College Football - Live Thread - Week Five

ESPN.com Scoreboard ^ | 28 September to 30 September 2006

[MikefromOhio]

Week Five – College Football

wasn’t supposed to be a weekend that gave us great games, yet it gave as many as “Separation Saturday” did. Between the instant classic that was Notre Dame vs. Michigan State(or an epic choke job if you listen to this clip, to the shocking upset of Boston College by NC State, to the near heart attack that Georgia gave it’s fans against Colorado, the weekend was absolutely spectacular. This week features one real marquee matchup. #1 Ohio State visits Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City to play #13 Iowa. This should be an excellent game. Other notable games are #24 Georgia Tech at #11 Virginia Tech and Alabama at #5 Florida.

As always, all rankings are from the ESPN.com Scoreboard page. The betting lines (used sorely for the basis of predictions) are from Yahoo.com. I will list any games of interest (FReepmail me if you want your team included and I will include them from here on out) and any other games listed in my Yahoo league. I have a new feature this week. In each game that I do not have any confidence, or any game that I think a team could have an unexpected struggle, I will post a picture of a landmine for illustration.

GAME of the WEEK

Saturday, September 30th, 2006 – 8:00 PM on ABC

(1) Ohio State (-6.5) at (13) Iowa

Ohio State faces easily it’s biggest in conference challenge until the Michigan game in November. This is a tough game with an Iowa team that dominated Ohio State the last time they played (33-7 in 2004) in Iowa City. That was then and these are both very different teams. Iowa, having escaped Syracuse and played two consecutive uninspired games against Iowa State and Illinois, have a chance to make a lot of noise in the Big Ten and nationally. Ohio State has a chance to keep the dream season going. The key of this game comes down to the battle of the Quarterbacks. If Troy Smith throws 2 interceptions like he did against Penn State, Ohio State will struggle to win this game. Same goes for Iowa and QB Drew Tate. If he struggles or gets rattled like what happened last year against Ohio State, then Iowa will struggle to win this game. In the end I think Ohio State’s defense will continue to play well enough to put this team in position to win the game. Iowa will keep it close, but this Ohio State team went into Austin and won. Iowa can win this game, but I think Ohio State will win this game.

Ohio State 29 – Iowa 17

Thursday September 28th, 2006 (ESPN Thursday Night Game)

(2) Auburn (-14) at South Carolina

Carolina as a 2TD underdog at home on a Thursday night ESPN game (when crazy things tend to happen)? No way. Auburn wins, but it will be closer than expected.

Auburn 23 – South Carolina 16

Saturday September 30th 2006 (in ranking order)

(3) USC (-17) at Washington State

USC 28 – Washington St. 17

(4) West Virginia BYE

Alabama at (5) Florida (-16)

Florida 32 – Alabama 10

(6) Michigan (-9.5) at Minnesota

Michigan 35 – Minnesota 18

Sam Houston St. at (7) Texas (NL)

Texas 56 – Sam Houston St 6

(8) Louisville (-14) BYE

Mississippi St. at (9) LSU (-33)

LSU 48 – Tulane 7

(10) UGA (-18) at Mississippi

UGA 20 – Mississippi 10

(24) Georgia Tech at (11) Virginia Tech (-10.5)

Virginia Tech 26 – GT 18

Purdue at (12) Notre Dame (-14)

Purdue 43 – Notre Dame 33

(14) Oregon at Arizona St (-1.5)

Oregon 33 – Arizona St. 24

(15) Tennessee (-13) at Memphis

Tennessee 35 – Memphis 21

(16) Oklahoma BYE

BYU at (17) TCU (-6.5)

No pick – The game started before I got to this point. Judging from the score so far, I don’t think TCU has gotten to the game yet either.

LA Tech at (18) Clemson (-33.5)

Clemson 52 – LA Tech 13

(19) Florida State BYE

(20) Cal (-9.5) at Oregon St

Cal 42 – Oregon St. 16

Kansas at (21) Nebraska (-23)

Nebraska 38 – Kansas 12

(22) Boise State at Utah (-5.5)

Boise St. 28 – Utah 17

(23) Rutgers (-4) at South Florida

Rutgers 24 – South Florida 19

Colorado at (25) Missouri (-16)

Mizzou 32 – Colorado 15

BY REQUEST

New Mexico at Air Force (-13.5)

Air Force is a good enough team to take Tennessee to the limit. Although New Mexico surprised me last week and kicked UTEP off of the field, I don’t think they will do that to this Air Force team.

Air Force 32 - UNM 17

71-12 Straight UP
48-33-2 Against the Spread

My straight up picks are doing ok, but I got annihilated by the spread last week.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I see the USA Today Poll is up

[MikefromOhio]

wow

a unamimous #1....

I might have to post that thread :)

Maybe a bit later

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

TCU sure dropped off quickly - I wasn't expecting them to be completely eliminated from the rankings.

[MikefromOhio]

well when you are ranked below 15 and everyone behind you wins, it's pretty easy to do when you aren't a big time school.

TCU needs to win out and then maybe next year they can bring more heat on the BCS.

[MikefromOhio]

Somehow I just don't see Wazzu beating Texas.

I don't quite understand how Texas came into this discussion....

[MikefromOhio]

so?

I'm talking about last night, I don't care what they have in the NFL, they weren't on the field last night.

[CFC__VRWC]

One thing I know is that the Gators cannot afford another slow start in this one.

They can't hope to beat LSU and especially Auburn by spotting them ten points. They got away with it against Alabama because the Tide is a typical Mike Shula team - i.e. no offense. LSU and Auburn are capable of scoring a bunch of points.

Agree with your up-thread comments about Georgia. They look as bad as 'Bama does on offense right now.

[MikefromOhio]

The same can be said about a lot of schools that have had great players go through there.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

That pic of Mangione doesn't do him justice - he built differently than Weis though and much larger. With such a stressful job I am sure that amount of extra weight is a health risk

[hawkeye101]

Let me give you an insight into growing up and Iowan all of my life. This state has no pro sports teams. Life sucks in this abysmal state. There are no vibrant large cities, no oceans, no mountains; the land is flat and boring looking. The weather here is horrible, bitter cold 8 months out of the year. The economy the last 50 years has been pitiful; people leave this state by the thousands every year. Our median income is one of the lowest in the country. Our average age of a citizen is about 68 years old. All we have to grasp on to in this state is having a great U of Iowa football team. Thats it. We have nothing else. So we expect more out of a coach who is being paid a hell of a lot of money.

[MikefromOhio]

That's all well and good, but in this day and age Iowa is going to be a consistent 2nd fiddle to the likes of Michigan and Ohio State and even Penn State on some years.

Yet Ferentz took guys who weren't perceived to be good enough by the bigs in the conference and molded them into a Big Ten championship team two times in 3 years.

That's quite an accomplishment.

But I wouldn't expect you'll have him long. My guess is that he'll be in Miami next year.

[OKSooner]

How about a Tuesday nite ping? C-USA championship likely being decided tonite in Tulsa, OK; Home of University of Tulsa, last year's C-USA champs.

[MikefromOhio]

Conference USA has a championship game.

[OKSooner]

Thanks, Mike, you're a nice guy.

[MikefromOhio]

hey no problem.

I don't like that they have Tuesday games.

Since the teams aren't quite ranked, I'm not going to doa nything about it.

Just wondering, are also you a Tulsa fan? If so, I can include them in my threads from now ok if you'd like.