Programming note: first bowl predictions of the year will go up on Sunday!

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Oklahoma vs. Texas (@Dallas, TX; ABC): Ah, the Red River Shootout, thank you very much. At any rate, I think this one will be worth me getting up early for, which as you may note by the time this is posted (and, most likely, the numerous grammatical and spelling errors) is no small feat, indeed. I also think it’ll be a small feat for OU to win this one, but it is also the last chance for them to salvage their national aspirations this season. That said, I think Texas proves their worth here.
• Iowa @ Wisconsin (ESPN): Iowa’s been winning in a very, well, Iowa-like fashion. The 30-28 win over Michigan was a downright barnburner – they’ve only scored more against Iowa State. Wisconsin, on the flip side, had been rolling offensively until they ran into Ohio State. Though they still outgained the Buckeyes by almost 200 yards, they also threw two interceptions returned for touchdown and allowed a kickoff return to go the distance. That said, I never quite trust Iowa, so I have to go with Wisconsin here to knock off the Big Ten’s last unbeaten.
• Northwestern @ Michigan State (ESPN2): I’d make more Kafka jokes, but Doc Saturday already beat me to the punch. I also agree with the Doc re: Northwestern’s chances, as this should be really high flying, especially for a Big Ten game. I’ll stick with Sparty, though.
• Ohio State @ Purdue (BTN): If it weren’t for Illinois trying to get Ron Zook fired, Purdue would be the worst team in the Big Ten this year. Ohio State should be able to get back on track offensively against the Boilermakers.
• Georgia @ Vanderbilt (SEC): As I recently explained to a friend of mine (who went to Vandy) last weekend when discussing Vandy’s loss to Army, “This is basically the same offensive Vandy had last year, and basically teams aren’t giving the ball to them for free anymore.” That said, they’re still +5 through 6 games, but the offense is just so bad: 18.8 points per game, 35% on third downs, etc. Meanwhile, in terms of ye ole schadenfraude full panic mode is on over in Athens after they made Jonathan Crompton look like Peyton last weekend in Knoxville. Unfortunately, I have to think the UGA defense will hold up slightly better against Vandy. Unfortunately.
• Wake Forest @ Clemson (Raycom/Gameplan): Since this is an ACC Atlantic game, I’m just going to flip a coin. Heads is Wake, tails is Clemson…… tails it is!

12:30: Mississippi State @ Middle Tennessee State (ESPNU): Well, I think MSU can beat MTSU. Right? I mean, Miss State is a little better than they were last year, aren’t they?

3:30:

• Arkansas @ Florida (CBS): Somehow I just don’t see Arkansas hanging 30, much less 40, on Florida’s defense. Just no way. UF takes care of business.
• Southern California @ Notre Dame (NBC): Reports of optimism abound from South Bend. I don’t they’re well founded, though. Especially after the combined 57-9 beatdown USC has distributed the past two weeks, while Notre Dame hasn’t really shown they can do this “defense” thing. Also, this should give us a good clean transitive break, since Washington lost to Notre Dame but USC should beat Notre DAme.
• Minnesota @ Pennsylvania State (ESPN/ABC): I think Minnesota is very solidly in the middle of the pack of the Big Ten. The natural order of things should be returned with a PSU victory here.
• North Carolina State @ Boston College (Gameplan/ABC): Well, BC’s at home, which means their offensive might show up this week after not making the trip to Blacksburg. Meanwhile, with losses to Wake and Duke, I think it’s safe to say that NC State is one of the worst teams in the ACC. That said, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything (note that Virginia and Maryland still have conference victories), but I feel good enough about BC here to not have to resort to the ACC Atlantic coin flip.
• Texas Tech @ Nebraska (Gameplan/ESPN/ABC): Hard to get a read here, since they pretty much each have beaten teams worse than them and lost to teams that were better than them. (Yes, I remember Houston that beat TTU.) Nebraska’s last effort was the 27-point fourth quarter in a driving rainstorm in Columbia that led to their 27-12 victory over Mizzou last Thursday. Mean, TTU did their thing against K-State, throwing for 500 yards and scoring 66 points. I suspect this game will be somewhere in between, but a Nebraska victory.
• California @ California-Los Angeles (ABC/Gameplan): Well, we know now these are probably the two worst teams in the Pac-10 outside of Pullman. Both these teams have been struggling on offense, but Cal just has to have more talent offensively, right? Jahvid Best has to reassert himself at some point, doesn’t he? Cal can’t be this bad, can they?
• Houston @ Tulane (CBSCS): Houston should be able to name the score for this one.

