Before our predictions, let me misquote the best Tom Clancy-based movie, Hunt for Red October: “This season will get out of control. This season will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”

With USF losing Thursday night in New Jersey, things could open up for the 1-loss teams if there’s some shenanigans down in Baton Rouge tonight. By the way, I think that USF should stay in the top ten – USC didn’t fall that far after suffering a far, far worse loss. But I suspect the humans will put then in the 12-15 range. Whatever.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Pennsylvania State @ Indiana (ESPN): Surprising Indiana squad gets a home date with a somewhat disappointing Penn State team. (Note, however, that both are 5-2. Pre-season expectations for the win!) That said, Indiana got blown out last week by the green Spartans, meanwhile Penn State is coming off a huge victory over Wisconsin. Should be interesting, as far as Big Ten games go, tough to tell who’s going to come out on top in this one. I go against my usual instinct to pick the home team in this situation and go with Penn State.
• Iowa @ Purdue (ESPN2): Don’t let their victory over Illinois fool you – Iowa is still terrible. While Purdue has wilted against actual teams, Iowa doesn’t really count. Look for the Boilermakers re-discover how to play offense.
• Army @ Georgia Tech (Raycom/Gameplan): I wouldn’t usually list a game like this, but it’s Tech so it’s going here. This is homecoming for the Jackets, and it was hoped when this game was scheduled it’d be a homecoming for Bobby Ross, but he resigned earlier this year and got inducted into the GT Hall of Fame anyway. I hope we can get up early and practice passing a little, but Army made Boston College leave their starters well into the second half, and as the cliche goes the guys from the military academies usually don’t quit easily.

12:30:

• Oklahoma @ Iowa State (FSN): Why is this on TV? Really? OU rolls.
• Texas @ Baylor (Versus): (see above, replace “OU” with “Texas”)
• Tennessee @ Alabama (LF/Gameplan): Whoops. The Third Saturday in October rivalry is relegated to the dregs of the SEC TV deal. At the beginning of the year, I would’ve said this’d be on ESPN at the worst, but who knew that Florida-Kentucky would have not only SEC implications, but national ones? Both these teams have multi-game winning streaks, but only Tennessee’s victory over Georgia looks any good. Also, I hate ‘Bama, so I’ll wish I was on “old Rocky Top” and pick the Vols.
• Vanderbilt @ South Carolina (Gameplan): What would upset the machinations of a SEC title game contender more than a loss to Vandy? Unfortunately for the Commodores, South Carolina seems to be winning the games it’s supposed to this year. So I’ll take the Gamecocks. (But go ‘Dores!)

1:00: Wake Forest @ Navy (CSTV): Over/under on pass attempts for this game should be around 30. While Navy is formidable, in the end Wake should win.

3:30:

• Southern California @ Notre Dame (NBC): Notre Dame seeks to go 2-0 against teams from Los Angeles. Will they succeed? Probably not. Then again, winning by a touchdown against Arizona isn’t really much of a triumph to come off of. But, still, I see little reason to pick ND here.
• Florida @ Kentucky (CBS): CBS returns to Lexington for the second weekend in a row, again with national title implications on the line. Loser here is removed from the picture completely. I don’t even know where to begin to analyze this game. Both these teams are good, good, good. I feel UF brings a slightly better offense than LSU but also a worse defense. All I know is that this will probably make for good TV, considering how evenly matched these two teams were against LSU. Possibly in Florida’s favor is that they’re coming off a bye week, giving them time to re-focus off the LSU loss. If they knock off Kentucky, that puts them in the driver’s seat for the SEC East and a possible (probable) re-match against LSU. So, just to continue the bizarreness of this season, I’ll go with the Gators here.
• Michigan State @ Ohio State (ESPN2/ABC): Of all the bizarre things that have happened this year, this is the most normal. OSU was not highly regarded going into the year but has so far run the table on what has turned out to be a really soft schedule. Much like USC, I don’t really see where they will stumble on their schedule, though, except for maybe their two remaining road tests: @Penn State and @Michigan. Honestly, for Bizarro Year to be truly complete they need to go into the Michigan game undefeated (and then losing, thus making the whole thing come full circle), so I’m going with the Buckeyes here.
• California @ California-Los Angeles (ABC/Gameplan): While I didn’t see Cal’s dumb, dumb loss last week (seriously, what I read about the play at the end makes it sound downright Reggie-esque), I do know that UCLA has two bad losses at this point, including the sole Notre Dame victory. Cal gets back on their feet down in the Rose Bowl.
• Miami @ Florida State (Gameplan/ABC/ESPN2): Ahahahahaha. Ahahahahahahahaha. Thank god this isn’t the special season-opener Monday night game anymore. But, yeah, gotta pick FSU to win here. For starters, we need Miami to pick up more conference losses. But also Miami is just terrible. If FSU can put up a few touchdowns early Miami will be unable to catch up – we caught several breaks last week where Kyle Wright’s “quarterbacking” bailed us out.
• Texas Tech @ Missouri (Gameplan/ABC): Texas Tech – Missouri, now with Fiesta Bowl implications! Both teams need to avoid a second conference loss to stay in the race for their respective divisions. If Mizzou can stop the Texas Tech aerial assault, even a little, they may stand a chance. But I don’t like their chances.

