Your Week 2 Viewiing Guide

If you're not spending your day travelling to Norman like yours truly, here's your viewing guide for Saturday, Sep 11:

1100 am: This one's a no brainer. South Carolina hosts Georgia, favored by 3. The Gamecocks may have an offense this year, and Georgia may have improved defense due to Willie Martinez now being DB coach for the Sooners. Prediction: Gamecocks by 2.

1100 am: TV timeouts only: Kansas seeks to avenge its 1948 Orange Bowl loss to Georgia Tech. Ga Tech is favored by 13.5. Flip over to see if Kansas is having any better luck against than they did against North Dakota State. Prediction: Ga Tech by 17

The 230 pm time slot has a couple of appealing games. Aside from the pending Sooner W over the Florida State Seminoles, you can choose from the following fare:

• On Fox Sports, Colorado travels to California in a Pac 10 preview. I wouldn't watch this at gunpoint. Let's move on.
• The U travels to Columbus as a 8.5 point underdog to take on the Buckeyes. LeBron James is suppsoed to be there. Ohio State looks to extend it's five game winning streak. I don't know what LBJ's decision is as to who to root for, but I expect the 'Canes to win outright.
• Iowa hosts Iowa State as a 13.5 point favorite. Kirk Frerentz is 5-6 against the Cyclones. He's fittin' to be 6-6.

At 600 pm, it's a no brainer. Penn State travels to Alabama as a 12 point underdog. Nick Saban figured out this week that he was playing Penn State coached by Joe Paterno, not Huntsville Penitentiary State led by Cletus Hogg. Paterno is 4-8 against the Tide, with most of those in the Bryant-Perkins-Curry era from 1975-90. It doesn't matter if Mark Ingram plays or not, JoePa is sending a true freshman into Tuscaloosa, and will slide to 4-9 against Alabama.

Some people may want to flip over to watch Texas overwhelm Wyoming, but those folks aren't reading this blog. Texas easily covers the 28 point spread.

Weekend viewing Guide - Week 2

Friday,
Dan Hawkins Farewell Tour at Toledo - The Buffaloes travel to Ohio to play the Rockets. Last week the Rockets surrendered 8.1 yards per carry and 535 total yards to Pur-ue, but gained 493 against the Boilermakers. Colorado hopes to get 535 yards this season. Colorado is favored by 4, which means a) more bettors follow Colorado; or b) gamblers believe last Sunday was an anomaly. Considering Colorado is playing on a short week, I'll take the Rockets here.

1100 am Saturday:
Iowa at Iowa State - The Hawkeyes the Cyclones for the Corncob Cup in Ames. With Iowa already beating Northern Iowa, the winner will win the championship of Iowa, and proceed to go somewhere between 3-8 and 7-4. Pick: Iowa Hawkeyes

230 pm Saturday - this is a tough time slot to pick from. Throw in the season opener of the 10U CYSA season at 3, and there's a lot going on in this time slot.

Horned Lizards at William and Mary's b**** - TCU travels to Charlottesville to take on the Wahoos. Will Mountain West pride overwhelm the wounded feelers of the Wahoos, who lost to William and Mary last week? Inquiring minds want to know. I'm expecting a Frogs victory here.

Houston at Boone State - the Pokes are vying for a Houston city championship the next two weeks by hosting the Cougars and the Owls. Boone State is rated in the top 5 for the fifth time in history. They finished the season in 1945 ranked fifth, had two weeks in 1984 in the top 5 (fell out after losing to OU), and had one week in the top 5 in 1985, then promptly lost to Nebraska. The Houston is a bit more powerful and diverse than what Georgia offered up last week. Then again, the D is probably a bit more porous. Prediction: Boone State

FishEaters at FC Dickrod - Notre Dame-Michigan is somewhere between train wreck and clash of the titans this year. Both won handily against mid-majors last week. Can the Irish have their first three game winning streak since they mowed through Duke, Stanford, San Diego State and Michigan at spanning the 07-08 seasons? Will Michigan have it's first two game winning streak of the Dickrod era? I'm going with the Wolverines.

6pm, Big 10 network:
Illinois State at Illinois - the Battle of Illinois happens this week. The Redbirds are coming off a tough loss to Tony Romo U, their first to Eastern Illinois in Normal since 1997. The illini are smarting from what has become an annual butt-whooping by the Missouri Tigers to start the season. Which team will climb to 1-1, and which will fall to 0-2? All I know is the Redbirds haven't been the same since Sooner great Justin Fuentes bailed on Normal and headed for Ft worth. Prediction: Illinois

7pm ABC:
Ohio State vs USC-West - The Trojans are 12-9-1 against Ohio State. The last time the Buckeyes beat the Men of Troy? 1974. Pete Carroll is 6-0 against Big 10 schools. Prediction: Buckeyes.

Weekend Viewing Guide - Week 1

It's a light slate of games later this weekend. One of the most intriguing matchups of the weekend is the Oregon-Boise State game, which is going on as I type this.

