Roll Bama Roll College Pick 'Em Week 1

So Nico over at Roll Bama Roll has set up a weekly colllege Pick 'Em game for everyone in the blogosphere. Here are the details posted on RBR:

• Nico (RBR) picks 12 games a week:
  
• Games involving the AP Top 10 (I think he is switching to the BlogPoll top 10)
  
• Alabama's game
  
• Game Nico chooses to get the total up to 12

I went ahead and signed up. This is where you can go to sign up. Rules seem fairly simple.

So here are the 12 games for this week.  My picks are in bold:

• North Texas at Texas
  
• Northern Illinois at Ohio State
  
• California at Tennessee
  
• Marshall at West Virginia
  
• Hawaii at Alabama
  
• Southern Miss at Florida
  
• UAB at Oklahoma
  
• Washington State at Auburn
  
• Notre Dame at Georgia Tech (Played in Atlanta)
  
• Louisiana-Lafayette at LSU
  
• USC at Arkansas
  
• Florida State at Miami

Yeah, I know at least two head-scratchers in there. Here is why:

Cal at Tennessee: Cal is emerging as one of favorites of ESPN, who are anxious to shed their image of being a regional network. They are building up Cal as USC's rival the same way Michigan is rival with Ohio State. lol Lot of people around the country will be watching this game and use it as a short term (inaccurate) barometer whether Pac-10 is a legit conference. I think Cal will lose. They just announced Longshore as the starter for this game. Longshore barely beat out Ayoub (arguably the worst QB in the Pac-10 last year). He played one insignificant game against some cupcake team last year before getting injured. Now he gets to take on a fired up Volunteer stadium at Neyland Stadium, one of the toughest venues in the game. Sure Cal will have Lynch and a solid OL, but I think Longshore may not be ready yet. While on the other side Eric Ainge will have the QB controversy behind him, and an in experienced Cal secondary to exploit. Without Mixon (senior CB out with an ACL injury) in the Cal secondary I can see Ainge doing some of this:



If TN draws the first blood in this game, I expect TN to prevail and start a solid season for Fulmer and crew. I will go with the Vols making our friends at Rocky Top Talk (the latest member of SBN college blogroll) happy.

USC at Arkansas: Apparently the only way the Hogs had a shot to win this game was if they had their starting tailback Darren McFadden, who per Herbie, is one of the 5 best tailbacks in the country. But McFadden is out for this game because of a surgery stemming from some incident at some Little Rock night club. The team is going to depend on sophomore Felix Jones and junior Peyton Hillis to carry the load until McFadden returns. Junior Robert Johnson will be the starting QB for the Hogs, he actually didn't play so bad against the Trojies last season before leaving the game with an injury. And then the roof caved in. Yes, of course when everyone is thinking of this game they are thinking of that 17-70 ass-kicking it got at the Mosoleum. But no one is remembering how it ended the season on a semi decent note winning 2 out of its last 3 games and a moral victory against LSU (17-19). SC is the obvious favorite in this game. But hey the Trojans are also breaking in a brand new QB, tailbacks, and defense that got torched last time it took the field. May be, just may be this could be one of those classic ambush games. Can you imagine a Saturday night celebrating a UCLA win and a SC choke in Clintonville? Woo, pig, Suey! !


Breaking in a new QB/new RBs on the road infront of 75,000 crazy SEC fans?>

When it comes to SCum, I always end up going with my heart. I am picking these thugs to lose. Screw Pac-10 pride. F*CK SC.

FSU at Miami: I did pick Miami, over Florida State. which may also come back to bite me in the rear end. I just think Miami may have the psychological edge going into this game. Everyone is counting them out because of all the questions around Coker and the way they finished last season (getting blown against LSU). But man they have some talents in their defense. If they come out like gang busters (have to be careful here bringing up "gang" in the same sentence with Miami since I am talking about USC of the East after all) and get decent production out of their O (led by blue chip QB Kyle Wright), they may get Bowden to choke wide right again.


FSU Kicker Matt Munyon after missing a 49 yarder against Canes

I think the other choices are fairly safe. Since the final picks have to be submitted before midnight the day before the game, I have until Friday night this week.

Let me know what you think.

GO BRUINS.