Stanford (the IQ difference between Stanford’s players, & coaches, versus Arizona’s was disturbingly evident), & once again have a chance to salvage the season by beating USC & ASU (Oregon’s a pipe dream). The question is will they?

Will Nick Foles stop forcing balls into coverage in the red zone? Can the skills players stay healthy? Will the all-senior offensive line play up to expectations? Will the defensive backs, once the strength of Arizona football, remember to actually cover the other team? Will there be any creativity in the play calling (the offense has shown glimpses, but do the defensive coordinators remember that you’re allowed to blitz?)? If just a few of the answers is yes then Arizona should have a good shot at winning 10 games (counting the bowl game) for the first time since 1998. If not this season will instead mirror the 1999 campaign that started strong before collapsing into massive disappointment

At the beginning of the season I predicted the outcome of every one of Arizona’s games. Last week, for the first time, I differed from my original pick (stupidly getting caught up in sentimentality) & for the first time I was wrong. I’m not making that mistake again (except in 2 weeks when I pick Oregon). Expect Foles & Barkley to light it up, Zendejas to come up big (no, for real), & Arizona's defense to make one more stop than the Trojans.

Arizona 37, USC 35