5:45: Kansas @ Colorado (ESPN): I am still trying to comprehend the part of the season where Kansas is a serious contender. USF, I could believe, because I mean, it’s the Big East, Florida is a fertile recruiting ground, etc. Still, Colorado already ruined Oklahoma’s perfect season, can they strike twice? After losing to Kansas State last week, I’m going to say no.

7:30: Oregon @ Washington (FCS Pacific/FSN NW): So, uh, Washington was a little overrated to start the year. Meanwhile, Oregon is still scoring a lot of points, as they come off a 52-7 shellacking of Wazzou last week. I expect more of the same here, though maybe only 30-7 because it’s in Seattle.

8:00:

• Michigan @ Illinois (ABC): Ugh. I still have a hard time believing that Michigan is a decent football team at all, and Illinois just proved to us that Ron Zook is still, in fact, their coach after losing to probably the 2nd-worst team in the Big Ten last week, scoring only two field goals. The Juice will apparently be back at QB this week. Also, don’t look, but Michigan is 3-0 in conference play. 3-0. Yes, that’s right folks, a trip to the Rose Bowl could be on the line in Ann Arbor next month, the very place where all this craziness began. So, as rationalized above, I think this matchup will be preserved an I’ll take the Wolverines.
• Virginia @ Maryland (ESPN2): Both of Tech’s terrible losses face off in College Park. I’m still not sold on UVA, while Maryland is actually kind-of decent. Also, we need UVA to lose. So go Terps.

9:00: Auburn @ Louisiana State (ESPN): Tigers win! (Sorry.) Anyway, Auburn played down to Arkansas’s level last week and eeked out a 9-7 victory. LSU is coming off a not-exactly debilitating loss last week. I think this will be a great game if Auburn shows up with any semblance of an offense. We know both coaches are willing to take risks, though (and perhaps Tito can correct me on this) it seems to me Tuberville has gotten more conservative in the past few years. (As much as people love to talk about LSU’s fake FG earlier this year, Auburn ran wonderful fakes and play-actions 4 years ago or so.) Meanwhile, Auburn is sitting at one conference loss and still in the SEC West race and could control their own destiny with a win. Will they win, though? I have my doubts. I think LSU is probably the better team here, and playing in Baton Rouge, at night, gives them an edge. (Hopefully Tito scored some tickets and can let us know first hand, also EDSBS’s account of their trip there indicates that it’s just as crazy as you’d think.) So I’m going to pick LSU.

That wraps it up for me, I need to get to bed so I can watch the early games. BCS comes out on Monday until the final week, so except the final version of the bowl predictions then. (Though I may post a sort-of “beta” version late Sunday, we’ll see.)

As usual, all times Eastern and most predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Georgia Tech @ Miami (ESPN): I don’t know what to say about GT anymore. Hopefully Tenuta gets the last laugh over Patrick Nix.
• Illinois @ Iowa (ESPN2): The chance of me watching this game is pretty much somewhere around 0%. Illinois should win handily, but with the Zookinator at the helm anything can happen.
• Virginia Tech @ Duke (Raycom/Gameplan): Duke will be a soothing salve for VPI’s offensive woes.

12:30:

• Texas @ Iowa State (FSN): Stranger things have happened. And not in the distant past, either, but this very year. That said, Texas would have to be really reeling to lose to this throughly terrible Cyclone bunch.
• Alabama @ Mississippi (LF/Gameplan): I’ll give you two reasons to watch this game. The first is because since it starts 30 minutes later, this game will be going on while the noon games are still in half time. The other is always the outside chance someone interview The Orgeron, which is a treat in and of itself. As for the game, ‘Bama should (unfortunately) win.

