Normality is restored: Florida beat Florida State in Tallahassee. Gators drink Gatorade. Seminoles drink Seminole fluid. YES!
I'm sad Notre Dame won, but at least the Gators took care of business...should be in a BCS bowl game. Nebraska won to secure its spot in Indianapolis. I was disappointed in Rutgers, but as long as they win Thursday, no harm done. I was more disappointed in Michigan. AP voters better not name them #1 after Notre Dame loses to Alabama...the Buckeyes played no one, and they played close games with all of those no ones - Cal? Purdue? Ugh. LAME!
Picks - RUTGERS beats Louisville at home. Kent State beats Northern Illinois to keep things interesting in the BCS. UCLA definitely lost the first game to Stanford on purpose to avoid playing Oregon, but I'm not sure they can beat Stanford anyway. I think they'll play a closer game this weekend, but I still think the Bruins will lose. Texas loses at Kansas State and the Wildcats secure their BCS bid. Alabama will beat Georgia.
The question is...if Kent State wins and UCLA loses, does Kent State move into the top 16 - and will they be ahead of a BCS conference winner? Hmm...we may still have a BCS buster in the mix. And if Kent State goes to a bowl game, does that mean the Sugar Bowl will pick the Big East winner? Because I don't want to see Florida-Rutgers.
On to basketball...Gators have a big one Thursday against Marquette...a rematch from the Sweet 16. Other games I'm looking forward to this week:
11/27 - UNC/Indiana & NC State Indiana
11/28 - Duke/Ohio Stte
11/29 - Notre Dame/Kentucky
12/1 - Baylor/Kentucky & San Diego State/UCLA
No basketball teams stand out as dominant....could be an interesting basketball season with many surprises!
Or maybe we eat Pop-Tarts, I'm not sure. But last night the Gators sure feasted on Bo Ryan's squad. Erik Murphy was fantastic. Rosario looked a lot more comfortable. It was a reassuring game for me considering the Gators don't typically play very well at the start of season. But I'm pleased so far with the 2.5-0 start. Yes, I'm giving us .5 for the half we won against Georgetown - don't judge me.
Breakfast of Champions
As for football....Gators, seriously, what's wrong with you? You have to show up for EVERY game. That was completely pathetic. Louisiana-Lafayette probably considers that a victory. You better plan on blowing out Jacksonville State...even with Brissett. Driskel may not be the best QB in the world, but he's a million times better than Brantley, and I think has proved to be better than Brissett. Get well soon, Jeff. As for Rutgers, it was a slow start, but they won the game, even though I maintain that the game effectively did not matter. Now that Louisville lost, Rutgers can lose a conference game before beating Louisville tand still get its bid to a BCS bowl game. Rah Rah! I posed a question about ice cream last week. It's been more than a decade since I've had ice cream at Penn State (that's scary), so I'm giving the edge to Nebraska's Dairy Store...based on the fact that I was there this year - and I'm somewhat swayed by Nebraska beating Penn State on the football field.
Yes, Nebraska has Sweet Corn Ice Cream
Alabama looked awful against Texas A&M. Nothing else surprised me. On to this weekend...not many good games. I'll pick UCLA over USC. FSU is looking ahead to Florida and plays a closer than expected game with Maryland, but wins. Oregon beats Stanford. Oklahoma State edges Texas Tech due to home field advantage. Wisconsin beats Ohio State - Over/under on how many hours it takes Meyer to fake a heart attack after that one? Rutgers wins a close one at Cincinnati. Nebraska beats Minnesota. Florida better destroy Jacksonville state.
Basketball...all I can say so far is Kentucky, Kansas and Michigan State are all overrated. Also, FSU sucks. We once again have a situation where no teams appear to be dominant. Could make for a fun postseason, but I'm now afraid of losing a talented player like Patric Young to the NBA early...I don't think he'll be quite ready at the end of the season, but with lack of talent in the draft, we may see No. 4 leave Gainesville.
Well, Florida vs. Missouri wasn't the greatest Gator game of all time, but I sure did miss being in The Swamp. It was great to make my return - even if the nightlife scene in Gainesville got a little weird. The Gators won though, and I had a wonderful weekend in sunny Florida after Hurricane Sandy hit New York. Now we're dealing with a snowstorm.
