College Football Live Thread - Weekend Nine

Sportsline.com Scoreboard ^ | Thursday 26th of October to Sunday 29th of October 2006

[MikefromOhio]

Weekend Eight was the weekend of near-misses and close calls. Texas, Cal and Notre Dame all escaped their games with wins. Texas won on a last second field goal in Lincoln against Nebraska, while ND drove 80 yards for a winning TD pass from Brady Quinn. Cal, however, had to go to overtime to defeat a steadily improving Washington team. It was business as usual for most of the top 5, with West Virginia, Auburn, Michigan and Ohio State all rolling to relatively easy wins. Unfortunately ND’s narrow win and subsequent drop in the polls prompted whining from Charlie Weis, which is rebutted by ESPN columnist DJ Gallo here. Needless to say, putting Florida and Tennessee aren’t the biggest transgressions this past weekend. Having to come back against a mid-tier Pac10 team, with their backup Quarterback at the helm, at home, late in the 4th quarter, IS a problem for ND.

This week’s match up of the week pits Georgia and Florida in the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”. This is a fun game every year to watch.

Saturday, October 28th, 2006 – 3:30 PM on CBS

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Georgia at (9) Florida (-13.5)

The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party pits Georgia against Florida. Generally this game is played in Jacksonville. Florida has all of the advantages on paper, but more than one good team on either side has been upset here before. Georgia could get back into SEC contention with a win here while Florida needs a win to hold serve to get to the SEC championship game. In the end, I think Georgia’s lack of offense will hold them back from winning this game. They will need points on every possession and the Florida defense is too good to allow that.

Florida 24 – Georgia 14

Thursday October 26th, 2006 (ESPN Thursday Night Game)

(10) Clemson (-4.5) at Virginia Tech

Clemson has a chance to take absolute and total control of the ACC with a win. This has been the type of game that Clemson has lost in the past. After winning a game that many thought they wouldn’t, they have a history of laying an egg the next week. Not this year.

Clemson 32 – Virginia Tech 24

Friday October 27th, 2006 (ESPN2 Friday Night Game)

UTEP at Tulsa (-14)

Tulsa has played one decent team (BYU) and lost. Look for Tulsa to roll over UTEP, although this game should be interesting for a while.

Tulsa 42 – UTEP 24

Saturday October 21st 2006 (in ranking order)

Minnesota at (1) Ohio State (-27)

Ohio State 38 – Minnesota 3

Northwestern at (2) Michigan (-30)

Michigan 45 – Northwestern 10

(3) USC (-10.5) at Oregon State

USC 37 – Oregon St. 13

(4) West Virginia BYE

(5) Texas (-10.5) at Texas Tech

Texas 34 – Texas Tech 20

(6) Louisville BYE

(7) Auburn (-19) at Mississippi

Auburn 38 – Mississippi 13

(8) Tennessee (-3.5) at South Carolina

Tennessee 28 – South Carolina 20

(11) Notre Dame (-13) at Navy

ND 38 – Navy 17

(12) Cal BYE

Louisiana Monroe at (13) Arkansas (NL)

Arkansas 49 – LA Monroe 6

(14) LSU BYE

(15) Boise St BYE

Illinois at (17) Wisconsin (-21.5)

Wisconsin 52 – Illinois 13

Buffalo at (18) Boston College (-35)

BC 48 – Buffalo 0

(19) Oklahoma at (23) Missouri (-2)

Mizzou 24 – Oklahoma 17

Oklahoma St. at (20) Nebraska (-5.5)

Oklahoma St. 28 – Nebraska 27

Miami (FL) at (21) Georgia Tech (-5)

Georgia Tech 32 – Miami 16

Baylor at (22) Texas A&M (-4.5)

Baylor 37 – Texas A&M 24

(24) Wake Forest (-8.5) at North Carolina

Wake 34 – North Carolina 10

Portland St. at (25) Oregon (NL)

BY REQUEST (FReepmail me to have your team included)

New Mexico at Colorado St. (-6.5) – Saturday, October 28th (Mountain West Conference)

Every time I pick against New Mexico, they win, and every time I pick them, they lose. I don’t know anymore.

Colorado St. 28 – New Mexico 17

Baylor at (22) Texas A&M (-4.5)

A&M needs to play better defense against Baylor than they did against OK St. Baylor can score in bunches. If it can ever figure out the defense thing, they could be a dangerous team.