4:00:

• Colorado State @ Texas Christian (Versus): TCU has to come out ready for this game. Colorado State isn’t terrible, but they’re definitely an opponent TCU should be able to beat easily. They just can’t get caught looking forward to BYU next week, or else CSU is decent enough to take advantage.
• Virginia @ Maryland (ESPNU): It’s the ACC Atlantic Slap Fight of the Week! Ugh. If you hate football, you might like this game. I don’t know what else to say. Anyway, it’s back to the coin flip: UVA is head and UMD is tails…. tails.

6:00: Virginia Tech @ Georgia Tech (ESPN2): If I were less exhausted, I would have an extensive preview of this game. This is a must-win for GT, no two ways around it. With a loss, GT is pretty much eliminated from ACC title game contention, barring basically a repeat of, well, last year. My main worries in this game are: 1) VPI’s defensive line and 2) our defense. We haven’t played a team since Miami (and to a small extent, UNC) that was able to get a great interior rush and really disrupt what we’re trying to on the offensive. (That said, whenever a DT is constantly in your QB’s face, it doesn’t really matter which offense you run.) Miami did have another advantage as well in their speedy corners and linebackers, that were able to pretty much go outside because their defensive line was owning our offensive line all night. As a result – there was no where for the offense to go. I don’t know if VPI has the same type of talent on the edges, but if we allow their DTs to control the offensive line that is not good for Tech.
As for the defense, well, they’re not very good. Perhaps not coincidentally, Tech’s biggest problem is the lack of pass rush, which leads to QBs with all day to throw because they never have anyone in their face. At one point in the first half last week, we actually ran an all-out blitz and FSU still scored because it didn’t work. Tyrod Taylor is faster than anyone in our front 7 most likely, so forcing him out of the pocket is not necessarily a great thing. If our D-linemen do find themselves getting to him, they must make the tackle and not let him escape. He is throwing better this year and is now a competent passer. Therefore, it is imperative we show some semblance of a defense this week, because I don’t think we’ll put up 40 against VPI.

7:00:

• Kansas @ Colorado (FSN): Colorado: still bad. KU: still scoring lots of points. This shouldn’t be hard to figure out.
• Illinois @ Indiana (BTN): The plan for Indiana has to be this. They sit at 3-3, having lost 3 straight including the inexplicable 40-point(!) loss to Virginia. (Seriously, how the hell did that happen?) Illinois and Purdue are the most winnable games left on the schedule, getting them to 5-3. The problem is, the other games are against Northwestern (competent), Iowa (uh-oh), Wisconsin (oh man), and Penn State (there goes that). So this is a must-win, in a game they should win.
• Alabama-Birmingham @ Mississippi (SEC): UAB does have a winning record in C-USA! Unfortunately for them, Ole Miss is not in Conference USA.

7:30:

• Stanford @ Arizona (Versus): I got on the Cardinal bandwagon, and doggone it I’m going to go down with the ship.
• Kentucky @ Auburn (ESPNU): Well, you can’t win ’em all, Auburn, but Kentucky should help get that chin back up.
• University of Miami @ Central Florida (CBSCS): Yes, that’s “da U” up in Orlando. That said, they should do their thing and come out with a win. (This hast to be a 3-for-1 deal, right?)

7:45: South Carolina @ Alabama (ESPN): I’m running out of steam here. USC should suffer their second loss here. I hate to say it, but I think ‘Bama is just that good.

9:15: Missouri @ Oklahoma State (ESPN2): Welcome to the “lowered expectations” bowl! Both these teams have struggled in their own way, and the 1-loss records don’t really tell us much. If OSU gets Dez Bryant back, then the should win. Otherwise, it’s Mizzou.