3:30:

• Boston College @ Notre Dame (NBC): Perhaps ND got it together last week at UCLA. However, Boston College is a seriously good team, and although it would fit into the calculus of this season there is really no way they should lose to Notre Dame.
• Louisiana State @ Kentucky (CBS): I can’t help but think Kentucky has been feasting on a diet of delicious cupcakes. LSU meanwhile, has pretty much the best defense in the country hands-down. South Carolina held them to 23, and I expect LSU to do worse. That said, I also don’t expect LSU to score a whole bunch, so it’ll be a tight game that the Tigers win in the end.
• Wisconsin @ Penn State (ESPN/ABC): Woo? Wisconsin isn’t nearly as good as their 5-1 record might lead you to believe, but Penn State has lost to Illinois as well. Let’s just take the home team and move on.
• South Carolina @ North Carolina (Gameplan/ABC/ESPN): Okay, moving on to this may not have been such a good idea. South Carolina is pretty darn good, UNC is not. From an OOC scheduling standpoint, I like the game, but otherwise not so much.
• Arizona @ Southern California (ABC/Gameplan): I cannot fathom a way USC loses this game. Then again, I would have said the same last week as well. If I had a hat, I’d put it on the line here, because if USC loses to another crappy team I would eat my hat. If I had one.
• Texas Agricultural and Mechanical @ Texas Tech (Gameplan/ABC): This is a pretty important Big 12 South title – not too often schools not named “Texas” or “Oklahoma” get to say that. It’s hard to say who’s better here, both have what I consider to be not-so-great losses (Miami for TAMU, Oklahoma St. for TTU). I think if Tech can pile up the points early, and they probably should, they will win. Of course, if it’s a shootout, that also favors TTU. So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that Texas Tech should win.

6:00: Georgia @ Vanderbilt (ESPN2): I am desperately rooting for two in a row here. Vandy got torched at Auburn last week, however, and may have a hard time picking themselves back up. Also, UGA probably isn’t too happy about losing their homecoming game last year. Take the mutts, but root for the Commodores.

6:30: Missouri @ Oklahoma (FSN): By playing absolutely no one, Mizzou is 5-0. OU has already lost to a Big 12 North team – can the Tigers tilt the balance completely in favor of the north this year? I don’t really think Missouri is better than Texas, to be completely honest, and I also think the Sooners should win.

7:00: Oregon State @ California (Versus): Thanks to last week, the Versus game will now get a mention here. That said, Cal shouldn’t really have any issues here.

7:45: Auburn @ Arkansas (ESPN): After losing to Miss. State, Auburn has really gotten its act together. Rediscovering the concept of “offense” against NMSU, they beat Florida and whipped Vandy. After their initial two SEC losses, Arkansas has played absolutely no one, putting the screws on North Texas and UTC. I look for the revitalized Auburn offense to put Arkansas in a hole, a position they have a really had time recovering from with their anemic passing game. Look for the Tigers to get up early, and then Arkansas to attempt a rally but never quite pass Auburn.

9:15: Colorado @ Kansas State (ESPN2): Just another day at the office for the crazy-as-hell Big 12. Despite two losses, CU is 2-0 in the conference and K-State has a loss after a hard fought game with their rival last week. So, once again, a game you might not expect to have a great deal of importance does. Being from Kansas and angered by the fact that despite needing 5-downs to beat Missouri and having a loss the Colorado sports publicist claimed this week they were the “true” champions of 1990, I’m going to go with KSU. (Sorry for the run-on sentence there.)

10:15: Washington @ Arizona State (FSN): Washington is, unfortunately, not as good as many of us thought early in the season. Saddled with 3 losses now and 0-2 in the Pac-10, UW is one the ropes. This is sort of a trap game for the Sun Devils, though – they have a bye next week before facing Cal. At 6-0 and 3-0 in the Pac-10, they can hardly afford to trip up against the Huskies. That said, the 6-0 is barely legitimate, I would say their best victory is probably the one over Colorado. Then again, there’s something to be said this year about actually being about to beat patsies (that’s pretty sad, if you ask me, but hey). The Sun Devils win, and will get to 7-0 (4-0), which will hopefully set up a pretty epic clash with against Cal in two weeks.

That’s all, folks. Also, the first BCS standings of the year come out on Sunday, so look for my initial bowl predictions then!