I didn't watch too many games this past weekend, but I will make a few points: Alabama is better than LSU (I'm glad Alabama won - they need to win out and Georgia needs to beat Auburn despite what most casual fans seem to think. I'd rather play in the Sugar Bowl than lose in the SEC Championship....see my last blog post.) Pittsburgh is terrible/Notre Dame is the luckiest team ever. USC is not good. Nebraska likes to scare me with these last-minute comebacks.
Just a few picks this week for football...Stanford beats Oregon State. Picking Virginia to beat Miami (really don't know why). Alabama rolls. TCU plays a close one...would love to see an upset there. LSU beats Miss State. Oregon will struggle at Cal but win. You'll see. Rutgers will beat Army. Nebraska will beat Penn State (bigger question here - which school has the better ice cream?). Florida will win its homecoming game over Louisiana-Lafayette.
And now...I must mention that my favorite time of year begins Friday: COLLEGE BASKETBALL SEASON!!!!!!!!!! So excited to see NCAA hoops. I'm not sure if the Gators will be as good as last year, but I can't wait to find out. Some games I'm looking forward to in the next week....
Of course, the Nov 14 game has special significance to me because my brother went to Wisconsin. I will have to DVR the game of course....and not just because I won't be home to watch it, but mostly because I know I'll fall asleep trying to watch Wisconsin play basketball, and I'll need to be able to resume the game when I wake up. Final score? 64-42 Gators. I know what you're thinking: the Gators have too much offense to score only 64 points! But I'm accounting for the Gators taking a nap on the court the last 15 minutes of the game. Besides, the Gators never have their chemistry set early in the season. It takes a couple months for them to really warm up.
Apparently when Muschamp said he didn't need to fire up the team for the Georgia game because they'd already be fired up, he was wrong. I'm convinced he let them all go drink at The Landing the night before the game, because there's no other explanation for playing as poorly as they did. And Aaron Murray is BAD. I mean REALLY, REALLY BAD. But the way the Gators played was worse.
Best case scenario: Georgia beats Ole Miss & Auburn (hear me out before you go crazy!), Alabama wins out - beating LSU and destroying Georgia, LSU beat Mississippi State, Florida wins out. In this scenario, Florida would be the only one-loss team in the SEC and could play in the Sugar Bowl.
The Rutgers loss hurt, but it really doesn't hurt RU's chances of playing in a BCS bowl since it was out of conference...so all isn't lost. If RU goes undefeated in the Big East, the Scarlet Knights can play in a bowl with the big boys...or maybe the Orange Bowl with someone like FSU. And Nebraska is controlling its own destiny...could end up in the Rose Bowl. Will all 3 of my teams make BCS bowl games?? That would be great...still possible!
Some picks...
Miami beats Virginia Tech in Miami...but who cares? People will only watch because it's the only college game on. Mississippi State rebounds with a win over Texas A&M - but it will be close. I only give this one to the bulldogs because of home advantage. Texas loses at Texas Tech. Georgia beats Ole Miss. I'd love to see Oklahoma State bull the upset at Kansas State, but I don't see it happening. I think USC will be fired up for Oregon...I think it will be closer than many people expect. I'll pick Oregon in a close one. Alabama, you need to beat LSU per my best case scenario above. Thanks.
Florida vs Missouri Tickets - November 3, 2012
Rutgers has no game. Nebraska wins at Michigan State. And of course, the Gators will beat Missouri, and I will be there! Very excited to make my return to The Swamp - haven't been since Tennessee @ Florida in 2009.
Okay, so let me start by saying this: Georgia sucks! Georgia almost lost to Kentucky. Prepare to get Gator'd!!!
West Virginia....your total lack of defense only works when your offense shows up. Geno, that game may have cost you the Heisman. Ohio State - seriously? You needed overtime against Purdue? That's so bad it's not even worth discussing. The Texas Tech-TCU game was a fun one to watch.
Texas A&M gave LSU a good game. Even if Ryan Lochte managed to pick Auburn to win that game. I knew he'd embarrass Gator Nation on GameDay.
The Huskers came back in dramatic fashion to beat Northwestern! Rutgers didn't feel like playing its first half against Temple, but it didn't matter because Steve Addazio knows nothing about offense, and he reminded us all of that in the second half. Way to go RU!
Most important win of the weekend? My Gators, of course. We were what, a 3-point favorite? Final score: 44-11. I think we covered the spread.
Picks:
Thursday Clemson will handily beat Wake Forest. Friday: Cincy falls at Louisville.
