Another week, another upset or two I wish I had pulled the trigger on. And another embarrassing Canes loss. This has been a bit of a rough week for me and I've been pretty busy so I'm sure glad it's Saturday and I know I can't let my four or five adoring fans down! Last Week Overall: 2-2 Upsets: 1-1 Season Overall: 49-16 Upsets: 10-7 3:30pm -- #12 Texas A&M @ #22 LSU -- CBS (UPSET ALERT) This is a really tough pick. Two high powered offenses facing inconsistent defenses. LSU is 31-2 at home in the last five years (and favored by 5, surprisingly) but Johnny Manziel is undefeated on the road in his career. It's heart v. head again--Upset Hobbit's heart is telling him Johnny Football will go out with something to prove in the Heisman race and break out to lead his team to victory but his head is saying that LSU is just too tough at home and too balanced on offense for A&M's defense. We've been going head way too often. This week, w...

So I've really been trying to avoid covering Thursday games this year because, frankly, as you've seen, it's hard enough to get this thing done by Saturday morning. This week, however, it was unavoidable as the two biggest games of the week are BOTH Thursday night games--one of them a matchup of two top ten teams and the other a meeting of two top five teams. Not including these would kinda defeat the purpose of this column so I'm coming at you early this week because I love you all and want you to be happy (or something). ALSO THIS WEEK: I will be tweeting LIVE from the Miami/Virginia Tech game at Sun Life Stadium Last Week Overall: 4-0 Upsets: 0-1 Season Overall: 46-11 Upsets: 9-6 THURSDAY 7:30pm -- #10 Oklahoma @ #6 Baylor -- FOX SPORTS 1 Baylor has been mighty impressive so far this year, averaging nearly 64 points PER GAME. But they still have yet to play a team with anything resembling a pulse and will now spend the next five weeks in the states ...

Last Week Overall: 8-2 Upsets: 2-1 (Wisconsin wasn't even close to an upset so that's the loss) Season Overall: 26-6 Upsets: 5-2 HEADLINES -This week's biggest headline happened off the field when  Electronic Arts (EA) Sports announced Thursday  that there would be no college football video game next year (what would have been "NCAA Football '15") due to ongoing legal issues with the NCAA.  Basically, several organizations including EA and the NCAA are being sued by thousands of student-athletes both past and present for the use of their names and/or likenesses in "NCAA Football."  Every organization has settled but the NCAA, who vows to continue the fight to keep their slaves--er, student ath-o-leets --from seeing any of the massive profits they generate for any number of organizations including the NCAA themselves.  Moreover, it remains unclear whether the plaintiffs who are active student athletes will be allowed under NCAA rules to...

Last Week: 5-2 Overall: 18-4 Upsets Last Week: N/A Upsets Overall: 3-1 Doing great so far but most of the picks so far have been pretty easy (and I got lucky with the Canes/Gators upset pick) HEADLINES -Obviously, the big story of the week was #1 Alabama travelling to #6 Texas A&M for an epic SEC West showdown that was almost  every bit as epic as it was billed to be.  It started in somewhat similar fashion to last year's game with A&M jumping out to an early 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.  This time, however, the Tide answered back furiously with five consecutive touchdowns over the course of the next 23 minutes (spanning three quarters, including a 21 point 2nd quarter), capped off by a spectacular 73-yard interception return for a TD by Vinnie Sunseri.  Unfortunately for the Aggies (and for Johnny Football's Johnny Heisman hopes), that pick-six and a horrible  interception thrown by Manziel on the goal line when it was tied at ...

It's finally here!  The next best day to Christmas has arrived and Hobbitcore couldn't be happier.  With a pipe full of longbottom leaf, he dictates to me his prophetic prognostications of the pigskin...  HEADLINES Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel -Gee, what could possibly be the biggest story of the college football offseason?  That's a noodle of a scratcher.  How about The Self-Destruction of Johnny Football?  What I'm really looking forward to is how he responds on the field after all the hoopla and distractions.  Most ESPN experts feel confident that once he steps on the field, all the distractions will melt away and he'll be relieved to finally be playing football again under the bright lights and that makes total sense to me.  He's clearly a kid that doesn't shy away from the spotlight and tends to play biggest in the biggest moments.  But he's also 20 years old and a sophomore and I just don't feel confident that he...

HEADLINES Landry Jones slicing and dicing the Longhorns -Well the biggest headline this week is pretty obvious: a pair of shocking blowouts in the Big XII.  Not only did Oklahoma throttle Texas (who I picked to win) 63-21 but West Virginia got their asses handed to them in Lubbock 49-14 (finally their inability to play anything resembling defense caught up to them against a team that, you know, plays defense).  Not only that but now the Mountaineers play host to Collin Klein and Kansas State tonight in a game that's likely to be even tougher even if it is in friendly confines.   -Perhaps the other big headline was LSU bouncing back in Baton Rouge to edge out the #3 Gamecocks.  The Gamecocks are in some hot water right now with Jadeveon Clowney (foot) and Marcus Lattimore (hip) both banged up to the point that both missed some practice time this week.  Not good news when you're heading into The Swamp. -Oh yeah, by the way,...

HEADLINES -Another week, another round of outrageous scores: West Virginia 48, Texas 45 Ohio State 63, Nebraska 38 Clemson 47, Georgia Tech 31 Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) I know a lot of people tend to (consciously or not) equate high scores with quality football games but as a defense enthusiast I consistently object to this fallacy.  I remember everyone bitching and moaning about last year's epic regular season defensive battle between Alabama and LSU that LSU won 9-6 because it was, ostensibly, so "boring."  It's sad how short the attention spans of sports fans are.  Me, I love a good defensive battle.  But every now and then you see a game with great defense AND great offense.  They're a rare species but that's what makes them so special.  If you want to see what I mean, dig up a video of the 1971 "Game of the Century" between Nebraska and Oklahoma. Johnny Rodgers's (white jersey, center-left) famous "M...

by Derrick Mustelier Anyone out there who has ever wanted to see what it looks like when one football coach completely and utterly outcoaches another, I hope you were paying attention during the 2012 BCS National Championship Game because THAT is what it looks like.  Les Miles got thoroughly pantsed and there were no defensive touchdowns or Honey Badger Heisman Moments (and nowhere near enough missed field goals) to cover it up this time.  Your 2011 AP National Coach of the Year, ladies and gentlemen... The fundamental problem of this game for LSU was that both teams came in with basically the same gameplan on defense--key in on the running game and dare the other team to throw the ball.  The problem for LSU is that A.J. McCarron can throw the ball and Jordan Jefferson can’t.  The bigger problem for LSU was that Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide out-prepared them. In the first game between these two team in Tuscaloosa, Jarrett Lee had been riding a wave of momen...

Well, I took a week off this week because A. it was sort of an unspectacular week of games and B. I didn't feel like it, so in addition to the top 25, I'll do my Heisman ballot and BCS predictions in this post... 1. Auburn Why They Should Be #1: It's almost a toss-up between the top three teams in the country. Bottom line is, Auburn has the best resumé in the country right now. Two terrific comeback wins over South Carolina and Clemson, an impressive shootout win over Arkansas, and the Mississippi State win on the road suddenly looks a lot more impressive. Cameron Newton has officially supplanted Denard Robinson as the most exciting player to watch in college football as well as the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy. Why the Ranking Should Be Lower: The defense has struggled immensely in pass defense and is ranked 63rd in the country in scoring defense which is an outright abomination at Auburn, especially considering the talent they have on defense this (and every) ...