Week 4

Like I said, Texas was overrated. I thought they could at least handle UCLA before falling to Oklahoma, but I guess not. Miami played better against Pitt, and I'm starting to see that the Big East may be as bad as the ACC if not worse. TCU did beat SMU, but June Jones hung in there for a while! Wisconsin covered the spread and more against Austin Peay. I did not think Wisconsin would score 70 points in any game this season. I was taken by surprise! Michigan played better against Bowling Green...but come on, its Bowling Green. And if Robinson gets hurt, Michigan is done for the season. Penn State almost lost at home to Temple. Alabama should have lost at Arkansas, but Mallett couldn't finish the job. Notre Dame is pathetic and I am so tired of listening Lou Holtz talk about how amazing they are. Does he know what year it is? Oklahoma got lucky in Cincinnati, and LSU should have scored more against West Virginia. Unfortunately Rutgers did struggle with UNC like we all knew they would, and though they kept it close, they were unable to pull away with the win. Florida looked better against Kentucky. Defense continued to play well. Brantley looked more comfortable - probably since he played against Kentucky last year after the now-famous Tebow concussion incident, and Trey Burton ran wild.

I was not surprised to see Boise State beat Oregon State. But what now? The WAC is not exactly a strong conference. Unless Nevada can pull off an upset on November 26th, Boise State will likely go undefeated yet again. Clearly Boise State is a strong competitor. But if the Broncos were to play, for example, an SEC team in the national title game...could they hold their own? Or would it be something like the horrific Hawaii-Georgia Sugar Bowl after the 2007 season? Unfortunately for Boise State, the BCS system does not look kindly upon such a weak schedule. Just remember...Hawaii was undefeated before the Sugar Bowl. And a 2-loss LSU team won the national championship that season.

As for week 5 predictions.... Oklahoma State should beat Texas A&M. Ohio State should beat Illinois - but I'm cheering for Ron Zook. Miami is a better team than Clemson in my opinion, but again, you never know who's showing up. Will Harris have no interceptions? or 4? No one knows. Northwestern vs. Minnesota....does anyone care about this game? I know its at noon, but come on ESPN, you couldn't find a better game? I'll pick the Wildcats. TCU will run over Colorado State. Boise State will destroy New Mexico State. Oklahoma is definitely better than Texas, so I'll pick the Sooners in the Red River Rivalry. I'm picking Wisconsin to win at Michigan State because Michigan State hasn't played any good teams yet. A 3-point overtime victory over awful Notre Dame does not impress me. On, Wisconsin. LSU will beat Tennessee, but for some reason I think Tenn will put up a fight in this game. LSU's offense has not impressed me yet. I think Penn State is losing at Iowa. I may not think Iowa is good, but they've just got to be better at home than Temple is on the road. Stanford vs. Oregon...I could toss a coin. I will pick Oregon because they're at home. But I still have my doubts about Oregon because of the first half of the Ducks-Vols game. I would love to see Locker beat Kiffin's trojans, but I have a feeling Washington will lose at USC. Rutgers will beat Tulane. Nebraska will take the week off to regroup after that unimpressive victory over South Dakota State. Don't worry, the Huskers will be prepared for Kansas State next week and Texas the following weekend. And the biggest game of all this weekend: the battle of the last 2 national champions. Well, if Alabama plays how they played last weekend, and the Gators play how they played last weekend...the Gators will win. But its a new week. And for each team, this is the hardest game on the schedule so far. Be prepared, Gators! With that said, I can't pick a team over the Gators - regardless of rankings, experience and stats. This rematch of the last 2 SEC championships should be a good one.

Go Gators! Go Scarlet Knights! And practice hard, Huskers!

Rufus vs. Brutus

Ohio State beat Ohio, but the Ohio mascot (or now former mascot) is having the last laugh. I have so much respect for this guy. Brandon Hanning, you are my hero. I would have done the same thing. Does anyone know where I can send Hanning some fan mail?

Week 3

Okay, so just like last year, Iowa can't back up all the hype! Michigan was lucky to get past UMass. Nebraska was awesome. Texas got lucky. I think Texas Tech forgot there are 2 halves in a football game. Wisconsin got VERY lucky. I may have spoken too soon about Oklahoma. Evidently the ACC is really just THAT bad and FSU made Oklahoma look awesome. Air Force could have easily won that game. West Virginia did not need to play extra hard to prove anything because Maryland is not good. Another disappointment in a bad conference. The ACC has one ranked team right now. And at 1-1, I haven't seen anything impressive from Miami. Baylor is worse than I thought, and TCU looked better than I expected. Auburn got lucky. Arkansas earned its win. LSU had no problem.

