College Football Week 12 Preview

Virginia Tech @ Miami (FL), Thursday 7:30pm
Mike: Seems to me that Miami has lost to all the good teams they’ve played (Florida, Florida St, and UNC). This will be a classic ACC defensive struggle (what?). While this is a home game, there must be a difference this year playing in Dolphin Stadium vs the Orange Bowl. From what I know about these teams, or at least think I know, Virginia Tech likes to cause mistakes and Miami likes to make them. Pick: Virginia Tech
Evan: Thursday night games involving Virginia Tech usually means the game is at Virginia Tech, in which case I would pick them. However, we’re in Miami, and are the Hokies still on their third string QB? Pick: Miami
Ahad: VTech needs to straighten out their QB situation, but offense hasn’t been a strength for this team in a long time. Miami is still a very young team, but has a lot of talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Turnovers will be the key to this game. Pick: V-Tech

Northwestern @ Michigan, Saturday 12pm
Mike: So has Michigan figured things out or did they just match up well against Minnesota? Who knows about Northwestern. A loss to Indiana is a bad mark. They bounced back to beat Minnesota before getting blown out by Ohio State. I’ve been burned by thinking Michigan had things figured out before. Well, figured out enough to beat the average Big 10 teams. Pick: Michigan
Evan: Northwestern came back to reality last week. Even I am starting to feel a little bad for the UM fans, seeing their team lose at home so much. I’m going with a morale boosting win for the big blue (at which point some fans will be sick at the thought that beating Northwestern has become morale boosting). Pick: Michigan
Ahad: Michigan is actually starting to look a real team. Northwestern is on its way down. Pick: Michigan
Matt: I am still not feeling this Michigan is good again vibe. I am enjoying their current misery, and it will continue. Pick: Northwestern

Ohio State @ Illinois, Saturday 12pm
Mike: Really? This is one of the 5 best games of the week? Either we screwed up selecting games or this is a really bad week. Except, this game didn’t look appealing last year and what happened? I didn’t get to see this matchup last year, Penn State was playing at Temple. I did get to listen to the last few minutes on the ride home. No way Ohio State lets that happen 2 years in a row. They still want a BCS bowl this year. Pick: Ohio State
Evan: I may have had to think about this game a little more before I saw what both Ohio State and Illinois did last week. Pick: Ohio State
Ahad: Ohio State still has a shot at sharing the Big 10 title. Illinois has had a disappointing season. Pick: OSU
Mike: I can’t believe I forgot to mention that Coach Zook’s squad lost to Western Michigan. While they seem to be having a good season, they are still a directional state school.
Matt: What a disappointing team Illinois is this year. Wow. Juice Williams did play amazing last year in their upset over OSU, but can he do it again this year? I feel like Illinois will be fired up, and play their best ball of the season, but it won’t be enough, because OSU is rolling now. Pick: Ohio State

Arizona @ Oregon, Saturday 6:30pm
Mike: My Ducks are back. They’ve been quiet this year. Hanging outside the rankings so they couldn’t burn me in picks. Lucky for them, this week we had to go further down the board for games. Outside of the USC game that Arizona played well in, I don’t believe I’ve seen anything from these teams. Surprisingly, they are still in the Pac-10 hunt. That is, if you are open to the chance that USC or Oregon State will lose a game. I’m going to decide this game the way I should any other Pac-10 games the rest of the season. You might say a good way would be how the teams played against USC and Oregon State. But no, I’m going to go with how they played against Washington and Washington State. Arizona: 107-42, Oregon: 107-24. Ok, so I’ll pick Oregon. But I have to say Arizona, how did you give up 28 to Wazzu? Their next highest total of the season was 17 at Baylor. I guess you can chalk it up to the fat they had been shut out in their previous 2 games.
Evan: I’d like to thank Mike for doing some homework for me. That’s as good a reason as any to pick Oregon, also it’s at Oregon, and they’re supposed to be good there. Pick: Ducks
Ahad: I thought we were done picking Oregon games. The Pac-10 is still a weak conference. Pick: Arizona
Matt: Arizona seemed to hold their own against USC last weekend. I am not sure if they can do the same this week in Oregon. I think the Ducks have a big advantage at home. Pick: Oregon

Vanderbilt @ Kentucky, Saturday 8pm
Mike: First, since this isn’t a great week for college football, I wanted to see what the primetime games were. ABC: Oklahoma State @ Colorado or Boston College @ Florida State (I looked at the coverage map for ABC and realized I didn’t really care either way), ESPN: Mississippi State @ Alabama (at least you’ve got the #1 team), ESPN2: Vanderbilt @ Kentucky (good matchup but certainly not top of the line), ESPNU: Connecticut @ Syracuse. If you feel like waiting until a little later and get FCS Pacific you can watch UCLA @ Washington, which might be the most entertaining out of that lineup. So back to this game. Can I classify Kentucky as annoying? Not to me but to the almost top teams of the SEC. Losing to Alabama by 3 and Gerogia by 4. I saw almost top teams because they lost to Florida by 58. Vandy on the otherhand is in a tailspin. Remember the talk a few weeks ago about them becoming bowl eligible? Well they’ve lost 4 straight and are still not eligible. They even lost to Duke. Lucky for them next week they get Tennessee. It should be close, Kentucky hasn’t been pulling away from teams in the SEC. So it could go either way. But based on Vandy’s recent struggles, I have to go Pick: Kentucky
Evan: Kentucky looked real good last week. Most of that was because they were so hyped to play a Georgia team they thought was down and out. Kentucky historically plays to the level of their opponent (exception UF), that would normally be good news for Vandy, but their offense is so awful right now that it would be difficult to imagine them getting far on Kentucky’s better than average D. Pick: Cats
Ahad: There are some really bad games this week. I don’t know too much about either team in this matchup. Pick: Vandy
Matt: Kentucky played a good game last week, and have been one of the top defensive teams in the SEC. Vanderbilt, has really gone downhill since they were the host of College Gameday. I think Kentucky wins it big. Pick: Kentucky