Your 230 Central time slot has some appealing games...

• Baylor at Wake Forest (-2.5): Don't you think it's odd there's a betting line on a game between Baptist schools? Reverend Rob leads the Bears into Winston Salem to avenge last year's loss to WFU, which was the first time the Bears fell to the Deacons. The Bears should improve on last year's showing, which included Kirby Freeman's 4-13 with two picks debut, and ended with three additional turnovers. The Deacons lost Riley Skinner, an excellent college QB. I expect the Bears to take care of the ball better and beat the Deacons upright.
• Georgia at Boone State (-4.5): This line has fallen over the past two days, as people thought about this and said, "self, can Boone State really beat an SEC team by a touchdown? I'll take my chances with Joe Cox and the Dawg defense." Plus, the Pokes made a couple of field trips to Payne County Courthouse with Perrish Cox and the Pokes TE, who left school after earning a TRO.
• Missouri at Illinois (-6.5) - The talented Illini squad should overwhelm the inexperienced Tigers. Saturday will mark the debut of Blaine Gabbert as the Tiger QB. Gabbert as described as bigger with a stronger arm, which only reminds me of Hayden Fry commenting on Chuck Long's successor at Iowa, "He must have a stronger arm, he keeps overthrowing the receivers." I'm going to pick the Illini to cover in this one.
• Nevada at Notre Dame (-14.5); Saturday marks the first time ever a team from the WAC has travelled to Notre Dame Stadium. The Wolfpack aren't completely unfortunate looking, having gone 7-6 last year, with their last four losses being decided by a TD or less. Conversely, their last two victories over BCS qualifiers have been Northwestern and Washington, who haven't been juggernauts lately. Come Labor Day, we can all analyze how many spots ND jumps for beating a team handily that they should beat handily.

The next game of interest, if you're not dropping $40 to watch UT-ULL, is at 7 on ABC.

• Alabama (-6) vs Virginia Tech: If I weren't going to be at the Sooner game, I'd be watching this one. Last year, Saban's squad destroyed a Clemson team that was discovered to be overrated. I'm still trying to figure out how Virginia Tech became a top 10 team over the summer, so I'm going to go with the Tide to cover the six point spread.

Sunday afternoon, when you should be spending time with your family...

• Ole Miss at Memphis (-17): I had absolutely no interest in covering this game, but anytime a school comes up with a t-shirt that says Bust a Nutt, it deserves mention here. The school has now pulled the t-shirt, which is just sad. let's face it, your Memphis. No one's referring to the school as the Harvard of the Mississippi River anyway. Back to the game...Jevan Snead and the Rebels will get on top of the Tigers early, and Memphis will wilt under the pressure. Later, Coach Tommy West will say to the Tigers, "it's okay, it happens to everyone sometime along the way."

And finally, a way to end your Labor Day weekend...

• Florida St (-6.5) hosts Miami - in the middle part of this decade, this was a premier matchup and a slobberknocker of a game between two great defensive units. The game has lost a little bit of it's luster with some depressed times for the Canes and Noles, but still warrants some mention. Randy Shannon just hopes his one scholarship QB doesn't get hurt. I'm expecting the Seminoles to win this one, but not cover the spread.

LandTheives Viewing Guide

What I'd be watching, if I weren't travelling to Norman or weren't at the six man football festival in Hico:

10 am - start off with Appy State at LSU - the game time was moved to accommodate fleeing from the coasts. This is a huge advantage to Appy State; the Bayou Bengals fans will be a mixture of still drunk and hungover and won't know what hit 'em. At least that's what I wished happened. Pick: LSU.
130 pm - a late lunch, maybe a nap.
230 pm - A challenging time slot. You can watch FSNSW and root for the Cougars against the favored Pokes; check out the 2008 version of the USC Trojans, or examine DickRod's debut as Michigan coach. I would probably channel surf amongst all three, rooting for the Cougars, Cavaliers and Utes, and expecting to be disappointed in all three games. Picks: Cowboys, Trojans and Wolverines
500 pm - add TCU vs New Mexico on Versus to the rotation. Since the DMN will spend more ink on the WR meltdown for the Dallas Cowboys, watching this is the only way to keep up with the Frogs in Dallas county. Pick: Frogs.
700 pm - At this point, you're probably at halftime of the TCU game, and can add the Bama - Clemson game to the rotation. Pick: Clemson
730 pm - The Missouri - Illinois game starts on ESPN. It's diabolical of the world wide leader to take the only two games featuring ranked foes on both sidelines and put them on at the same time. Drop the Frogs game - sorry Poe - and flip b/w Bama-Clemson and Mizzou-Illinois.Pick: Mizzou.
900 pm - As the 700ish games roll into halftime, Washington vs Oregon starts on FSNSW. The late Pac10 games are often a well played treat. Usually U-dub is not involved. At the conclution of this game, you would have watched football for 14 hours, with perhaps a one hour respite. Pick: Oregon

Ah, what a great day.