CFB Pick'Em Contest: Week 5 of 14

[GTJT622]

Quick Week 4 Recap: congrats to stech81 who went 7-3 on the week, closely followed by Texwood at 6-4. It was a tough week for the most part as those were the only 2 on the positive side of things. Pick of the week (unfortunately in this case) goes to stech81 who was the only one to side with Clemson laying 9.5 over GT. And, for the 2nd time this season, the unanimous pick (ND -21) not only loses vs the spread but loses straight up. The top 3 guys in the standings below have avoided the negative week so far. stech81 and I both have one bad week - mine took the prize for worst in the season at 2-8 this past week. Ouch!

Standings thru Week 4:

BornAJacket 23-16 (59.0%)
SPRITE6 22-17 (56.4%)
Texwood 22-17 (56.4%)
stech81 21-18 (53.8%)
RyanS12 21-18 (53.8%)
GTJT622 20-19 (51.3%)
BFLJr. 18-21 (46.2%)
Buzzforlife 15-24 (38.5%)

Week 5 games and spreads below. As always, please submit picks by 4pm Thursday. Thanks.

Game 1: Fri. 9:00 (ESPN) #7 Stanford at #10 Washington -2.5

Game 2: 12:00 (ESPN-2) #14 Miami -7.0 at Ga Tech

Game 3: 12:00 (ESPN) Syracuse vs Notre Dame -10.5 (at East Rutherford, NJ)

Game 4: 12:30 (ACC Network) Virginia at Duke -3.5

Game 5: 3:30 (ESPN) North Carolina at #12 Florida State -11.0

Game 6: 3:30 (CBS) #11 Tennessee -3.0 at #25 Georgia

Game 7: 3:30 (ABC) #8 Wisconsin at #4 Michigan -10.5

Game 8: 3:30 (RSN) Wake Forest at NC State -10.5

Game 9: 3:30 (CBS Sports Network) Navy at Air Force -7.5

Game 10: 8:00 (ABC) #3 Louisville -1.5 at #5 Clemson

*note...in case you are wondering, the Louisville -1.5 is not a misprint...Clemson opened as 2 pt favorites but the early week money has been riding heavy on the Cardinals to drive the spread over to their side

 

[Buzzforlife]

1)Stanford
2)Miami(forgive me for thinking that this is a 17 point game, bad boys win)
3)ND(in the name of the Duke of Earl, these are not royal teams)
4)Duke
5)F$U
6)Tenn(smoke 'em out in hell)
7)Wisconsin
8)WF
9)Navy
10)Louisville(wish I could get two instead of laying the point and one half)

 

[stech81]

1) Washington -2.5 I have no idea about any team in the Pac10
2) Miami -7
3)Syracuse +10.5
4) Duke -3.5
5) FSU -11 Don't feel good about this one FSU has no defense
6)uga +3 hope I'm wrong
7)Wisconsin +10.5
8)NC State -10.5
9) Air Force -7.5
10) Clemson +1.5 really don't think clemson can win but it's at home

 

[BornAJacket]

Stanford
GT
ND
Duke
UNC
Tenn
Wisc
NCSU
Air Force
Clemson

 

[BornAJacket]

Update:

Reconsidered WFU... Those 6 turnovers won't happen again

 

[GTJT622]

BAJ...noted on the change of pick to NCSU

Mine...

Stanford (Cardinal have beaten 3 quality opponents...Huskies have not faced much yet)

Miami (hope I'm wrong...Tech FB is at a crossroads right now and I'm not optimistic about where we are headed...just so many times can make excuses about youth and so forth...as pointed out before, against legit opponents in our last 4 home games our offense has scored 5 TD's in those 16 quarters...there is something seriously wrong with this offense...not just about Clemson's D being dominant)

Syracuse (Irish are in disarray...they may win but Orange keeps it close)

Virginia (Virginia is 3-0 ATS this season...I don't expect things to fall Duke's way like last week...UVA breaks 17-game road losing streak)

FSU (Cheaters play no defense whatsoever...FSU glad to be home...Cheaters offense 1-dimensional)

Tennessee (Vols play to level of competition...Dobbs' legs are the difference...Cesspool easily could be 1-3 right now)

Michigan (will the real Wiscy team stand up? that Michigan defense is still pretty darn good...a lot of stuff fell into the Badgers laps last week...can't see it happening in the state of Michigan 2 weeks in a row)

Wake Forest (hey, why not? Wake has some quality road wins already and NC State has no quality wins at all)