10:15: Washington @ Arizona State (FSN): Arizona State just isn’t very good. I have to pick U-Dub here.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Auburn @ Arkansas (ESPN): These are two of the SEC’s higher scoring offenses, but also two of the worst defenses. Auburn’s been a little more consistent with regards to both aspects, but scored “only” 26 against Tennessee. (It should be noted Tennessee is the best defense Auburn has faced to date.) Arkansas, to its credit, recovered from the UGA loss and the embarrassment against against ‘Bama to absolutely cream a terrible Texas A&M team. Again, I think this’ll be pretty high scoring, but in the end I think Auburn will get the ball last and probably win.
• Purdue @ Minnesota (ESPN2): That win over Toledo is starting to get a bit long in the tooth for the Boilermakers, losers of four straight including consecutive close losses to Notre Dame (understandable) and Northwester (less so). Except for the Cal game, Minnesota has rarely been outplayed this year (though the score against Wisconsin was probably closer than the actual game). That said, there’s not much reason to be optimistic about Purdue right now, so I’ll take the Gophers.
• Vanderbilt @ Army (CBSCS): Vandy’s turnover margin, while still positive, is down 0.8 turnovers a game so far this year. This year’s Vandy offense isn’t actually worse than last year’s, but when you go from the 112th ranked offense to the 83rd, well, there was really nowhere else to go. So a date with Army is probably just what the doctor ordered for the ‘Dores, who have beaten up on their out-of-conference opponents 81-17 but have only mustered 19 points against SEC foes.
• Eastern Illinois @ Pennsylvania State (ESPN Classic): Penn State.
• Michigan State @ Illinois (BTN): If you could look up “reeling” in the dictionary, the University of Illinois logo would probably right next to it. Provided Michigan State doesn’t get caught up in the fact they beat Michigan last weekend, they should be able to take care of business.
• Georgia @ Tennessee (SEC/Gameplan): Things UGA does well: score points. Things Tennessee does well: play some semblance of defense. What happen when these forces collide in Knoxville? Probably produce a result similar to what we saw last weekend: UGa puts up less than their averages but their ability to move the ball at all puts them past the Vols in the end.
• Boston College @ Virginia Tech (Raycom/Gameplan): I would like to take a moment to point out that the only ACC Atlantic teams with winning conference records are Boston College and Maryland. Let that sink in for a moment. Maryland, who has lost two straight to Middle Tennessee State and very nearly lost to James Madison in overtime. Boston College, who against Clemson not three weeks ago put up 54 yards and 4 first downs. (Since this is the ACC we’re talking about, I should clarify that BC did, in fact, lose that game.) Virginia Tech, by far the most consistent team in the conference since they joined, has done their usual thing and rolled off 4 straight, though they looked a bit lackluster against Duke last weekend. The logical pick here is VPI, and for the sake of my sanity, that’s what I’m going with.

12:30:

• Oklahoma State @ Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (FSN): Oklahoma State is lacking their best player thanks to some off-the-field shenanigans involving “Neon” Deon “Prime Time” Sanders. Yes, I know TAMU is 3-1 and all, but against the only team they’ve played that isn’t chopped liver (sorry UAB fans) they laid an egg. I think OSU still wins this game, but not by as much as they should.
• Iowa State @ Kansas (Versus): Speaking of terrible teams that got 3 (or more) wins off terrible patsies, Iowa State should lose to Kansas.
• Houston @ Mississippi State (ESPNU): If you looked up “laid an egg after the most important win in school history”…. okay, I think you all get where I’m going with this. I will say that Miss State is a decent football team, however, they seem to have forgotten that putting the ball on the ground is a bad thing. Provided the Cougars can pick themselves back off the ground, I think they should be able to win this one. It would also probably help if they don’t allow Miss State to run up 581 total yards of offense (of which one player was responsible for 262 yards).

3:30:

• Alabama @ Mississippi (CBS): Okay, Ole Miss isn’t as good as we thought. But they’re probably not that bad either. Will it be enough to stop the Alabama juggernaut? Probably not. (Unfortunately.)
• Oregon @ California-Los Angeles (ABC/Gameplan): UCLA didn’t put up much resistance last week in their loss to Stanford. On the flip side, Oregon has been rampaging, er, beating up, er, winning all their games since the debacle in Boise to open the season, and I don’t see why the streak will end in Pasadena.
• Wisconsin @ Ohio State (ESPN/ABC/Gameplan): Wisconsin kept up their habit of winning by 1 score or less in last week’s 31-28 win over UMN. Ohio State has done the opposite. Since playing it close to the sweatervest against USC, they’ve scored 30 or more points in every game since. I think Wisconsin will provide some resistance, but provided Ohio State is finally doing what it actually wants to on offense, I think they have the inside track to the Big Ten title.
• Baylor @ Oklahoma (Gameplan/ABC): This is an okay Baylor team. Of course, you could argue Oklahoma has proven absolutely nothing, but they will have Sam Bradford back and they should beat Baylor anyway.
• Connecticut @ Pittsburgh (Gameplan/ESPN/ABC): Pitt thrashed Louisville, but I don’t really take that as any sort of indicator of “quality”. I’m going to admit I’m completely guessing here and just with UConn because I think that’d be pretty funny.
• Navy @ Rice (CBSCS): I bet 10-3 seems really far away now for the Owls. Navy should cruise here. No pun intended.