South Carolina will rebound with a win over Tennessee. Texas beats Charlie Weis and Kansas, obviously. Picking Wisconsin over Michigan State because it would help Nebraska. Upset alert: Kansas State...be careful with Texas Tech. (Let's go Red Raiders). Pulling for the Blue Devils over the Seminoles. Let's go Nittany Lions - win the B1G battle of the ineligibles! I want to see Duke-Rutgers in the Orange Bowl! Notre Dame is losing at Oklahoma. I'm picking Nebraska over Michigan because Denard Robinson still hasn't given me a reason to believe he's any good. Go Big Red! Rutgers will win its homecoming game over Kent State. Rah! Rah!
And of course...as my ringtone for the week sings...TO HELL WITH GEORGIA! GO GATORS!! BEAT THOSE UGA-ly Bulldogs at the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party!
The first BCS rankings are out! There are, not surprisingly, zero Big
Ten teams ranked in the top 25. There are 6 SEC teams in the top 12.
Yes, the SEC is still much, much better than the Big Ten.
Remember when I said West Virginia has no defense? Remember when I said I had no idea why people were talking about the "great" Texas defense? Can't blame me for having high standards for defense - I watch SEC football.
Rutgers beat Syracuse to remain undefeated. Florida won its "trap game" at Vandy to stay undefeated. Driskel even broke one of Tebow's records.
And the Jets actually won a game. So I was pretty happy about football
this weekend - except for my upset-pick-gone-wrong. Hey, refs in the
Notre Dame game...Stanford scored a touchdown. It's okay. I'll call
next week's upset now: Oklahoma will beat Notre Dame. I was right about
Iowa State giving Kansas a fight. Hoosiers came SO close!
I was right about Wisconsin. I think Texas A&M is better than
people think. I was right about LSU. I just hope South Carolina has
lost its focus after last week.
Go Gators!
On to this week...
I expect Oregon to
win Thursday, but it will be interesting to see if Arizona State's
defense can stop the Ducks and give them a good game. LSU's defense vs
Texas A&M's offense? That's an interesting one. I don't know which
LSU is showing up, but I'll take the Tigers in a close one. Rutgers
wins at Temple because Kyle Flood is better than Steve Addazio.
I think West Virginia is rebounding this weekend and ending Kansas
State's run. I don't say this often, but I hope Miami wins this
weekend. Random upset pick of the week: Texas Tech over TCU. TCU was a
3.5 point favorite last I checked. And of course...I'm picking Florida
to beat South Carolina. Steve Spurrier may know how to win at the
Swamp, but there's a new coach in town. Muschamp - here's your chance
to prove yourself to Gator Nation! Let's go!
Remember this one? I want the same winner, but I hope it's not this close!
Who will be the celebrity guest picker this week at GameDay in Gainesville? I want Emmitt Smith...but I'm expecting someone like Ryan Lochte. We'll see!
GO GATORS!!!!!!!!! Big win. But now we fans have bigger expectations. And yet, while I think the #4 rating may be premature, I feel analysts are still overlooking the Gators. When FSU and LSU were #4, they were in the title discussion. Suddenly the title discussion includes South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas State and Notre Dame in place of Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, USC and FSU. Don't get me wrong - I still think the Gators have a lot of work to do. But are the Gators better than West Virginia? Yes - we actually believe in defense...and we're damn good at it. Do they Gators have a more impressive body of work to date than Notre Dame? Absolutely. Beating up on 3 teams from the worst conference (Big Ten) plus Navy and Miami (who hasnt been relevant in a decade)....I'm supposed to be impressed??? Well, I'm not. Notre Dame is certainly better than it was under Weis, but I'm like McKayla Maroney: not impressed. Stanford isn't fantastic, but it will be the biggest test to date for the Irish.
Huskers, you're killing me. You were in that game. You had some sloppy turnovers, but other than those, you were actually outplaying Ohio State. And then apparently you got sidetracked by a corn field or something. Pathetic. I'm extremely disappointed. So disappointed that I won't even watch you this weekend (you're lucky you have a bye week).
I didn't realize how bad West Virginia really looks. Texas could have won that game easily. I picked WV, but I'm not confident they even deserved that win. Seriously, no defense. And like I keep saying...I'm not sold on Texas. Really not sure why I kept hearing about this phantom "Texas defense." No such thing so far...