Navy (two even teams...extra half point is appreciated)

Louisville (Clemson's D will be challenged this week like they haven't all season...not sure Clemson's offense has turned any corners this season needed to be a championship type team)

 

[Texwood]

Stanford - Almost went with Rich Rod's Wildcats to beat Washington straight up last week at a really big number. Glad I didn't because that would have been two gut wrenching beats on the week as Arizona lost in overtime. Stanford is the better team here, go with the Cardinal.
GT - At first glance this doesn't look good. Miami's offense is a tough matchup for our defense. Any defense with a pulse is a tough matchup for our offense. Miami could roll. But if our offensive players and coaches have any pride in what they do, they should come out and play better against a Miami front seven that is step below what they faced against Clemson. Key to this one will be CTR's game plan against a very accurate QB. Go Ted, go Jackets!
ND - I expect Notre Dame's new DC to significantly simplify things on defense. I think Brian Kelly grew tired of watching his inexperienced defensive unit trying to solve a Rubik's Cube before every snap. If ND does go vanilla on D, that ought to be good enough for them to roll over a pretty awful Syracuse team on a semi-neutral site.
Virginia - Pick against Virginia at your own risk. They are a covering machine.
FSU - This is a tough one. I'm just going to assume that Charles Kelly will get things cleaned up enough on the back end of his defense to get a couple of stops against the Cheater's offense. That ought to be enough to cover the spread as FSU might score on every possession.
Tennessee - The bull pups are really close to being 1-3 with one of those losses coming at the hands to something called Nicholls. Besides being down in talent this year, this coaching transition sounds a bit like what went down with the Curry to Ross transition. Kirby's style is a tad more blunt than Richt's. Vols roll.
Wisconsin - The one constant with Wisconsin this season has been it's stout run defense. That unit looks like the real deal making 10.5 a big number for Michigan to cover.
NC State - Wake's 5-point win over Indiana was wind-aided by virtue of them being +5 in turnover margin. Wake's D surrendered an eye-popping 496 yards in the air against the Hoosiers. The Wolfpack's offense is being revamped this year under Guz Malzahn disciple Eliah Drinkwitz who brings a reputation as having a tremendous offensive mind. He also brought over his starting QB from Boise. I'm thinking that after three games and an extra week to prepare, the Pack's new offense is ready to click against a suspect pass defense.
Navy - Take the points in a game that looks to be pretty close.
Louisville - Everything we've seen so far says Louisville is the better team. I don't see Clemson's offense keeping up with Lamar Jackson and company. I can't stand Bobby Petrino and I hope this pick is wrong.

 

[SPRITE6]

Stan the man+2.5
Miami-7.5 ( I want this to be wrong )
Notta Dame-10.5
UVA+3.5
FSOOOO-11
RockyTop-3
Wissy+10.5
Packers-10.5
AFA-7.5
LouieLouie-1.5

 

[GTJT622]

6 are in the clubhouse. Note, there will be no unanimous pick this week.

 

[BornAJacket]

6 are in the clubhouse. Note, there will be no unanimous pick this week.

So we haven't doomed a team to defeat this week

 

[Buzzforlife]

Maybe we all can go with Pitt., next week? That should help the Jackets win it straight up.

BFL, Jr. taking his "homework" to school today. Still mulling over his picks. Serious student!

 

[BornAJacket]

I hate when I second guess myself. Seems like a couple games can just go either way with the spreads... so far I've decided to stay pat, go with it and let the chips fall.

 

[Buzzforlife]

BFL, Jr.-
------------

1)Stanford(they win by 3).
2)G.T.(wins by 7).
3)Syracuse(N.D. wins by a point).
4)Duke(by 2 T.D.'s).
5)F.S.U.(by 14).
6)Tenn.(wins by 28 over dirty filthy mutts).
7)Wisconsin(Mich. only wins by 7).
8)W.F.(Deacs. by 14).
9)Navy(Middies. by 1 pt.).
10)Louisville(Cards. win by 7).

 

[Texwood]

I hate when I second guess myself. Seems like a couple games can just go either way with the spreads... so far I've decided to stay pat, go with it and let the chips fall.

Don't kid yourself, they can all go either way . I don't like any of these enough to play with real money (except maybe Tennessee but they seem unreliable) and wouldn't be at all surprised to be wrong on a lot of them, or even all of them.

