Another week of college football picks ahead of the noon kickoff start time. I’m hoping to do a little bit better than last week. I certainly learned my lesson to never bet on the number one team in the country ever again and never doubt the coaching ability of the ol’ ball coach. So, I’m vowing to stay away from the new number one Ohio State and looking to another team in the Big Ten to make me some coin.
#15 Iowa (-4) vs. Michigan
It’s not the sexiest team in the country nor is it the sexiest pick to make, but the Hawkeyes are just so damn consistent. Their defense is punishing and their offence does enough to get the job done. It’s all about their defense though. They’ve got the best points allowed per game average in the country, have held 4 of their 5 opponents to 7 points or less and haven’t given up a rushing touchdown this year.
I know Denard Robinson is a different cat and that Michigan will get some points on the board today, but they won’t get nearly enough and the Hawkeyes will continue to be that team that wins every single week and still gets no attention.
#11 Utah (-21) vs. Wyoming
I won with them last week and I might as well keep riding on the Utes bandwagon for another week. Just like Iowa, we’ve become accustomed to them winning all the time, but we never want to give them credit for doing it. The numbers are staggering though. They beat up Iowa State 68-27 last week, had just less than 600 yards of total offense and are now averaging 49 points a game.
On the other side, the numbers for Wyoming are staggering because they are so bad. The Cowboys allow 471 yards of offense a game and give up an average of 251 yards on the ground per game. You want to hear what their offense can do? From the Associated Press: Wyoming is last in the FBS in offense at 240.7 yards per game and in rushing yards with 69.2. The Cowboys are tied for 118th out of 120 FBS teams with 12.5 points a contest.
BYU (+29.5) vs. #4 TCU
This used to be a matchup that would be of consequence in the Mountain West. Somewhere along the way, TCU and Utah have leapt ahead of the Cougars to make the team from Provo a complete afterthought. Despite all that, seeing a 29.5 spread against BYU still catches the eye and makes you wonder what happened to such a storied program.
TCU is certainly a juggernaut, but a couple of things in BYU’s last game lead me to believe that they will keep this game close. On offense, they had their best single-game outputs in points and yards in a hard-fought win against San Diego State. On defense, they looked solid under a new defensive coordinator after their previous one had been fired the week before. Again, don’t pick them to win, but if they can snowball what they did a week ago, they at least keep it close.