College Football Picks Week 8

I had a dismal record last week, 1-7 or 1-8, either way, it was ugly.

Indiana @ Northwestern: This is a match-up of two 4-3 teams desperate for a win to try to inch closer to bowl eligibility. I said I wouldn't pick IU again the rest of the year and I still won't. I have a feeling its 'lay an egg' time for IU and play like they did against Virginia (40 point loss). I have no faith in this team; mostly because they still make comments as if they were/are a great team.

#1 Florida @ Mississippi State: Still not picking against Florida until either the SEC championship or BCS bowl game. I don't think they deserve the number 1 ranking though. You can see they miss the speed of guys like Mercy Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy.

Tennessee @ #2 Alabama: Tennessee has some toughness, but I can't imagine Nick Saban letting his guys lose this one.

#3 Texas @ Missouri: This is a night game at Missouri. Missouri gave a tough Nebraska team a great game until the 4th quarter. Common sense tells you that Texas is too talented to lose this game.

#6 Iowa @ Michigan State: Ok, I'll start buying into the Hawkeyes. Read a good email to SI's college football sports writer. If it were U of M, OSU, or PSU that were undefeated...wouldn't they be getting a lot more respect? Answer, yes. Is that fair, no. But it is what it is. I'll take Iowa and drink the Kool-Aid.

#13 Penn State @ Michigan: I hate Tate Forcier. But, I'll pick my first upset this week. When Michigan's offense is clicking, it is really damn good.

Minnesota @ #19 Ohio State: As unfair as it is, this is the make or break game for Pryor. If he stinks up the joint and barely wins or worse-case scenario, loses, it may get ugly at OSU. Problem is, OSU doesn't really have a person to throw in the game to take over for Pryor. Unlike UF or USC, they do not have an embarrassment of riches at QB. I'll take OSU in a must win for the sanity of Buckeye Nation.

Florida State @ UNC: Homer pick alert! FSU coming off a bye week, maybe they figure something out.

Illinois @ Purdue: I think the wheels have officially come off the wagon for Illinois after they weren't really even competitive against IU. Purdue is going to be all sorts of jacked-up after the OSU win, and thus, this is your typical "let down game." But, man, Illinois is bad.

Boston College @ Notre Dame: This BC team has had ND's number lately. I enjoy the chaos of the Weis hot-seat discussion. So maybe my dislike of ND is showing through since I know nothing about BC and I'm picking BC. Still owe BC for FSU's 1993 National Championship.

Oklahoma @ #25 Kansas: To me, this is the most intriguing game of the week. Oklahoma isn't as bad as their 3-3 record indicates and Kansas (5-1) may be pretty good. Kansas' loss last week was to a hungry Colorado team who finally benched the coaches son, the QB. Lets not forget Todd Reesing's Heisman run and Orange bowl appearance, a very talented QB. But, I'll take Landry Jones and my Grandpa's Oklahoma Sooners.

Thoughts??

Quick Champions League thoughts

I'll start with the champions league. A few big notes:

1. Liverpool loses 2-1 at home to Lyon. Granted Lyon don't suck and I think they'll end up winning the French League, you still have to protect your home turf if you claim to be a European giant. Maybe things are getting stale at Liverpool finally. Benitez has been there since 2005 I believe, and it may be about time to switch it up. Liverpool are 0-2 in their last two and have scored zero goals in those matches. Sometimes managers get stale and just lose the motivation of the players. That probably isn't the case here, but if Liverpool fails to win anything this year, I won't be surprised if Rafa is gone...and then maybe he can go to Real Madrid where he belongs.
2. Pretty shocking result at the Camp Nou. Barca losing 2-1 at home to defending Russian Champions Rubin Kazan. Barca have a wealth of talent, just very surprised that they lose at home to an inferior team (talent and payroll wise) in the Champions League. I wouldn't sound the alarm bells though. This team is still ridiculously good.
   
3. The match for today is Real Madrid hosting AC Milan. They have a combined 15 or 16 European Cups between them. AC have lost their best player in Kaka to Real Madrid. I think it will come down to how many Real score versus if this will actually be a game.
   

College Football Picks Week 7

Picks Again, with limited analysis:

Last week I went 8-2, granted many of those were easy to pick, I realize that. My picks focus on big games or are on Big Ten Region, State of Florida oriented.

#8 Cinncinatti @ #21 South Florida: When faced between picking Florida speed versus midwestern muscle (stereotypes) I always pick speed. South Florida at home on Thursday...too much going against Cincy here.

Arkansas @ #1 Florida: Get serious, until Florida doesn't have all returning players on defense from last year's national championship team I can't begin to think about picking against them until the SEC Title game or a bowl game.

#20 Oklahoma v. #3 Texas in Dallas: Oklahoma has nothing left to play for in terms of a National Title, but could still make a BCS game and could spoil Texas' season. Its time for Big Game Bob to live up to his nickname. I'll take Bob Stoops and the Sooners to spoil Texas' season.

#4 Virginia Tech @ #19 Georgia Tech: Virginia Tech has the speed on defense to stop GTech's option attack.