GTJT, what are you seeing out there that piques your interest? I'm not seeing much this week. After scanning through them all, I'll take a closer look at Oregon -1.5 at Washington State and Penn State -3 vs Minnesota. Playing dogs on the moneyline is my bread and butter, but not seeing anything I like yet.

ETA: Also taking a closer look at Baylor -16.5 @ Iowa State

 

[GTJT622]

7 in the clubhouse. Awaiting RyanS12.

Texwood, I like these...

• Ohio -2.5 over Miami OH...Bobcats are pretty good...well coached under Solich...Miami stinks...Ohio has dominated this series of late...I see it again
• Tennessee-Cesspool over 53...series has been high scoring (especially at the Toilet Bowl) and I see it happening again
• Cheaters-Noles over 69...both are potent offensively...neither plays much D...will remind you of a Big 12 game
• Marshall-Pitt over 68.5...Panthers might score near this total on their own...Marshall will score at lest 24 themselves as Pitt's D is suspect

Good luck, mate.

 

[Texwood]

You seem to gravitate to the over/under play so I'm guessing that statistically speaking, that is your money maker. After the first 10 years of doing this, I did a full blown analysis of my results, and it turned out that dogs on the moneyline was the play that was keeping the accounts floating. So now most of my plays are of that sort. Since then I've done well enough to actually pull from the accounts with nary a recharge. BTW, that analysis also showed that over/under's aren't for me, so I almost never play them.

Good luck on your picks this week, mate!

 

[GTJT622]

BION, as much as I joke (well, not really) about the B12 playing no defense and expecting shootouts, the Oklahoma-TCU trend is low-scoring games year after year. With the O/U at 69.5, I am considering laying a unit on the under as well.

I am looking at the Gators bouncing back and laying 10 at Vandy as well as Utah-Cal going over 67.

 

[Buzzforlife]

Thanks for all the work running this clean contest! It has been as much fun as a visit to the Dentist for a gross debriment.

If you should decide to miscount a few games for me so that I can pass BFL Jr., I might be able to wrestle your credit card back from Stech81(although it would cost a truck load in brew money to get him sauced enough to lift the plastic from him). Smiley face inserted here.

 

[GTJT622]

Bribes are still accepted. I'm no Jack Kennedy. I'm no Captain Kangaroo. But, I do dress nice. And, I live in a trailer park. Even if you are down 35 games going into the last week, for the right price, I can make you the winner with some creative accounting. I got my degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hell after all. I have no ethics.

 

[stinger78]

Quick Week 4 Recap: congrats to stech81 who went 7-3 on the week, closely followed by Texwood at 6-4. It was a tough week for the most part as those were the only 2 on the positive side of things. Pick of the week (unfortunately in this case) goes to stech81 who was the only one to side with Clemson laying 9.5 over GT. And, for the 2nd time this season, the unanimous pick (ND -21) not only loses vs the spread but loses straight up. The top 3 guys in the standings below have avoided the negative week so far. stech81 and I both have one bad week - mine took the prize for worst in the season at 2-8 this past week. Ouch!

Standings thru Week 4:

BornAJacket 23-16 (59.0%)
SPRITE6 22-17 (56.4%)
Texwood 22-17 (56.4%)
stech81 21-18 (53.8%)
RyanS12 21-18 (53.8%)
GTJT622 20-19 (51.3%)
BFLJr. 18-21 (46.2%)
Buzzforlife 15-24 (38.5%)

Week 5 games and spreads below. As always, please submit picks by 4pm Thursday. Thanks.

Game 1: Fri. 9:00 (ESPN) #7 Stanford at #10 Washington -2.5

Game 2: 12:00 (ESPN-2) #14 Miami -7.0 at Ga Tech

Game 3: 12:00 (ESPN) Syracuse vs Notre Dame -10.5 (at East Rutherford, NJ)

Game 4: 12:30 (ACC Network) Virginia at Duke -3.5

Game 5: 3:30 (ESPN) North Carolina at #12 Florida State -11.0

Game 6: 3:30 (CBS) #11 Tennessee -3.0 at #25 Georgia

Game 7: 3:30 (ABC) #8 Wisconsin at #4 Michigan -10.5

Game 8: 3:30 (RSN) Wake Forest at NC State -10.5

Game 9: 3:30 (CBS Sports Network) Navy at Air Force -7.5

Game 10: 8:00 (ABC) #3 Louisville -1.5 at #5 Clemson

*note...in case you are wondering, the Louisville -1.5 is not a misprint...Clemson opened as 2 pt favorites but the early week money has been riding heavy on the Cardinals to drive the spread over to their side

Stanford
GA Tech 223-0 (tie breaker)
Notre Dame
Dook
FSU
UTee
Michigan
NCSU
Navy
Clem's son

 

[RyanS12]

Stanford
GT
Nd
Duke
FSU
UT
Wisconsin
NC ST
AF
Clemson

 

[GTJT622]

All are in the house. Thanks, guys.

