College Football - Week 2

The season is getting thrown into high gear this weekend with some big games.

The weekend starts out tonight with an interesting game between Houston & UTEP. UTEP beat Houston last year when they were ranked #12 in the country. The game is in Houston this year so I don't think they let history repeat itself. Marshall vs. West Virginia is somewhat interesting because it's a rivalry, but I'd be surprised if WVU doesn't win by double digits.

Saturday starts off really nicely with South Florida at Florida and Georgia at South Carolina. It will be interesting to see the Skip Holtz version of USF, but the real interest will be how Florida's offense performs after that atrocious start last week. I'm going to pick Florida but they don't cover at -15. The South Carolina/Georgia contest is a HUGE game. I've picked South Carolina to win the East and it starts tomorrow at home against the Dawgs. How will Aaron Murrey respond in his first SEC road game? South Carolina has the edge in experience at QB and on the defense. With USC's tough D it should be really hard for Murrey to get a rhythm on the road, and not having A.J. Green is huge because USC won't have to double team him and that's one more defender for Murrey to deal with in the secondary. I think Murrey struggles in the red zone and Spurrier plays it close to the vest in a typical USC/UGA game, 20-16 Gamecocks.

Coming into the season I thought Tennessee would be terrible, and they may very well be but that 50-0 victory over UT-Martin has me scratching my head. I'm very interested to see them play Oregon...but I think Oregon does win and probably covers at -13. Arkansas & Kentucky should role over their cupcakes. Ole Miss' flop last week leads them into Week 2 going to New Orleans to play Tulane who nearly flopped themselves only beating Southeastern Louisiana by 6 points. I would be extremely surprised if Ole Miss lost this one after what just happened, but I don't know if they're 21 points better than the Green Wave. LSU beats Vandy, it could be close, or it could be a blowout...who knows when Les Miles is involved; but Vandy certainly has a chance in this game. I don't see Penn State at Alabama being very close at all. This is the first chance for a team to expose Bama's defense with only 2 returning starters but I don't think Penn State has enough in their wheelhouse to do much, 31-13 Alabama.

Iowa State at Iowa could get interesting but I look for the Hawkeyes to take care of business at home. Florida State at Oklahoma looks like a great matchup, especially with the Sooners struggling last week to get past Utah State. This game could be really high scoring with Christian Ponder and Landry Jones throwing it around...I'm very tempted to pick Florida State but I'm going to stay with Oklahoma at home in a very close one. I probably should boycott picking Michigan at Notre Dame because they don't deserve the pub they get but I will pick it -- Notre Dame, push on the spread. Miami at Ohio State is the big game of the day and I'm not sure what to expect. Both teams are loaded with talent and I think it's a clash of top 10 caliber teams, both of which has struggled with constituency the last couple of years. The spread is -9 for Ohio State and I'm going to have to take that if I'm Miami...I definitely think they will cover. And since I do I'm going to reach out on a limb, go against my preseason pick and say Miami beats Ohio State in Columbus, 30-28.

I'll be watching all these games from my living room, and it certainly looks like an entertaining day tomorrow. After watching (1) South Carolina/Georgia and (2) USF/Florida, (1) Miami, FL/Ohio State and (2) Florida State/Oklahoma are on at 3:30. Then the night games are (1) Penn State/Alabama and (2) Oregon/Tennesee, although the LSU/Vanderbilt game might be the best game going on tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it.

JB