College Game Day – Three Picks Week Five

College Game Day – Three Picks Week Five.  Last week was a rough week for me going 1 – 2.  Bring me down to a 9 – 6 record in the College Game Day Picks.  At points last week it really looked like we were going to get all our picks correct.  Then Florida and Washington decided to let us all down.  That is of course unless you are a Georgia or Utah fan.  Then you are very happy with what happened.  Utah ending up winning that game helps to keep the PAC 12 chances of getting into the playoff alive.  Florida Losing that game assures that Florida is pretty much out of every championship scenario.  I almost felt bad about picking against SMU but then I remembered that Craig James played for them in the 80’s and that feeling went away.  It is nice to see Memphis be good and hold up.  Setting up things for a Cincinnati vs Memphis Championship game in the AAC.

Impact Game

Penn State at Minnesota

This a huge game for the Big Ten and for the College Football playoff.  If Minnesota can win this game is will certainly help their standing in the eyes of the college football playoff committee.  If Penn State wins then it will set up a top four clash with Ohio State in the third weekend of November.  Either way this game is a good thing for the excitement level in the Big Ten.  No one thought that Minnesota would be in this situation in year three of rowing the boat.  The Big Ten West has to find a way to really compete with the Big Ten East year to year.  The Big Ten really needs this to happen as well.

These two teams have some very similar stats this year.  Except for when it comes to defense.   Minnesota is giving up 20 points a game and Penn State is giving up less than ten.  Of course that does not always mean a lot in college since a lot of the stats are based on situational football.  The points by Minnesota could have been given up in garbage time.  The other big difference here is that Penn State has played three teams that were ranked.  The best team that Minnesota has played is Illinois.  Again that does not always mean a lot.  What it does tell us is this is a make or break game for Minnesota.  If they win this one then they can say they are for real.  If they lose this one people will say.  See told you they were not that good.  It is an early game in a nice cold out door stadium.  This should be a great college football game.

Minnesota 31 Penn State 24

Interesting Game

South Carolina Vs Appalachian State

Who would have thought a few years ago that this game would fall in this category.  Appalachian State move to the top level of college football is really paying off.  For them and for College Football fans.  Appalachian State moved up the the Division I FBS division in 2014 when they joined the Sun Belt Conference.  before that they were in the FCS division where they won three straight nation championships from 2005 to 2007.  Included in that time period was a win over Michigan to start their 2007 season.  That win was picked as one of the top five wins in the 150 year history of College Football.  While is was a great win for them I am not sure it was a great game.  If that game could be played ten times I am sure that Michigan team would win nine of them.  But that is the way it goes. Appalachian state has a great history.  So does South Carolina.   At this point these teams are on different trajectories.  Even though South Carolina is a group of five team at this point they probably wish they were having the season that Appalachian State is having.

Appalachian State has been able to turn into one of the places players want to do to play.  Players that are either getting little or no attention from the power five schools but clearly have some huge up side.  Appalachian State has been able to build teams that are able to compete.  South Carolina has a lot of history and should be able to compete just about every year.  At 4  – 5 with games still to come against Texas A&M and Clemson it is not looking like this is going to be a bowl season for the Gamecocks.  Appalachian State suffered their first loss of the season last week.  They should be pumped up for this game.

Appalachian State 35 South Carolina 24

Upset Game

Virginia Tech over Wake Forest

The one thing that the ACC needs is at least two good teams.  Unfortunately for them the only two candidates for good teams are in the ACC Atlantic division.  Wake has had an alright season so far.  Their only loss was a crazy loss to Louisville in week six.  They have had some close calls against Utah State, North Carolina, Boston College and FSU.  While Wake is a decent team if you are going to play that many games that close at some point it is going to bite you.   Virginia Tech has had an alright season.  Not good not bad.  It seemed like Tech was getting things rolling and then got blown out by Duke last week.  A game that was pretty much Duke controlling everything in the game.  It was really uncharacteristic of Tech to lay an egg like that.

If you strictly look at the stat sheet then this game should be a walk in the park for Wake.  Every stat on offense and defense points to Wake being the better team.  This game has not been a normal game when these two teams hook up.  The last time these teams met they played to a 0 – 0 tie in regulation and the final after two over times was Wake 6 Virginia Tech 3.  That is one crazy score especially when you take into account that there was two over times.  This is not how this game is going to go this year.  There will be some scoring in this game.  The problem for Wake is that Louisville got them week six I see Virginia Tech getting them this week.

Virginia Tech 27 Wake Forest 21