This Weekend in College Football: Week 10

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon:

• Virginia Tech @ Boston College (ABC/ESPN2): Once again, I’m going to say that the main goal for VPI here is to somehow, some way, figure out how to score 17 points, because that’s probably all they need to win.
• Wisconsin @ Iowa (ABC/ESPN2): Both these teams posses good defenses, but only one has a competent offense. I’ll favor the Badgers in this one.
• Illinois @ Pennsylvania State (ESPN): I’m going to lean very slightly toward Penn State in this one, but only very.
• Army @ Air Force (ESPNU): Air Force looks awful this year. I think I’m actually picking Army.
• Ohio State @ Purdue (BTN): Well, Ohio State forever reason has trouble against the Boilermakers. They actually lost to Purdue two years ago and needed overtime to win last year. Of course, that doesn’t really have any bearing on this Ohio State team, but then again, on paper the Buckeyes should pretty much always be favored, right?
• Southern Mississippi @ Marshall (CBSS): I’m sure when this game was picked for TV, no one was really expecting Southern Miss to be the worth team in college football for the second straight year.
• Mississippi State @ South Carolina (SEC): There’s some good teams in the SEC, and some really bad ones. Miss State somehow is just mediocre. Should be a win for the Gamecocks.

12:30:

• North Carolina @ North Carolina State (ACC): NC State, ‘cause why not?
• Wake Forest @ Syracuse (ACC/FSN): If Wake isn’t too bummed out about their lost opportunity against Miami last week, I think they could actually have some success up in the Carrier Dome.

3:30:

• Florida vs. Georgia (@Jacksonville, FL; CBS): This game is going to be ugly, and probably not even in the entertaining way. At least Florida plays defense. While UGA did play offense earlier this season, last week’s loss to Vandy was mostly due to almost all their skill players other than Aaron Murray being hurt. The Gators could well win this one 6-3 or something.
• Navy @ Notre Dame (NBC): Notre Dame.
• Michigan @ Michigan State (ABC): Very cautiously going with Michigan in this one, but with these teams having wildly opposite strengths I also expect this one to be close. But Michigan can get to 17 or 21 points it’s hard to see how Michigan State is going to score enough to win.
• Clemson @ Virginia (ESPN): UVA is awful, Clemson rolls.
• Iowa State @ Kansas State (FS1): Iowa State is also awful, but K-State may not be good enough to completely roll them.
• West Virginia @ Texas Christian (ESPNU): TCU can’t score, but somewhat surprisingly, neither can WVU. I’m not sure which way to roll on this one, so I’m going with the Horned Frogs.
• Northwestern @ Nebraska (BTN): Northwestern has lost five straight Big Ten games, and I have a feeling it’s about to be five.
• Arizona @ California (Pac12): Arizona.

4:00: Hawaii @ Utah State (CBSS): Utah State.

6:00: Auburn @ Arkansas (ESPN2): Arkansas has lost its last two games by a combined score of 104-7. That’s… not good. Meanwhile, Auburn has only scored less than 30 points once this season. This could get ugly.

7:00:

• Oklahoma State @ Texas Tech (FOX): That loss to West Virginia is looking more and more inexplicable as the season goes on, but that said, these teams otherwise appear to be pretty even, so I’ll give an edge to the home team.
• Tennessee @ Missouri (ESPN): I’ve seen some bad losses in my time, but I’m not sure I’ve ever felt the impact of a gut wrenching loss for a team that isn’t my own than I did when I saw that ball clang off the uprights. That said, I don’t expect the transitive property to hold up (South Carolina lost to Tennessee two weeks ago), as Mizzou is just categorically better than the Volunteers.
• Pittsburgh @ Georgia Tech (ESPNU): Last week’s win in Charlottesville may be the ugliest win I’ve ever seen by a Georgia Tech team. I’m still not sure how you can turn the ball over 5 times and escape with a victory, but we managed. So now our attentions turn to Pitt.
  So last weekend, Pitt lost at Navy. So there’s a couple ways this can go, and if you pay attention to GT sports, you can probably already guess the narratives. Quickly, they are something along these lines. Since Pitt played Navy last weekend, they’ve had an extra week to practice against our offense, and especially at full-speed. The retort is, of course, that hopefully our guys are a little more athletic and skilled than Navy’s. And, of course, we do have some shotgun/pistol looks in our pocket as well.
  Pitt is pretty middle-of-the-road statistically, though maybe slightly better than their 4-3 record. They’re definitely a better team than Virginia, and I can guarantee that we will not beat them if we turn the ball over five times again.

7:30: Colorado @ California-Los Angeles (FS1): So far, Colorado has not scored more than 20 or given up less than 40 in their Pac-12 games. This is not what one would call a formula for success, and indeed, success will likely remain elusive against the Bruins.

8:00:

• Miami @ Florida State (ABC): I figure the line for this game is mostly due to FSU’s pummeling of Clemson and Miami barely beating Wake Forest last weekend. I understand that, okay? And I still think FSU is going to win. But probably not by 3+ touchdowns.
• Boise State @ Colorado State (CBSS): It’s definitely a down year for the Broncos, but they should still be good enough to win this one.

9:00: Texas-El Paso @ Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (ESPN2): Oh, what I would give to have this game be at UTEP. Alas, in the safe confines of Kyle Stadium even TAMU’s awful defense should be able to contain the 1-6 Miners. (Also, UTEP’s defense is actually worse than TAMU’s, so… yeah.)

10:30: Nevada @ Fresno State (ESPNU): Nevada just isn’t that good this year, unfortunately. They probably won’t provide that much of an impediment to Fresno’s BCS quest.