As usual, all times Eastern and almost all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Wisconsin at Illinois (ESPN): The 4-1 Fightin’ Zooks will see one of the tamest 5-0 teams in the country roll into Urbana-Champaign this weekend. I recall seeing somewhere Illinois was favored here, thus reflecting my perceptions of the Badgers. In the end, I have a hard time picking the Zookinator, so I’ll go with the Badgers here.
• Miami (FL) at North Carolina (ESPN2): Hot, hot ACC Coastal action. (Note: I still don’t remember who’s in which division, I just know who’s not in a division with the other. Damn screwy ACC divisions.) I’m not entirely sure why this is more worthy of being televised nationally than our game, but whatever. I don’t think Miami is really that much better than UNC is this year, even after the recovery victory against TAMU. I will say it’s a good bet the Patrick Nix Experience will put up more points in Chapel Hill this time around than it did last year, and will probably also still escape with a victory.
• Kansas at Kansas State (FSN): Sure, KU is 4-0, but they’ve beaten nobody. Meanwhile, Kansas State just beat Texas. I’m going with KSU here.
• Georgia Tech at Maryland (Raycom/Gameplan): Hopefully no 4th-quarter heroics will be necessary here. (Also, I really want to finish the feature I’m doing on Micheal Johnson’s performance in the clutch tonight.) There are questions in College Park of who the starting quarterback will be, and I think either answer is okay for us. My main worry is concentrated in the straight-up-the-middle rushing attack Maryland, a key component in their “upset” over Rutgers last week.
  Once again, Tech really needs to win the remainder of its ACC schedule. They brought the focus and the pain against Clemson last week, and I don’t think this Maryland team is significantly better than Clemson is. (Of course, I don’t think Virginia is, either.) While the defense was spectacular against Clemson, the offense was not. Bennett put up some Reggie-esque numbers, including a bad interception. Outside of the interception, though, he seemed more comfortable than he has in past weeks in the pocket. The problem is, our receivers couldn’t catch a cold last week – there were at least 4 easy passes dropped. We need at least a 50% passing day from Taylor and another 100+ yard day from Choice, who is hopefully more healthy than he was last week. (He admitted after the game last week he’d been lying about his condition all week and was probably about 80%.) That said, Grant looked good in his limited carries, so we have options if Tashard is still not 100%.
  Once again, we need a lot of things to go right for us again. At the very least, I’m reasonably sure Maryland won’t be returning any kickoffs for touchdowns this year. Tech’s special team are downright great this year – we all know Brooks as well, but Travis Bell is showing the kind of promise he did early in his career. But the kickoff coverage is a breath of fresh air this year.
  As the article mentions, they also want to work in our freshman QB into the offense a little more this week. They tried last week, but Nesbitt fumbled a shotgun snap and that was that. I’m in favor of this – it’s obvious Nesbitt is the QB of the future for us, and this also helps deflect criticism in the past of the backup QB not seeing enough playing time.
  Anyway, I’m going to have to get up early once again for this thing. So hopefully it’ll turn out better than the UVA game.

12:30: Vanderbilt at Auburn (LF/Gameplan): Oh, Auburn. People love to give Tech crap about inconsistency but how many teams lose to Mississippi State and beat Florida in the same season? I feel your pain, Auburn fans. Anyway, AU should win here, though Vandy will probably make it exciting for awhile.

3:30:

• Georgia at Tennessee (CBS): (Hums “Rocky Top”) I’m not a huge fan of Tennessee or anything. But I do really hate Georgia. It’s tough to get a read on the Vols, though. At 2-2, they’ve lost to to two really good teams and beat two really bad ones. However, both those losses were away. Georgia’s resume does precious little to impress me as well. Since it’s in Knoxville, I have to give a slight edge to the Vols here.
• Oklahoma vs. Texas (ABC/Gameplan): After the events of last weekend (whoops!), this is now more of a pillow-fight than a shootout. The winner still has a shot at getting to the Big 12 title game, and I have to say I kinda like Texas here. They have better victories and their loss is arguably better, whereas Oklahoma’s resume is just bleak, despite all the points.
• Iowa at Penn State (ESPN2/ABC): Iowa is terrible. Penn State isn’t great, but they have home field advantage. I’m not sure why this is worthy of a national telecast. Anyway, let’s move one.
• North Carolina State at Florida State (Gameplan/ESPN2/ABC): Battle in the ACC Atlantic! Well, more a cripple fight. FSU still isn’t great or anything, but NCSU is downright terrible. FSU should easily pick up their first conference win.

6:00: Virginia Tech at Clemson (ESPN): I read somewhere (forgot where) that Clemson is going to let Virginia Tech run down their hill. First, I think the whole “running down the hill and touching the rock” thing is pretty silly. I think it’s even sillier to let Virginia Tech do it because of what happened earlier this year. At any rate, Clemson wants to avoid the dreaded second conference loss and Virginia Tech wants to stay in a position to control their own destiny in the Coastal. The real Tech (i.e., us) really needs Clemson to win here, and I don’t think they’re as terrible as they showed last week. The key here is: can Clemson get their two-headed monster rushing attack back on the tracks? That would be a stunning reversal of what happened last year when they played the two Techs back-to-back. (They ran for over 300 on us last year, and then went to Blacksburg and lost big.) If VPI can contain them like we did, then look for another low scoring contest like last week, which will hinge on whether or not Clemson can kick their field goals. Since it’s at Clemson, I’ll give them a slight edge here and say that it’s unlikely Davis and Spiller will be contained for a second week in a row.

7:30: Oklahoma State at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (FSN): Why is this on TV? Because there’s a lack of decent Big 12 games to broadcast, I guess. TAMU should win, despite their bad loss to Da U last week – OSU is just bad, even at 3-2.