 

[Texwood]

I went ahead and took Baylor -16.5 over Iowa State. I tried real hard to make a case for Iowa State to keep it relatively close, but came up empty. Baylor knows they need style points given their pathetic non-conference schedule, so there's no way they let off the gas.

 

[GTJT622]

Houston up 42-7 over UConn, late 3Q. Almost pulled the trigger on the Cougs laying 27.5. Kinda kicking myself now for not doing it. If UConn backdoors the cover, I'll be glad I didn't...but, I don't see that happening.

 

[Texwood]

Yeah I took a look at that one too and backed off. Gotta like these teams that have a legitimate incentive to run up the score.

 

[GTJT622]

Yes indeedy. Find a team with incentive to RUTS against a crap team with the spread less than 35 pts and run with it. I should have. Oh well. They'll be more opp's this season with these same teams. If UofL defeats Clemson Saturday night, all eyes will be focused on what amounts to possibly and early playoff game between UofL and Houston later this season...though, Houston better be careful when they travel to Annapolis before that.

 

[Texwood]

After scoring on Houston winning straight up against Oklahoma, I made a promise to myself that I'll play Navy on the moneyline when Houston travels to Annapolis. So that's a done deal on my end.

 

[RyanS12]

I got in on Houston at -27.5. Got lucky as hell. Also got TT at 27.5 but they're letting a bad Kansas team hang around too long.

 

[RyanS12]

I also got in a 5 team parlay of GT+7.5
Tenn-3 Mich St -6.5 Clemson +2 Utah +2. Paid $30 wins $600

 

[GTJT622]

Just a reminder, we have a contest game tonight (Friday) at 9pmET as Stanford +2.5 travels to Washington on ESPN. stech81 has a chance to pick up a stroke on the field as he is the only one who sided with the Huskies to cover the 2' at home.

No unanimous picks this week, but 2 other games where we had only 1 team picked:

-BornAJacket took the Cheaters getting 11 at Tallahassee
-stech81 took the Cesspool getting 3 at home against the Big Orange

GO JACKETS!! GO VOLS!! GO JMU DUKES!!

 

[stech81]

Just a reminder, we have a contest game tonight (Friday) at 9pmET as Stanford +2.5 travels to Washington on ESPN. stech81 has a chance to pick up a stroke on the field as he is the only one who sided with the Huskies to cover the 2' at home.

No unanimous picks this week, but 2 other games where we had only 1 team picked:

-BornAJacket took the Cheaters getting 11 at Tallahassee
-stech81 took the Cesspool getting 3 at home against the Big Orange

GO JACKETS!! GO VOLS!! GO JMU DUKES!!

Just because I took the Cesspool I don't want the to win.

 

[GTJT622]

Just because I took the Cesspool I don't want the to win.

You're not alone. None of the rest of us want you to win that pick either.

 

[Texwood]

Just locked in Stanford +250 after Washington opened the game in impressive fashion.

 

[GTJT622]

At least so far, it looks like one team arose to the alarm clock while the other is still asleep. So far. Subject to change.

 

[Texwood]

Looks like this one could be a route! Surprising.

 

[Texwood]

So much for an entertaining matchup between two top 10 teams on a Friday night. This is a yawner. And another game in the Pick'em contest where stech81 picks up a stroke on the field! Well done!

 

[GTJT622]

Congrats to stech81 for taking the Huskies. He's been on a roll the last 2 weeks and starts off Week 5 in great shape as well. He must be drinking even more.

 

[GTJT622]

Notre Dame was leading Syracuse 23-13 with a little over 10 minutes left in the 1Q. Not sure I've ever seen that many points put on the board in less than 5 minutes to start a game.

 

[Texwood]

Looks like the over 74 is safe in that Notre Dame game. They reached 60 at the half. That's beyond Big-12 futility on D right there! WHITE FLAG

 

[Texwood]

Iowa State offense is running rough shod over Baylor. I'm a bad 0-2 this weekend. No mas.

WHITE FLAGWHITE FLAGWHITE FLAGWHITE FLAG