Other than Nebraska, all of my picks were correct. (Come on though...I always pick Nebraska, and I always pick against Ohio State). WVU beat Texas. FSU did sleep on NC State and I was extremely happy. Washington didn't pull off another big upset to beat Oregon. South Carolina smothered Georgia. Rutgers won and Florida upset LSU. I think those were the only games I picked, so way to go Liz.
Would you ever pick a team that supports this guy? I wouldn't. Pretty sad when even a 3rd string QB knows he's too dumb to be in class. And at a school where "Exploring" is a major...must be tough...
And this week....
Upset of the week: I'm picking Stanford. Not because I think they're good. Not because I think they'll win. Just because I want Lou Holtz to stop talking about Notre Dame. I actually think Notre Dame will win, but let the record show that I picked Stanford as my upset of the week. Oklahoma will beat Texas in a Red River Rivalry that just doesn't interest me this year. I think Iowa State will put up a fight against Kansas State, but Kansas State will win the game - in closer fashion that most think. Wisconsin will win at PurdZzZzZzZzZ .... Oh! Sorry. I fell asleep just thinking about that game.
Let's go Hoosiers. Beat the Buckeyes. I'll take LSU at home against South Carolina. I think the Tigers are mad after the SEC East showed them up this past weekend. #22 Texas A&M wins at #23 Louisiana Tech. Syracuse is going down. Rutgers wins at home to start 6-0. Rah! Rah! And most importantly....I'm picking the Gators on the road. Florida beats Vanderbilt. GO GATORS!!!
West Virginia: do you have any defense? Does any conference other than the SEC believe in defense? Oklahoma State could have and probably should have beaten Texas, so my upset pick last week wasn't bad. FSU hardly looked impressive at USF. LSU once again looked incredibly beatable against FCS opponent Towson. Is Les trying to fake out the Gators or something?
Husker homecoming was fun, but it wasn't quite the same as an SEC atmosphere. Memorial Stadium holds more than 80,000 people. In other words, when the Huskers play at home, Memorial Stadium becomes the third largest city in the state of Nebraska. Husker football and corn are pretty much all they have in Nebraska. The fans were all very nice and very polite, and the average age of the fan was...well...let's just say much older than the average fan at a Gator game. When I go to games at The Swamp, I expect a wild & crazy crowd throughout the stadium. Nebraska fans were enthusiastic, but hardly rowdy.
A sea of red at Nebraska homecoming
The theme of the game was "the red & the quick." There was a lot of red, but not much quickness. Two Husker turnovers gave Wisconsin control of the first half. The blackshirts got it together in the second half and Nebraska made its second largest comeback ever to win the game.
Sidenote: I sat next to some Wisconsin fans at the game, and I'm truly disappointed in how little they knew about college football. When I mentioned that even the Big East is outplaying the Big Ten this year, one fired back with, "Yeah, Georgetown football looks great." I give up. This is why I don't respect most big ten fans.
On to this weekend....
There are some better games, at last! No surprise, I'm picking Rutgers in the blackout game. Chop UConn!! I'm picking Spurrier over Georgia. I am hesitantly picking West Virginia on the road at Texas. Yes, I'm still not sold on Texas even though I keep hearing how underrated they are, and I can't believe WVU gave up 63 points to Baylor, but I'm sticking with Geno and the offense. I don't think Texas can answer back enough times to stay in the game. I hope FSU is sleeping on the Wolfpack. LET'S GO NC STATE! Does Washington have another top ten upset in them? Probably not. I'll take Oregon. My upset picks of the week should be obvious: Nebraska over Ohio State, and of course, FLORIDA over LSU. (Last I saw Ohio State was a 3.5 point favorite and LSU was a 3 point favorite.)
When Nebraska first joined the Big Ten, my brother said right away that we should go to the first Wisconsin-Nebraska game in Lincoln. I said it would be a fun trip. Well, the game is upon us, and he is ditching me to go to Germany. So I was all set to go watch the game in a Husker alumni bar in New York. But at 10:15 Monday night, I get a text from my father: "Can you get tickets the Nebraska game?" Long story short, my parents and I are going to Husker Homecoming. Yes - we waited until my brother leaves the country to go watch a Wisconsin game.
The Gators and Scarlet Knights are off this week, so they'll remain undefeated. I wanted more from Florida's offense against Kentucky, but I guess Kentucky's lack of a QB didn't lead to much motivation for the Gators to hike up the score. Rutgers is finally ranked now after beating a down Arknasas team. LSU looked awfully beatable against Auburn. What's up with the SEC West? Hopefully LSU will look that way next weekend! But I'll hold off on next week's picks for now. Sidenote: Thank you Washington for proving Stanford was overrated.