8:00:

• Florida at Louisiana State (CBS): This game is somewhat reduced in stature after Florida’s loss last week. It is still immensely important. If LSU wins, that’s one more obstacle out of their path to the national title game. If UF wins, it’s the sort of thing that can catapult them back into the nebulous area near the top. But with the game in Baton Rouge and LSU just that good, I have to take the Tigers here.
• Notre Dame at California-Los Angeles (ABC/Gameplan): Screw you, ABC. Let’s pick up the national broadcast of a 4-1 team that lost to Utah against a, frankly, terrible, Notre Dame team that UCLA should beat by at least a few touchdowns. Ugh.
• Ohio State at Purdue (Gameplan/ABC): This the game I actually want to be national and in beautiful HD as we figure out if the Boilermakers are for real or not in this clash of 5-0 teams. Purdue has been scoring a ton of points this year, but Ohio State is far and away the best team they’ve played so far. I’ll have to give an edge to the Buckeyes here, even though I want Purdue to win.
• Cincinnati at Rutgers (ESPN2): Rutgers had their first real test and failed last week, and now Cincy has theirs. Neither team has beaten anyone competent, but I still think the State University of New Jersey is a little better and hands Cincy their first loss of the year.

9:15: Nebraska at Missouri (ESPN): Finally. I don’t know what to think about this game, and frankly I don’t care. Neither team has beaten anyone, so I’m going to go with the home team and get some lunch.

Have a good Saturday, everyone!

As usual, all times Eastern and almost all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Notre Dame at Purdue (ESPN): Notre Dame reaches for a season of epic proportions! Epically terrible proportions, that is. Sitting pretty at 4-0 is Purdue, which has failed to score less than 45 points a game this year, though to be fair 3 of those teams were MAC schools. Nonetheless, unless the Irish offense has a serious jolt to the heart this weekend, look for the Boilermakers to prevail.
• Louisiana State at Tulane (ESPN2): While I am not generally a fan of the transitive property of college football, I would like to note that both of these teams have played Mississippi State. LSU shut them out. Tulane allowed them to score 38 points. I’ll predict something similar to occur, and that there will be at least 4 times more LSU fans in the Superdome than Tulane fans.
• North Carolina at Virginia Tech (Raycom/Gameplan): While UNC has the better quarterback here, VPI has the better everything else.

12:30: Mississippi State at South Carolina (LF/Gameplan): Since Miss State has their SEC win for the year (pending playing Ole Miss), I’m going to go out in a limb here and say they’re probably going to lose this game.

1:30: Oklahoma at Colorado (FSN): You know, this started off so strongly. Well, at least I thought it did. But I’m running out of witty things to say. I even took out the really low-tier games (other than the ACC and SEC Lincoln Financial Sports Games of the Week) to try to thin it out. Now this becoming all self-referential like the Castle Anthrax scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Therefore, let’s “GET ON WITH IT!”. Oh, and OU wins.

3:30:

• California at Oregon (ABC/Gameplan): Now it’s time for the ABC SCHEDULING BLOCK OF DOOM! That’s right kids, ABC picked up five games this weekend for reasons unknown. I guess they had a really hard deciding and just said, “ah screw it, let’s just take them all!” If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what’s going to be on in your area, here’s a map. (Warning! PDF!) Now, to the game! This is actually a pretty important game that will go a long way towards determining who will challenge for the Pac-10 title (though since they play a round-robing schedule, USC will have to play both anyway). These are both pretty good teams, though in terms of OOC scheduling Tennessee is, of course, significantly better than Michigan. I’m not really sure who I like here. I would normally say Cal, but it’s in Eugene so I really think this could go either way. Just for the sake of saying someone will win (and I don’t really keep track of these anyway) let’s go with Cal.
• Kansas State at Texas (ABC/Gameplan): Since their opening game loss to Auburn, Kansas State has beaten San Jose State and DI-AA Missouri State. Texas got themselves back up on their feet after they nearly lost to UCF by beating Rice like it’s the SWC all over again. Add in the “at Texas” part and the Longhorns will make everyone in Kansas wish the damn ABC stations will switch to one of the four other games available.
• Maryland at Rutgers (ABC/Gameplan): People in ACC circles keep saying Maryland is still in the race for the Atlantic division crown. I say “what are you talking about, their only two victories this year are over Florida International and DI-AA Villanova and they lost to Wake Forest last weekend.” (Strangely, you could make the same argument about Georgia Tech. Or perhaps not so strangely.) Rutgers is 3-0, but they may as well be 0-0 thanks to a less than convincing schedule (Buffalo, Navy, and D-IAA Norfolk State). It’s tough to say who’s better this year so far. Luckily, they’ll play a game tomorrow and figure that part out for us. I’m going to pick Rutgers.
• Clemson at Georgia Tech (ABC/ESPN/Gameplan): The first thing I did when I got to this line was let out an audible sigh. I’ll rehash the usual stat here: 9 of the last 11 of these games have been decided by 5 points or less. Unfortunately, those other two occurred during my freshman and senior years at Tech: the debacle after beating Auburn in 2003 (39-3) and last year’s 31-7 buzzkill (no pun intended) coming off the high of winning in Blacksburg. Those other two were two of my favorite games as a student, though. 2004 was the damn luckiest series of events I think I’ve ever seen in a football game. The video starts on the 4th down play for Clemson. I have a full copy of the game on my computer, so allow me to recap what led up to that. (It’s sort of like The Play, where it’s a lot more interesting if you that John Elway led a, well, Elway-esque 80-something yard drive to put Stanford back in the lead before all the shenanigans occurred.)
  Clemson scores a touchdown to go extend their lead to 24-14 and Tech returns the kick-off from the 20 to about the 50 yard line. 3:11 is on the clock. Reggie tosses up about 3 balls that probably should have resulted in interceptions, but Tech perseveres. Tech gets a first and goal off a pass interference call, one of many Calvin would draw during his career. (This game was his coming-out party.) Tech is running out of clock as Calvin makes his catch on 3rd and goal with 1:50 to go. Tech botches the on-side kick and Clemson gets it on their own 32.5. On first down, Charlie Whitehurt bursts out of the back field and slides down field for a 9.5 yard gain. They measure, stopping the clock at 1:31. Chan calls Tech’s last timeout. 2nd down features Charlie failing to gain the first down on the QB sneak. 3rd down features a hand-off a deep tailback who promptly fumbles. Clemson recovers and elects to punt on 4th down and takes the delay of game penalty. The announcers start to talk about that maybe Clemson should go for the safety here, and in retrospect many Clemson fans probably wish they did. With 23 seconds left, the Clemson long snapper snaps the ball 7 yards, which is about 8 yards short of where his punter is. The punter falls the on the ball at about the 10 yard line. Tech throws the fade to Calvin, which he catches (thus cementing the play as the backbone of the Georgia Tech goalline playbook for the next 3 years). Clemson makes it exciting by retuning the kick a pretty good ways and nearly getting the hail mary, but Tech wins 28-24.
  2005. The final score was 10-9, so on the surface that may not sound all that appealing. But it was. An exceedingly intense home game. Here’s what I remember most about it. The boxscore for Clemson’s last serious drive (they had a hail mary intercepted at the end) reads like this for their 4th and 8 play: “Charlie Whitehurst pass complete to Curtis Baham for 3 yards to the GaTch 36.” Astute readers will note that is approximately 5 yards short of what they needed. And I remember exactly what happened. In the maybe 5-6 seconds that play took, I saw the whole thing in slow motion. I imagine this is the kind of thing people who coach and play football feel a lot, but as a random student in the stands that night I saw Charlie Whitehurst look desperately across the field for a receiver. Meanwhile, I saw Kenny Scott wait a few yards behind Baham, practically daring Whitehurst to throw it to his out man. (This is probably the only time I’ve been comfortable with the cushions we give on pass defense.) Out of options, Whitehurst throws the pass. Baham catches. Scott immediately tackles him. Game over for Clemson.
  Last year, unfortunately, the only thing that sucked more than Clemson’s all-purple get up was us. At the half, it looked to be your typical Clemson-Tech game with Clemson up 7-0. Though Tech would put up a TD early in the 4th, the defense gave in with 58 seconds left in the 3rd as C.J. Spiller busted a 50 yard TD run. The only thing more surprising by the end was that it wasn’t worse. The Clemson two-headed monster ran for 333 yards rushing while Tech had 88, with only 48 of them coming from Tashard Choice. More worryingly, Reggie appeared affected by the leg injury he suffered in the previous game against Maryland and had 12 attempts for 8 yards (though I imagine this includes sacks). Though the Jackets would end up winning 4 straight after this, this is the point in the season where we started to become a little worried about this team, worries that really began to manifest themselves in the 7-0 victory at UNC.
  While Clemson has feasted off a buffet of patsies since their opening title with FSU, Tech is reeling after two straight losses, one good (BC), and one absolutely terrible (Virginia). As I see it, the only things Tech has going for them here are: a) the expectations are off, at 0-2 in the ACC; b) Choice is supposed to be close to 100% after the hamstring injury suffered against BC; c) the game is not being played in Charlottesville, Virginia. Tech has to be absolutely mistake free (i.e., no muffed punts) and has to have luck on their side (i.e., no freak interceptions) that accounts for 2 of UVA’s 4 touchdowns. It goes without saying we can’t give up 333 yards rushing again. Unfortunately for us, Clemson’s new QB also looks better so far than our new QB. Clemson’s new QB, Cullen Harper leads the conference with a 181.99 QB rating and a 69.4% completion percentage. Taylor is next to last in the conference in both these categories. Injuries are also raving Tech. Although Choice is back, I don’t know how close “close to 100%” is. Tech’s #1 receiver has been injured all year (and missed the 2nd half against Virginia) but is expected to play. Correy Earls, who suffered a neck injury last week, is not. We’re so injured at tight end that former defensive end and Bob Jones alum David Brown will switch between #55 for his offensive tackle duties and #82 for when he lines up as (essentially) an extra tackle. (Look for on-air mentions of Madison, AL, folks! Though it’ll probably never beat when Keith Jackson mentioned Max Martin’s hometown during the 2004 Rose Bowl.) Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. We desperately need to win this game, not only for ACC standing but also for Tech’s bruised pride. (Well, and also bragging rights.) Will the defense look motivated? Will they start tacking people? Will the gameplan be adjusted from last year’s debacle? (Hint: having 8 people in the box is meaningless if 6 of them are on the line.) Will the new QB tear apart our clueless secondary? Will the offense figure out how to convert 3rd downs, stop dancing around the in the pocket, and generally just catch some passes? We all thought that Taylor would need to be a caretaker in this offense, but with Choice hurt we’ve needed him to win some games for us, and it hasn’t happened. Will it? Tune in Saturday!
• Michigan State at Wisconsin (ABC/ESPN/Gameplan): Whew. Finally done typing out that last one. Anyway, once again I lament the fact that Michigan State is no longer coached by John L. Smith as they go into Madison. Both these teams are decent, but I like Wisconsin better.