#6 USC @ #25 Notre Dame: I don't think either one of these teams is very good. USC seems to be massively overrated. I'll take great offense beating good defense. I hate to say it, but Notre Dame wins a "big one"

#7 Ohio State @ Purdue: Purdue is garbage. OSU big.

#11 Iowa @ Wisconsin: Iowa seems ripe for a let-down. Camp Randell Stadium will be the place, the Badgers in a redeeming effort after their OSU loss.

Illinois @ Indiana: I won't pick Indiana the rest of the year unless something drastic changes. IU is the most dillusional team, the players constantly drop quotes about being a good team. It is disturbing how out of touch with reality they are. I'm sick of it. Losing by 40 at Virginia was inexcusable. Illinois has just about as bad of a coach as we do, but they have better athletes. Illinois wins.

College Football Picks

Here are my picks this week with limited analysis:

I picked Nebraska last night, which seemed like a horrible idea until the 4th quarter

#3 Alabama @ #21 Mississippi: Tough call, afternoon game; unless Houston Nutt's team has done something remarkable since the meltdown at South Carolina, I'm taking 'Bama

Wisconsin @ #9 Ohio State: I have no idea how good Wisconsin is, I couldn't tell you one thing about their team. So, I'll take OSU

Michigan @ #12 Iowa: I hate Tate Forcier. Iowa wins.

#22 Georgia Tech @ Florida State: Obviously I am a homer, FSU should have won in Atlanta last year...they will rally around Bobby Bowden and win this one

Purdue @ Minnesota: Eric Decker and Minnesota rout a terrible Purdue team...the only thing that is making IU's season any better.

Indiana @ Virginia: If Indiana has any prayer of becoming bowl eligible this season, this is a MUST WIN game. Therefore, I'll pick against any shred of logic and choose IU to win a game in a clutch situation.

Connecticut @ Pitt: In a game matching teams with a combined 7-2 record...both of these teams could be bowling this year. I'll take Pitt at home.

Michigan State @ Illinois: Coming off of a big win against in-state rival Michigan this should be a let down game for MSU. But Illinois is bad and Juice Williams from my understanding has been benched. Only one way to go on this, Michigan State on the road.

Game of the Week:
#1 Florida @ #4 LSU: LSU is overrated. There are only 2 things in their favor in this game and maybe only 1; the game is at night and the Tigers are shockingly better playing at home at night than during the day, look it up. The other is Tebow. This game is so hard to pick not knowing his status. Even if Tebow doesn't play, I have a hard time picking against a team that has a defense that returns every starter from last year's National Championship team. So, I'll pick Florida in a hopefully defensive, loud, crazy ass game.

Joke that I stole from another article:

Notre Dame @ Bye Week: Notre Dame wins a thrilling, last-second, high-scoring game against the bye week.

the Bar Weekend

On a weekend where I went down to Bloomington, Indiana to celebrate my bar victory, there were some pretty interesting results in Europe.

First, Liverpool drop 0-2 at Chelsea. Drogba is just a beast. When he feels like playing and really gets into the game, he can boss anybody around. The win coupled with Manchester United's draw puts Chelsea back on top of the Premier League. Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson found a new way to shoot his mouth of after the 2-2 draw at home with Sunderland. He accused the ref of being out of shape and unable to keep up with the game. Ferguson is often criticized by other mangers like Wenger, Mourinho, and Benitez for shooting his mouth off and not ever feeling the consequences like other mangers would. This time, it seems the FA is more serious about giving Sir Alex some sore of touchline ban. If they don't, don't be surprised at a pretty big backlash from some of the other teams and managers.

The thing I take away from the Prem this weekend is how good Fabregas is and wondering if Arsenal have any way of holding on to him at the end of the season. Arsenal are scoring an unbelievable amount of goals this year and Fabregas just really seems like the straw that stirs the drink on that team. If he goes to Barcelona next year, the scariest team in the world would get a whole helluva lot scarier.

Oh Spain. The big game of the weekend was Real Madrid at Sevilla. C. Ronaldo was on the bench for Real with an injury and it really showed for Madrid as their attack looked much weaker. Benzema looked ineffective and was subbed off for the Argentine Gonzalo Higuain who to his credit was more involved than the Frenchman he replaced. Guti had a terrible first half and was able to somewhat redeem himself. Even after that game I still like Guti and I feel like he has a lot to offer that team after a few recent frustrating years mostly on the bench. The man of the match for Real was Iker Casillas. Iker made some absolutely incredible saves and appears to be head and shoulders the best keeper in the world right now. Real could have easily lost this game 4-1 or 5-1. Sergio Ramos had his hands full all night with Sevilla. Navas and Perotti kept destroying Real on the wings. As far as Real have come, they still are not there yet...and Sevilla made a big statement that they are a team to look out for and spoil the 2 horse race between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Inter go tops in Italy after Juventus laid an egg at Palermo and surprising Antonio Cassano and Sampdoria fell to 2nd on goal difference after a draw with Parma.