Clearly, this gambling thing isn't working out too well for me so far. Luckily, I bet small amounts, so I don't start debating about how much Ramen one man can actually ingest in a month, and no one is showing up at my house with a Gibraltar or Costa Rica stamp on their passport.
We'll keep it brief this week, since me trying to reason out why I picked something has pretty much just become a comical view of how I convince myself to pick the wrong games.
To review, I was 2-4 last week. Auburn covered the 16.5 handily against NMSU, and UGA won in overtime...so they obviously beat the 3.5 spread. Georgia Tech let me down (in so many ways), as did the Arkansas and Kentucky defenses, NC State, and Penn State.
This weeks games, a brief note on why I picked them
Local Kids:
Two teams at the crossroads of their season. Will Tech fall to 0-3 in conference play? Will Georgia be able to build on their win last week in Tuscaloosa? Will Mike Patrick bring up Britney Spears again? Even if he does - he's thankfully not calling either of these games.
Clemson (-3) at Georgia Tech: Clemson appears to finally have a solid QB under center, and the already known commodities of Spiller and Davis in the backfield. This game always ends up being decided by the best athlete on the field...whether it be Calvin Johnson or Woody Dantzler. Clemson just has more of those right now. Generally, though, a hard game to predict...which is why mine will probably be wrong (even though that will make me happy in this case).
Ole Miss (+15) at Georgia: Mark Richt rarely likes to do things the easy way - see last year's comeback win over Colorado for proof. He might have the best young RB/QB combo in the SEC, but that likely means he'll pick this game to work the Zone Read (and maybe even Joe Cox) back into his offense, neglecting his massive fullback's obvious run blocking abilities. Ole Miss looked promising against the Gators, as they were the first team to really test them. The Dawgs win, but not by much.
National Games:
Kind of a down week here, with really only 3 "big time" matchups. In fact, the best game might be tonight...thanks to the programming geniuses at ESPN.
WVU at South Florida (+7): These Friday night games do weird things to teams (right, Mike Gundy? Sorry...don't yell at me!). Their expecting the first sell out in school history at The Bulls' impenetrable fortress that is...uh...Raymond James Stadium.
Surely, the Bulls will beam with pride as they think of all the history there, and many octagenarian Alumni will tear up at the montage of the great Bulls teams of yore, when Col. Tiberius Leavitt commandded the team his great-Grandson now oversees.
Okay - so they've only been around 11 years. Thanks to conference realignment, though, the Bulls can interject themselves into the National Title picture this weekend. I don't even think they'll need the 7 points, they just seem to know how to play WVU, and they'll have the "Program Game" atmosphere at their backs. Bulls Win! Bulls Win! Bulls Win! (Flails wildly at Craig Ehlo)
Cal at Oregon (-6.5): Why this isn't the ESPN night game, I have no idea. This is the biggest game of Saturday as it will pretty much determine who gets to unmask USC later in the year. Oregon's hippies have apparently hired a Shaman to make Autzen Stadium a house of horrors for most, and beat Cal there 2 years ago. Cal's hippies would protest, but they're not really aware they have a football team. Anyway - Dennis Dixon leads his troops, sans Brian Paysinger, to a comfortable win, and Jeff Tedford starts wondering when Franchione is going to get the axe at A&M (Hint: it's at the end of this season)
Auburn (+18) at Florida: This should be an interesting game, despite what some might think. You have arguably one of the best defenses in the SEC, who should have one of its biggest cogs back in Trey Blackmon, versus a seemingly unstoppable offense. Florida obviously has revenge on their mind, while Auburn is just looking to cancel out a really bad loss to Mississippi State. Auburn managed to put up 27 points last year without scoring a single offensive touchdown. They might need one or two this time to stop Gold-Plated Baby Jesus, Tim Tebow, and his pet Jesus Lizard, Percy Harvin. Gators win, but the Tigers keep it close.
Stay tuned next week when, like Louisville, my status as a football sage spirals further out of relevancy.
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