A few quick picks for this weekend:
Not many exciting games. West Virginia will beat Baylor by a significant margin. I think Michigan State beats Ohio State. I'm cheering for USF over FSU, but I know better... If I had to pick an upset this week it would be Texas falling at Oklahoma State. Alabama and Oregon will blow out Ole Miss and Washington State respectively.
And most importantly this weekend: NEBRASKA WILL BEAT WISCONSIN.
No Wilson, no offense. So much for Arkansas! And Auburn? How come they never play Florida when they have down years? No disrespect to Louisiana Monroe, but I'd be more impressed if they beat any 2 other teams in the SEC West.
Biggest disappointment of the weekend: Cal. The Golden Bears COMPLETELY outplayed Ohio State, but missing 3 field goals led to a 7-point loss. Thanks Cal...now I'll have to continue hearing about how fantastic the Buckeyes are even though you just proved they're completely overrated as usual.
THANK YOU CARDINAL. Stanford beating Lane Kiffin was fantastic. Anyone who watched ESPN College GameDay saw all Florida and Tennessee fans join together to boo Kiffin when they spoke about him. It was a beautiful thing. I'm sure they'll continue to be overrated and this will just move Stanford way up for the time being (sorry, Stanford...after the SJSU close call I just don't think you're the same team as you were with Luck.)
The Big Ten continues to look terrible. Yeah, Michigan State really looked like a top ten team out there. Crushed by Notre Dame at home? I know Lou Holtz was happy. Great offense, Sparty! Even John Brantley could have scored more than 3 points against the Irish with home advantage. Wisconsin beat Utah State by 2. Minnesota beat W Michigan by 5. Indiana lost to Ball State (they were decent a few years ago, but this is a different team). Predictions: Wisconsin stays ranked and doesn't drop - might even move up, Michigan State stays ranked ahead of Florida, Ohio State jumps into the top ten.
Ole Miss was disappointing. I'm still not sold on Texas and I don't think they'll win the Big 12. Nebraska's defense needs work, but the Huskers still have a definite shot at the Big Ten title given how awful that conference is. Rutgers made me very happy against USF. The Rutgers-Louisville game at the end of the season is looking interesting...Can the Scarlet Knights creep into the top 25 this week??
The Gators apparently don't start well - but I'm okay as long as they finish well. Apparently Florida is a second half team! The team as a whole still needs to work on penalties - though I'm not sure the refs were even watching that game. They called a bunch of nonsense all game and at the end when they called that Driskel run a touchdown after he stepped out of bounds four times the refs pretty much established that they didn't care. But in the end, it didn't matter because the better team won. Eight in a row over Tennessee. Go Gators!! Burton, Gillislee, Hammond, Driskel, Reed and Sturgis seem to be getting better and I like it. Keep it up Gators. None of the current Gators were alive the last time Kentucky beat Florida in football. Let's keep it that way! Beat the Wildcats!!
Picks for week 4...
USC will rebound and beat Cal since Cal doesn't know how to finish games. LSU wins big at Auburn. Arizona loses at Oregon by more than whatever the spread turns out to be. Kansas State vs Oklahoma will give us a better sense of how good these teams are. I'll take Oklahoma at home in a close one. Upset pick of the week: Obviously I'm picking Clemson to beat FSU because it's the one I'd most like to see happen. I think Notre Dame will beat another overrated Big Ten team. Nebraska beats Idaho State. Rutgers at Arkansas should be very interesting now....I'm picking the Scarlet Knights! Even with Arkansas being down, people still won't expect Rutgers to win. So I'll pick my hometown team.
And of course...I'm picking Florida to beat Kentucky again. GO GATORS!!
Someone at ESPN apparently doesn't like the Gators. Two weeks in a row they have College GameDay at Florida's away game? That means two weeks in a row of a local guest-picker picking against the Gators. Well, I hope Corso picks Tennessee since he's usually wrong. I'm picking the Gators because I support them no matter what.
The Gators didn't look great against Texas A&M, but a win is a win. I need more offense, and hopefully the depth at defense will be strong enough to sustain the Gators. It's time for a very important question: Why does Tennessee have checkerboards in the end zones? ... Because they can't spell Tennessee!!
From the last time I attended a Tennessee game....3 years ago.
