College Football Week 3 Preview – Weekend

Evan: I am the king of picks! Don’t you all feel inadequate after my brilliant call on the Miami/Ga Tech game? Let’s just blame it on the fact that I have my finger on the pulse of Florida football.

Boston College @ Clemson, Saturday 12pm
Mike: The first test for BC after their cupcake wins (Northeastern & Kent St). Clemson has too many offensive weapons that BC won’t be able to keep up with. Pick: Clemson
Evan: My first instinct is to just pick the opposite of Janke, since he’s so awful. Clemson has consistently been an overrated team, but BC isn’t exactly brimming with NFL talent. If this game were in beantown I’d have to do some thinking. Pick: Clemson
Ahad: BC hasn’t impressed me since the days of Flutie. Pick: Clemson
Matt: What about Matty Ice, Ahad? I haven’t seen much of either team yet, but I feel like Clemson is the stronger team, and they are at home. Pick: Clemson

Tennessee @ Florida, Saturday 3:30pm
Mike: Is the question here how much will UF win by? You might have something to talk about if Tennessee had beaten UCLA, but they lost, at home. Pick: Florida
Evan: I don’t want to Jinx anything so I will refrain from analysis. Pick: Florida
Ahad: No contest here. I have a feeling that the Gators will be looking to run it up. Pick: Florida
Matt: For me, the toughest decision here is whether Florida will cover the spread. Tennessee is nowhere near the class of Florida and certainly not at their talent level. Kiffin eats his words. Pick: Florida

Michigan State @ Notre Dame, Saturday 3:30pm
Mike: There must be a lack of close games this week. Michigan St lost to Central Michigan. Pick: Notre Dame
Evan: Ah geez, I don’t know what to think. There’s a good chance both Michigan and Notre Dame are awful teams, and we just saw a really good game between two equally awful teams. At the same time, we know that the Spartans are really bad. When you have two bad teams, you go with home field. Pick: Irish
Ahad: Not sure what to expect out of expect out of either one of these teams. Both teams lost games they should have won, at least on paper. I am going to have to be a Big Ten homer here and go against ND. The loss last week with either fire them up or be the beginning of a terrible season. Pick: MSU
Matt: Michigan State was supposed to be the darkhorse challenger for the Big Ten. They didn’t look like it last week. Notre Dame lost a tough one at Michigan. They are back at home and will get their revenge against the state of Michigan. Pick: Notre Dame

Cincinnati @ Oregon State, Saturday 6:45pm
Mike: Oregon State has either fallen off from last year, or takes a few weeks to get going. They looked abysmal last year against Penn State but nearly made the Rose Bowl. So was the close win against UNLV last week just more of the early season issues? Who knows, but Cincy looks good. They but up 70 on SE Missouri St, a perennial power. Cincy isn’t getting a lot of respect, they won the Big East last year, haven’t shown any signs of falling off, but are only ranked #17. This team could really just roll through the Big East and the rest of their schedule. I’d really like to get a look at this game, it looks like I’ll be able to watch it on FCS Central. What? Central? I thought Big 12 was on Central, I guess they decided to average the geography for these teams. Pick: Cincinnati
Evan: I am shocked that Mike would deviate from his love of the state of Oregon. I’m not a fan of Cincinnati unless its to cover the spread against Ohio State. Pick: Oregon State
Ahad: I wonder if Mike’s picking prowess includes Oregon State and is not limited only to Oregon. Cincy has a good chance of winning the Big East again and I don’t think Oregon State will make much noise in the Pac 10. Pick: Cincy
Matt: I’d like to watch this game just to see Quizz run wild. However, Cincinnati has looked good so far this season and have looked pretty impressive offensively. They put up just enough points to eke out the win. Pick: Cincinnati

Average games
Arizona @ Iowa (Saturday 3:30pm, ABC or ESPN2) – Something about this game jumped out at me right away. Maybe it was just the matchup. This is the 12th meeting and 1st since 98. Not as rare as I would have expected.
Indiana @ Akron (Saturday 3:30pm, ESPNU) – Seems like an even matchup. I’d pick PSU to beat IU something like 31-7.
Connecticut @ Baylor (Saturday 5pm, TV?) – This could be more than an average matchup. UConn should get noticed after last week’s close game with UNC.
Northwestern @ Syracuse (Saturday 7pm, TV?) – I’m curious where Syracuse ranks in the Big 10, Northwestern seems about right.

Standings
Mike 5-5 (2-3)
Ahad 5-5 (3-2)
Evan 5-5 (3-2)
Matt 4-6 (3-2)