5:00: Florida State vs. Alabama (at Jacksonville, FL; CBS): Sweet, an out-of-conference neutral site game in week four! That’s not sarcasm, either. Unfortunately, I don’t like either of these schools and wish they’d die in a fire (as the kids say). FSU has done little to convince me they’re decent, though, so I’ll begrudgingly take the Tide.

6:30: California-Los Angeles at Oregon State (FSN): Probably the 3rd most important Pac-10 game of the day. The transitive property will fail once again (UCLA lost to Utah who lost to Oregon State) as UCLA should probably win.

8:00:

• Southern California at Washington (ABC): Washington, after initial early promise, has now dropped games to UCLA and Ohio State. They make it interesting here, but USC heads back from Seattle with the win.
• Auburn at Florida (ESPN): Florida almost lost to DaCoachO and Ole Miss last week while Auburn did lose to Miss State two weeks ago. (Wacky Season ’07, baby!) Florida, but Florida also should’ve won at Auburn last year. Either way, hopefully it’ll be just as entertaining.
• Ohio State at Minnesota (ESPN2): Ohio State, going away.

That’s it, folks! Also, I should note I’ve updated the bowl predictions section, conveniently located on the right sidebar there. Now updated with all my results from past years! Check it out.

17 years ago this November….

That was the last time Georgia Tech won a game in Charlottesville, VA. That FG broke a 38-38 tie with then #1 Virginia and vaulted Georgia Tech up the polls. Since then, Tech has not had a lot of luck against Virginia, in or outside of Charlottesville. Tech is 6-10 in the span from 1991 to 2006. Last year’s Thursday night game ended a three game losing streak, and ended it with authority. Last year’s starter is barely the starter this year and isn’t doing terribly well. Anyway, enough of the jibber-jabber, let’s get to the games:

Noon:

• North Carolina at South Florida (ESPN): The OOC embarrassment of the ACC continues as UNC loses to up-and-coming USF.
• East Carolina at West Virginia (ESPN2): Despite the fact that Wednesday was Talk Like a Pirate Day, WVU rolls.
• Georgia Tech at Virginia (ESPNU): Dear Raycom, thanks for not picking up this game and showing the next game instead. I would bet money there are more Game Plan subscribers than there are ESPNU subscribers (and I’m in the former group). Anyway, I don’t like predicting our games. But we really need a pick-me-up after last week and we throughly embarrassed this same group last year. Well, they sort of embarrassed themselves. Nonetheless. We really need to win this game after last week, otherwise this season is lost. No pressure, though. And we need to get this damn Charlottesville monkey off our backs as well.
• Clemson at North Carolina State (Raycom/Gameplan): Let’s see, NCSU is still terrible. Clemson is Clemson. I’ll go with the occasionally purple-clad warriors here.

12:30: Florida at Mississippi (LF/Gameplan): I’m for any game that has the possibility of featuring the spoken word of the Orgeron. Also, Ole Miss lost at Vandy last week – UF rolls.