4:00: Duke @ North Carolina State (ESPNU): It’s funny how, for all the wackiness of the ACC, the one terrible constant through all the years is Duke. For what it’s worth, both these teams have the exact same number of DI-A wins (one). That said, well, until they prove otherwise there’s not really any reason to favor Duke.

7:00: Stanford @ Oregon State (FSN): For the second week in a row, I’ll pick Stanford. I’m forced to wonder if that has ever happened before. I should go back and look. Though not right now.

7:15: Colorado @ Texas (ESPN): Unless something has happened since losing to The Bill Steward Experience, Colorado is still a terrible football team. Texas should handle them easily.

7:30:

• Southern Mississippi @ Louisville (ESPNU): Well, I’ll say one thing: if Louisville loses this game, the odds of them having the same head coach against UConn next week have to be extremely slim. In fact, they’re currently 0-3 against I-A teams. USM, meanwhile, has experienced something of a let down since the win over Virginia (which, if trends hold, should get more valuable each of the next three weeks!) by losing to Kansas (understandable) and UAB (much less so). UL should still beat their old C-USA foe, but the emphasis on that is should.
• Texas Christian @ Air Force (CBSCS): TCU is the most legitimate of the remaining mid-major unbeaten teams, and they have to be on their guard against a pretty decent Air Force squad. They should win, though.

8:00:

• Florida @ Louisiana State (CBS): Hooo boy. Well, here’s what we know. 1) We don’t know if Tim Tebow, the best player in college football, will play. 2) We know that in a haze of bourbon and butter, it will be very intense tonight in Baton Rouge. 3) Les Miles is crazy; Urban Meyer, not so much. And that, honestly, is what makes me think Florida will win regardless of Tebow’s presence. It’s not like the backup QB for Florida is some dude they got off the street two weeks ago. Will it change UF’s gameplan? Of course. But here’s what I know about LSU from their last two games. 1) They couldn’t stop Miss State for most of the game, except on a goal line stand at the end of the game that was probably Miss State’s fault as much as anything else. 2) They couldn’t score against UGA’s leaky defense for the first, oh, 57 minutes of the game last weekend. I think Florida, even without Tebow, has the talent to keep up with LSU and has a definite edge in coaching, and I think the Gators can, and should, win. Regardless, though, I think it’ll be close.
• Michigan @ Iowa (ABC): Michigan learned last week the ups-and-downs of having a freshman QB – saving your bacon one minute, throwing the game losing interception into the end zone the next. (Believe me, as a survive of the Reggie Ball Era, I know all about the perils of freshman QBs. The problem is when they don’t stop being freshman QBs.) Nonetheless, Iowa has failed to convince me of much of anything, and there’s the pesky fact they very nearly lost to Arkansas State last weekend. I actually like Michigan here.
• Georgia Tech @ Florida State (ESPN2): Hey, did you know Florida state is actually playing a game this weekend? Anyway, the drama around Bobby Bowden this week can amount to one of two things: 1) FSU is truly internally divided, with coaches and players fighting among themselves 2) the players have united behind Bowden and will come out motivated and ready to play. But here are some facts: Tech is looking bad on defense, and while we ended the overall losing streak to FSU last year, we’re still 0-6 in Tallahassee. Our last visit there was my freshman year back in 2003, where coming off the huge Auburn win we led 13-0 going into the 4th quarter only to lose, 14-13. We have to get this monkey off our back.
  The offense looked pretty darn good last week. We took advantage of Miss State’s 5 (!) turnovers and Nesbitt’s good passing effort (11-14 for 266 yards), easily a career best. Dwyer still lacks a 100 yard game, but with the way the passing game was working last week we almost didn’t need to – and in fact, we had more total yards passing (266) than rushing (213). Which led Mickey Andrews to his award-worthy quote: “You can’t cover everybody and play the run like you need to and double cover (Demaryius Thomas). You can, but they’ll penalize you. We’ve got it figured out if they’d just let us play with that extra guy. And they ought to, we need it right now.”
  On the opposite side of the ball, the defense was just not very good last week outside of forcing 5 turnovers. If nothing changes and the FSU that put 54 on BYU shows up, this could be a long day for us.