Anyway, Nebraska was a huge disappointment. I guess they remembered they're in the Big Ten and figured they should start playing like it. That conference is so, so bad. Not even worth explaining again. I even think Notre Dame will beat Michigan State, and I never respect Notre Dame. For once, Lou Holtz and I agree: Notre Dame wins this one.
I think Arkansas will rebound this week after an atrocious performance last week, but only in the sense that I think they'll keep things close than people expect. Alabama is still going to win. I hope Stanford beats USC, but honestly, Stanford hasn't impressed me. I think USC takes this one, but I'm pulling for the Cardinal. FSU will beat another terrible team. Congrats Noles...celebrate while you're winning. Clemson is waiting. I hope Cal can continue the trend of Pac 12 teams beating Big Ten teams. Beat the Buckeyes!!
I'm going to assume Nebraska can handle Arkansas State. Arizona State-Missouri could be interesting...I'll side with the SEC on that one. Also siding with the SEC over the Big 12...come on Ole Miss - beat the Longhorns!!
Rutgers beats USF tomorrow night, and I think Schiano should be there to wish the Scarlet Knights good luck. Rah Rah!!!
Okay, so the Gators looked absolutely awful on offense. Defense showed promise. I want to convince myself that Muschamp planned to look terrible to throw off Texas A&M....but I know better. Hopefully this week they'll find some offensive rhythm.
As predicted, the Big Ten looked terrible. Can people stop saying "the Big Ten is back" now?? Clearly it's not. I saw 4 convincing wins out of 12 teams, and none were over anyone impressive. However, Southern Miss had an impressive season last year, and the Huskers dominated them on Saturday. I told you Martinez would remember how awesome he can be! Sure, Ohio State, Purdue and Illinois had easy wins. But what about the rest? Indiana, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State all won by between 1 point and 7 points against all currently unranked teams.
Penn State lost an emotional home opener to Ohio and Michigan got completely embarrassed by the SEC, which came as no surprise to anyone who has watched Big Ten football in the last decade. Denard Robinson says he could beat Usain Bolt in a race. He's dreaming. It's more likely Usain Bolt would be a successful QB at Michigan.
FSU will stay overrated for a while. Their first real competitor is Clemson on September 22nd. Though I would love to see Savannah State pull the ridiculous upset. I don't want to see FSU cover that large spread. I'd also love to see a huge upset from Syracuse since I hate Lane Kiffin, but somehow I don't see either one happening.
Oklahoma State proved it had offense, but I'm not sure 84 points were really necessary in that game. I wasn't impressed with Oklahoma. Based solely on first week, my early guess would be the Big 12 champion is between Oklahoma State and West Virginia. TCU hasn't played yet. I have my doubts about Kansas State. And Texas struggled with Wyoming.
With West Virginia out of the Big East, hopefully RU's chance is improved. Pitt looked ridiculous. No one in the Big East looked impressive. The 12-point victory for Rutgers over Tulane was far from promising.
The Pac 12 didn't look so hot. At this point it looks like a battle between USC and Oregon. If that's the case, GO DUCKS. Side note: Let's go UCF! Beat the Buckeyes!
It pains me to say it, but Alabama and LSU still look like top ten teams. South Carolina looked like it does not belong in the top ten. Georgia struggled early but got its act together in the second half. Sadly, Georgia looked like the strongest SEC East team after just one game. But since it's only one game, I won't read so much into it....I'll see how they look the end of October since that's what matters to me.
Not many high-profile games in week 2. But I'll make a few picks. Wisconsin wins at Oregon State. Nebraska beats UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Oklahoma State wins at Arizona. Mississippi State beats Auburn. North Carolina wins at Wake Forest. Georgia beats Missouri. Illinois loses at Arizona State. RU beats Howard.
Most importantly, Florida BETTER beat Texas A&M. ESPN College GameDay will be there....the Gators better show up too! This is the one game Muschamp should actually be prepared for (at least as far as atmosphere) given his background at Texas. I have a great deal of respect for Sumlin, but Muschamp, if you coach this game the same way you coached last weekend, you may as well start looking for a new job. Come on, make Gator Nation proud this weekend!!
Well, once again, it seems I've neglected my blog. But now football is about to start! YAY!
I'll keep this post short because as most people know, I think very little of preseason speculation and rankings. As usual, teams like USC and Ohio State and FSU are overrated from the get-go, and it annoys me. But just for fun, I will make some predictions for this week.