I do believe it's a down year for college football, but the SEC still looks most impressive of all conferences. It may only be 3 weeks in, but the SEC has 6 ranked and 7 undefeated teams after 3 weeks. The Big 12 looks second best in my opinion, having 7 undefeated and 3 ranked teams. I haven't yet decided on the Pac-10 & Big Ten, but I can tell you the ACC is surely the 6th best of the BCS Conferences and I would put the Big East at 5th.

My Florida Gators are still not where they need to be, but they are getting better each week, and they've played a tougher opponent each week. The bottom line is they've won all their games by double digits, but they continue to drop in the USA Today Rankings. Texas struggles with Wyoming in the first half last week and barely comes out of Lubbock with a double digit victory, and they continue to get that single first-place vote. Seriously? Voter bias at its best. Can anyone tell me which AP Poll voter is a UT Alum? The Longhorns should beat UCLA no problem, but then they have 2 tough games in a row against Oklahoma and Nebraska. I will be shocked if Texas starts the season 6-0. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. As for a team in Texas who I believe has a better quarterback than Gilbert, Houston is out of luck. Without Keenum, they will struggle this season. He is a star. And the cougars can't catch a break. Not only did they lose their star for the season, they lost his backup. Tough break, but good news for Terrance Broadway.

As for Week 4 Predictions...Miami vs. Pittsburgh...all depends on which Miami team comes to play. Flip a coin. If Harris still wants to throw all those interceptions, the crowd will get into it early and Pittsburgh will win. In my opinion, neither team is great so this game does not matter. TCU will beat SMU. But don't sleep on June Jones! I hope SMU comes to play. Wisconsin will beat Austin Peay, but they may not cover the spread. Michigan will likely play another close game to get past Bowling Green. I don't think Bowling Green is a tough competitor, I just don't understand why Michigan is ranked other than for fan hype and ticket sales. Michigan State will beat Northern Colorado. Ohio State will beat Eastern Michigan. Penn State will beat Temple. Austin Peay, Bowling Green, Northern Colorado, Eastern Michigan, Temple....all playing ranked Big Ten teams. And people wonder why I say voters have no idea what they're talking about when they discuss the Big Ten's "quality out-of-conference victories." I'll believe it when I see it. The Alabama-Arkansas game should be a good game with Arkansas having the home-field advantage, but I don't think Alabama is ready to surrender its top spot in the polls just yet. Stanford should win on the road. Notre Dame is still preoccupied trying to figure out what happened in OT against Michigan State. Oklahoma will beat Cincinnati. LSU has another home game on a Saturday night. West Virginia lost all credibility with me in the Marshall game. LSU's home record on Saturday nights is too strong. Tigers win this one. Nebraska will have no problem with South Dakota State. Rutgers will struggle with UNC, but I hope the Scarlet Knights walk away with a win. Florida will hopefully extend its win streak over Kentucky. The Wildcats haven't beaten the Gators in football since 1986. Keep the streak going, Gators! And perhaps the game most anticipated game of this week...Oregon State @ Boise State. I think the Broncos win this one on the Smurf Turf. This is Boise State's toughest game of the season, and no one knows if the Beavers are any good yet. But no matter who wins, I feel good about picking the team in orange and blue!

Go Gators! Go Scarlet Knights! Go Huskers!

Week 2

What did I tell you about Virginia Tech? Not good. In fact, I think the ACC has become the new Pac-10. That is to say, the ACC is likely to be the worst conference this year. FSU was embarrassed (yes!) by Oklahoma, Georgia Tech lost to unranked Kansas, and Jacory Harris did exactly what I didn't want him to do. If Harris hadn't thrown all those interceptions, Miami definitely would have won that game. My random upset pick of Tennessee over Oregon actually looked pretty good at halftime! ...but I guess their youth kicked in, and Oregon got a few lucky breaks...and then the game just kinda spiraled out of control. Georgia looked bad. Rutgers was lucky to walk away from the FIU game with a victory. Nebraska looked fine. Gators looked awful in the first half, decent in the second half.