1:00:

• Army at Boston College (ESPN Classic): BC rolls.
• Duke at Navy (CSTV): Despite all my wishes to the contrary, Duke won last weekend up in Evanston. Now they roll up to Annapolis, where Navy should be able to steam their triple option attack straight up the middle of Duke’s ineffective blockade attempt of a defensive line. (Please don’t hurt me.)

3:30:

• Michigan State at Notre Dame (NBC): See, the problem with John L. Smith being fired is that if he were still there this game would actually look pretty favorable for ND, since he’s John L. Smith and all. Then again, I guess that’s why they fired him. MSU goes to 4-0 and ND drops to 0-4.
• South Carolina at Louisiana State (CBS): Slim pickings for the SEC this week if this is the CBS game. I think I’m one of 5-non UF or South Carolina fans that actually likes Spurrier, but if LSU is as legit as they appear this should be absolutely no problem for them.
• Michigan at Penn State (ABC): Speaking of slim pickings… I can’t conceive of a way Penn State loses here, but like GT going into the weekend they also have a significant monkey on their back. But PSU is good and it’s in Happy Valley. I have to think they win.
• Northwestern at Ohio State (ESPN): Uh…huh. NU, fresh off their loss to the (not-so) mighty Duke goes to Columbus. I’ll take OSU here.
• Texas Tech at Oklahoma State (FSN): Mike Leach (arrr!), fresh off thieving at least 45-points of their cupcakes opponents rolls into a team that claimed, pre-season, to have a superior offense. This supposedly superior offense then proceeded to produce 14, 42 (against FAU), and 23 points, the last in a rout against a team named the Trojans that is not located in Los Angeles. I’ve got a hunch TTU rolls here.
• Maryland at Wake Forest (ESPNU): Maryland comes in fresh off their now-annual blowout loss against West Virginia. Meanwhile, Wake just picked up their first victory of the year against Army after close losses against Boston College and Nebraska. Neither of these teams has a victory over a significant opponent (UMD is 2-1 but the victories are over Villanova and FIU). This one is too close to call. My heart says Wake, but my head says UMD.

6:00: Kentucky at Arkansas (ESPN2): Fresh off their victory in the Intra-Kentucky Defense Optional Bowl win over Louisville, the boys from Lexington roll into Arkansas for a matchup that should probably see slightly less scoring. Let me also take this time to remind you that Houston Nutt is crazier than a sack of rabid weasels, as evidenced again last weekend. That said, Arkansas is still better than Kentucky. I hope.

7:00: Rice at Texas (FSN): So, uh, remember last year, when Rice had a good season and made a bowl? Yeah, it’s not quite working out that way for them this year, with that 0-3 record and a loss to Nicholls State. Texas wins by at least 3 touchdowns.

7:45: Georgia at Alabama (ESPN): Ah, yes. This game. A game I dread. Whoever wins, we all lose. Since words cannot fully express the reasons why I dislike both these schools and everything they stand for, I’ll just move directly into saying that I unfortunately think one of them will win. UGA has no wins to speak of and Bama beat Arkansas. Curiously, they both scheduled the same DI-AA patsy in Western Carolina – both won handily, but Alabama won, er, more handily. So I guess if someone is going to win, it’ll probably be Alabama.

8:00:

• Washington State at Southern California (ABC): Wazzou has a loss to Wisconsin and wins over no one. Meanwhile, in Lincoln USC opened some holes. (That’s 3 links to EDSBS now…) I’d say Wazzou doesn’t have much of a chance.
• Iowa at Wisconsin (Gameplan/ABC): Iowa lost to noted football powerhouse Iowa State last week. Oh, wait, Iowa State is completely terrible and has already lost to Kent State and Northern Iowa. So, uh, yeah, that’s why the most of the country is getting a Pac-10 game instead. Badgers roll.

9:00: Purdue at Minnesota (ESPN2): What’s up with all the Big Ten games this week? Did the Big Ten network go out of business already? (I know this didn’t, but hey.) Purdue has feasted on MAC patsy, scoring 52 twice and 45 in their 3rd win. Meanwhile, UMN lost at Florida Atlantic last week and lost to Bowling Green. Purdue seems a pretty safe bet here.

10:15: Washington at UCLA (FSN): Going into last week, this had the makings of a pretty decent Pac-10 matchup. Washington losing to Ohio State is understandable. UCLA, however, pulled a “Georgia Tech at the 2005 Emerald Bowl” getting Ute-owned 44-6 last week. Whoops. Washington resumes their previously good season and hopefully takes the victory here.

Anyway, I realize this up early. I guess TAMU at Miami may be worth watching tomorrow night, but probably not. Anyway, I’m out.