South Carolina beats Vanderbilt to kick off SEC football - lock of the week. Boise State will struggle a little after losing Pease to a better orange and blue program, but I'm still picking the Broncos to upset the Spartans. By now you all know my feelings about the Big Ten....
I have never hated USC, but now that Lane Kiffin is bowl eligible there, I don't want them to win. Let's go HAWAII!! Needless to say, I'd also love to see Murray State beat FSU and Miami (OH) beat Ohio State.
Michigan has no chance against Alabama. I'm just putting that out there. Clemson-Auburn could be a good game. For now I'll stick with SEC pride and pick Auburn. Tenn beats NC State. Can't say the same about SEC pride for Kentucky. Charlie Strong takes that one. Virginia Tech beats Georgia Tech. Miami-BC might be a snoozefest. Let's go BC.
Nebraska beats Southern Miss, of course. Taylor Martinez will remember he's an awesome QB and give Huskers hope for a Big Ten title! Rutgers beats Tulane. Welcome, Coach Flood! Other than the Arkansas game, RU has a chance to show off this year! Is this "R" year??
And most importantly.....FLORIDA beats Bowling Green in a battle of teams betrayed by Urban Liar. I'm looking forward to seeing the Brissett-Driskel competition, and I expect Brissett to win that one. I hope the Gator defense lives up to expectations this season - and hopefully the offense will exceed expectations. But really, there's no way it could be worse than the Brantley-Weis era, right?
Not many high-profile games in week one, but maybe I'll get an idea of just how overrated each big ten team is.
Joe Lunardi is often regarded as an "expert" or a "bracketologist." Yeah, ok. I've seen other bloggers analyze Joe Lunardi's accuracy in other ways - like looking at how accurate his seeds are. This is one way to prove he knows no more than the rest of us, but not the only way. Year after year he is praised for his 90-some percent accuracy rate in predicting the tournament field. Let's look at the obvious: This percentage is based on picks he makes ON SELECTION SUNDAY. At this point, 31 of the 68 teams have already been locked in. So he only has to pick 37 teams.
So you saw teams like Louisville and Vanderbilt win their conference tournaments instead of the expected teams, Syracuse and Kentucky. Now, I won't knock Lunardi for picking Kentucky and Syracuse as automatic bids, but I can't exactly credit him for "guessing" the top 2 teams in the country would get at-large bids. Same with UNC and Duke. FSU won the ACC tournament, but is there anyone out there who couldn't have guessed UNC and Duke would get at-large bids?? You get my point. It's really not that hard to predict a lot of the teams ON Selection Sunday.
But ESPN doesn't start asking Lunardi for his opinion on Selection Sunday, do they? The answer is no. The first bracket I saw from Joe Lunardi came out November 9, 2011. If Joe Lunardi could predict the tournament field with a 90-some percent accuracy in November, I would gladly call him an "expert bracketologist." So, how accurate is Joe Lunardi? Let's see...
Joe Lunardi's Bracket from November 9, 2011 for the 2012 NCAA Tournament
Well, based on my (admittedly quick) calculation, he correctly predicted 42 of the 68 teams. That's 61.76% accuracy of the teams. I'm not going to get into seeding accuracy. But I'm not impressed. I have been saying for years that Joe Lunardi does not know more about college basketball than I do, and I still believe that. So why does he even have a job at the beginning of the season if everyone ignores everything he says before Selection Sunday? And how can I get that job when he retires?
I won't even bother analyzing Jerry Palm's, because it's just embarrassing that a few short weeks ago he still had 9 teams from the Big Ten projected to be in the tournament. We get it Palm: You went to Purdue and you think the Big Ten is fantastic because of it. But look at the facts: That conference hasn't won a championship in more than a decade. The media does love the Big Ten though, doesn't it? Every year I hear non-stop about either Michigan State or Ohio State. In 2005 they took a break and focused on Illinois. This year they went back and forth between the Spartans and the buckeyes.
I won't share with you my picks - mostly because that would make this blog 300 pages long and partly because I haven't finished them, but when you're filling out your bracket this year, remember one thing: Don't buy into the media hype!
Think about my tweet from February 16th before you pick Michigan State or Ohio State to win it all. I mean it's March, and anything can happen....but the only thing I recommend Big Ten basketball for is helping you to fall asleep (See: Wisconsin vs Penn State, 2011 Big Ten Tournament). With that said, Go Gators, and let the madness begin!!