Baylor 37 – Texas A&M 24

Sunday October 29th, 2006 (ESPN Sunday Night Game) UCONN at (19) Rutgers (-19)

As UCONN proved last week against West Virginia, it has a problem stopping the run. Ray Rice should get close to 200 yards in this one.

Rutgers 35 – UCONN 10

[MikefromOhio]

The dirty little secret is that some teams have already played their "12th game", the gimme game allowed this year due to a scheduling quirk and is almost always a major mismatch.

Scheduling quirk? the NCAA decided that this year they would require 12 games a year from every team....that's not really a quirk.....

[rockthecasbah]

"your tests are coming, believe me"

I believe you. But we're at the halfway mark, and the glass is half full right now as far as I'm concerned.

[MikefromOhio]

It's a marathon and not a sprint I'll give ya that :)

[aomagrat]

GO COCKS!!!!!!!!!!

[GOP_Raider]

Colorado St. 28 – New Mexico 17

Have to agree with you on this one. CSU would probably be looking to bounce back after they got shutout against Wyoming last week.

Two other games in the MWC to keep your eyes on as well...Wyoming plays TCU in Ft. Worth (I think Wyo's defense and their diaper dandy QB will be too much for TCU), Cal Poly plays San Diego State (SDSU better win), Air Force plays that Parochial Stench from Provo (Air Force better win that one too).

Oh, and my mighty Utah Runnin' Utes play UNLV. No matter how bad we are, we can count on beating UNLV. :)

GOP_Raider, your trusty Mountain West correspondent at your service. :)

[MikefromOhio]

LMAO

maybe if I expand this next year, I'll have you do the MWC predictions :)

[MikefromOhio]

They could make a very good game of it.

If it's close in the 4th quarter, Spurrier can draw up a play with a straw, half a toothpick, a stone and some dirt and probably get a W out of it....

[Tall_Texan]

It's a quirk because individual teams had to scramble to get a 12th game on the schedule which, in most cases, was a home game against a weak opponent who wouldn't demand a home-and-home. Texas, for example, schedule Sam Houston St., a I-AA school from Huntsville that is good in their own realm but no match for the Longhorns.

So when people criticize Texas' schedule, they bring up that opponent and Rice. Never mind they played the consensus number one team also, everyone wants to knock their schedule.

But just wait until Michigan plays Ball State, Auburn plays Arkansas St., Florida plays Western Carolina, etc. If everything is fair (and there's no way to make sense of the BCS computers anyway), these teams will also take a hit when those games get factored in.

[rockthecasbah]

I'm not implying that the 2006 Trojans are the same caliber as the 2004 version, but I recall two years ago the Trojans squeaked by Oregon State and Stanford, perenial conference doormats. They even struggled in their regular season finale against UCLA that year. Then they brought an entirely different level of play in the Orange Bowl.

Thinking about it, it's been an awful long time since a PC coached team lost a game in November...

[MikefromOhio]

I-AA teams aren't counted in the BCS.....

[MikefromOhio]

streaks are meant to end at some point :)

[GOP_Raider]

Maybe by then, everyone will finally get to see "The Mtn." in all it's broadcast glory!!??

Nah!!!

[MikefromOhio]

probably not :)

The Clemson VT game looks like it could be pretty good

[LA Woman3]

Aggie fans.....

Fox-SW is replaying the A&M vs. OSU game at 8:00 PM tonight.

[aft_lizard]

OSU won't win against Nebraska. They have no defense. No crowd support and cant stop the run and are very susceptable to psses. Don't believe the hype out there that OSU is a team that will tear it up against NU. Or are you saying that OSU is as good as Texas?

[GOP_Raider]

Maybe there's more parity in that conference, but the ACC is having a down year this year.

[MikefromOhio]

I'm saying that every week there is a surefire game that doesn't look like it should be close but it turns into a game that is very close/an upset.

Nebraska just happened to be that game.

[MikefromOhio]

It's down.

if a perennial underachiever like Clemson can look so dominant in the conference, chances are it isn't a great improvement by Clemson....

[aft_lizard]

I have a feeling BC is going to open a can against OSU to build team confidence going into the meat of our schedule. Watch for him to not lay off after they jump to a quick lead.

[MikefromOhio]

maybe....maybe not....


You've said that before....