I am glad to see Virginia Tech is no longer ranked, but I once again fail to see the point of early season rankings if Oregon State is currently ranked at 0-1. I understand people THINK they will be good...but at this point in the season, it is my feeling that ANY 2-0 team should be given credit and ranked ahead of teams who have lost. When it's later in the season if Oregon State is 9-1 or something, fine, go ahead, rank them. But they haven't even won a game. This applies to Miami and Penn State as well. For all I know the national championship game could be between 2 of these 3 schools - I'll bet it won't be - but I still don't think these teams have any business in the week 2 rankings. Just my opinion.

As for some predictions....Ohio State will beat Ohio. Remind me, why do people think Ohio State has a tough schedule? Michigan will beat UMass in a game that will be almost as impressive as that intrastate Ohio game. Penn State will beat Kent State. Minnesota will lose at home to a sub-par USC team. Nebraska will escape Washington with a victory. Alabama will destroy Duke. Oklahoma will beat Air Force. Oklahoma is starting to earn their ranking, in my mind. Early feeling...Oklahoma-Nebraska for the Big 12. Still not impressed with Texas after the way they struggled early with Wyoming. I would LOVE to see Texas Tech win this weekend over Texas, and I'm hoping that will be a good game. I hope to see Florida win at Tennessee. Florida certainly has more talent than Tenneseee. But as usual, the team has a number of off-the-field distractions. I think Case Keenum and Houston will win at UCLA if Keenum can play. Boise State should have no problem with Wyoming. TCU may be tested by Baylor, but I think home-field advantage will give them the edge they need to win. I think Arkansas will beat Georgia, but I'm not sure how good Arkansas is yet. South Carolina will beat Furman. Former Gator Cameron Newton will lead the Auburn Tigers past the Clemson Tigers. Playing a night game at home, LSU should have no problem handling Miss State. Random upset of the week? I'll pick Maryland over West Virginia. Neither team has impressed me, but West Virginia almost embarrassed themselves last week. I think West Virginia will work hard to prove the Marshall game was a fluke, but who knows, maybe Maryland isn't bad. Oh, and Rutgers won't lose this weekend.

Go Gators!! Go Huskers! And practice hard Scarlet Knights!!

Week 1

I'm not impressed yet. No one looked good yet! My Gators looked pathetic. Pouncey and the receivers better step it up this week for USF. Rutgers looked atrocious against awful Norfolk State in the first half. I mean, 6-0 at halftime? Huskers looked decent.

Ohio State played Marshall, and even though it was a blowout, I was not impressed. Of course I was back and forth with other games at the time, but when I turned on the game, the first three things I saw were....1) Pryor fumbled a snap 2) Pryor threw an awful pass that was nearly intercepted 3) A field goal was blocked and Marshall returned it for a touchdown to make it a 14-7 game. Seriously, if Marshall had any offense at all, Ohio State could have lost that game. I expect Miami to beat Ohio State unless Harris feels like throwing a bunch of interceptions or the Buckeyes pay off the refs.

I've said it the past few years, and I'll say it again. Virginia Tech is not that good. Boise State might be, but no one will ever know. Boise State needs to make its case to join the Big 12 or Pac 10 or something. Winning the WAC conference proves nothing. Beating a mediocre Virginia Tech team in the last minute of a game proves nothing. If they beat Oregon State, a team from what I believe will remain the worst conference this year, that will prove nothing. If 3 teams go undefeated this year, and one is Boise State, and 2 are from BCS conferences - who do you think will be left out of the title game? Well, why don't you ask TCU and Boise State how good they think Alabama and Texas were last year. The Broncos and Horned Frogs can whine all they want about not getting any respect, but the fact is, no one will know if either team is good until they play multiple good teams. I'd like to see TCU and Boise State join BCS conferences to settle the debate.

As for right now, I think the Gators have a lot of work to do, but I know it's a rebuilding year. Texas has proven nothing, and they are entirely overrated. I don't understand why Oklahoma is ranked so high either. I don't think Virginia Tech should be ranked at all. I don't care if they played a close game with Boise State - the fact is, they are currently winless and should not be in the top 25. Ah, voter bias. This week I believe Alabama will beat Penn State with or without Ingram. I believe Miami will (or at least should) beat Ohio State. I think Oklahoma will beat FSU. I think Georgia will lose at South Carolina without Green. Texas will beat Wyoming - and I will be oh-so-impressed. Rutgers will beat FIU. Nebraska will beat Idaho. And the Gators should beat the Bulls from that inferior university in Florida. Random upset pick of the week? Tennessee over Oregon. Gotta support the SEC, whether I'm right or wrong. Let's see what happens!

Go Gators!! (Go Scarlet Knights, Go Huskers!)