I’ve shortened up the title for my weekly picks column. “My Best Guesses” is now “MBG.” Deal with it.
Conference play is fully upon us and the undefeated teams started falling last week. There are a bunch of interesting matchups this week, too. It’s going to be a fun Saturday full of football, with good games in the early slate, afternoon slate and evening.
I’ve had another busy week and am once again short on time. I wasn’t able to post my weekend wrap-up for Week 4 and it hasn’t gotten any better as the week went on. I’ll endeavor to get my wrap-up for Week 5 up this coming Sunday. I promise.
On to the picks!
2011 Record - 13-7 (3-2 wk4) / Overall - 101-55
No. 14 Texas A&M vs. No. 18 Arkansas - Two teams with high-powered offenses, questionable defenses and a habit of not coming up big in big games. This could very well be a see-saw game from start to finish, with each team falling behind by two scores and then going ahead by two scores a quarter later. In the end, I think Arkansas’ defense is a shade more questionable than the Aggies’ and one stop is going to make the difference in this one.
Texas A&M wins, 41-37
No. 13 Clemson at No. 11 Virginia Tech - I have not seen a single live minute of a VaTech game this year, but I’ve seen all of two Clemson games. That shows you the level of competition that the Hokies have faced versus Clemson, who has played two ranked teams in the past two weeks. As long as Clemson doesn’t “Clemson” themselves, they have every reason to win this game. Their offense is humming, the defense is tough enough and super-frosh Sammy Watkins is a gamebreaker.
Clemson wins, 27-17
No. 3 Alabama at No. 12 Florida - Speed meets speed and power here. Florida has looked good in the early season, but they haven’t really been tested. Now they get Alabama and LSU in consecutive weeks. We’re going to find out if the Gators are the real deal very soon. I think they might have a shot against LSU, if they play their cards right, but the Tide are going to hit them like a bucket of cold water.
Alabama wins, 31-16
No. 8 Nebraska at No. 7 Wisconsin - Nebraska shook up their defensive backfield in preparation for the Badgers, putting at least one player completely out of position, just to get some size to match up with the larger Wisconsin receivers. That’s not a good sign. Another bad sign is the sputtering offense. Taylor Martinez hasn’t matured at all as a passer and an offense full of speedy, talented guys is really going to waste, in my opinion.
Wisconsin on the other hand, is humming. The defense is tough, the running game is stellar and Russell Wilson is getting well-deserved Heisman hype already. Throw in the fact that this is a night game in Camp Randall and there’s no way I can pick the Huskers in this one. (sorry, in-laws from Omaha!)
Wisconsin wins, 38-14
Notre Dame at Purdue - Purdue. Ugh. I’ve never liked the Purdue game, as an Irish fan. Even when Lou Holtz was routinely stomping them during his 11 year reign, the game made me uneasy. They’re not a total pushover and are often a surprisingly tough game. This feels like one of those “surprisingly tough game” years. On paper, there’s no way that they should be close to Notre Dame, but on paper, Notre Dame should be 4-0 or at least 3-1. I don’t think Purdue wins this game for two reasons; the Irish defense is one of the best in the nation and Tommy Rees has late-game guts. I’m hoping the latter doesn’t come into play.
Notre Dame wins, 34-20
