Week 7 - Looking to make up some ground

Yuck. My goal of trying to gain ground last week was as successful as Chien-Ming Wang's ALDS performance. At least I don't have a boss anymore so there isn't a chance I'll get fired like Uncle Joe. I guess that's the upside of not having a job - you can't get fired for blogging at 3 in the afternoon. The downside is you can't get paid for it either.

This week, relatives of the Gipper, George Gipp, had his body exhumed for reasons which were not made public. Family representatives denied that they wanted to make sure that with Notre Dame's rough start this year, his body was not actually spinning in his grave. In more news, I brought you the story last week that Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione admitted to giving a booster newletter inside info for a yearly membership fee. University officials said they will not fire the coach - yet - but are issuing him a "letter of admonishment." I'm guessing this whole thing wouldn't be such a problem if the Aggies hadn't lost to Miami by 17 last month and the fans weren't beginning to call for Franchione's job. Then again, what do I know about college football? I'm 12-18 this season.

This week's Maurice Clarett award goes to one of my favorite college football coaches ever - Joe Paterno. Joe Pa took a lot of heat this week after a story broke regarding a traffic incident with the grandfatherly head coach. According to Joe Pa on his radio show, he did not "flip out'' as previously reported by many media outlets, but he did confront a woman after she blew a stop sign near the State College campus this week. According to the coach, after blowing his horn at the offending car, the female driver stopped and he pulled up beside her. Paterno pointed his finger at the woman but assured fans and boosters, “I didn’t give her the finger.” Paterno went on to say, "I said, ‘Hey, don’t do that again because I took your license number,’ and I really hadn’t taken her license number. All of a sudden, somebody knocks on my window and I roll down the window and he says, ‘That’s my wife.’ And then I shouldn’t have said this, but I did; I said, ‘Well, that’s your problem.’” While the coach did not get out of his car, he said about 10 times a year he will stop a student driver on campus after the driver shows disregard for safety. The coach believes he was doing good.

I don't have too much to add here. Clearly this story got blown out of proportion. I always pictured Joe Pa as being more like the basketball ref named Whitey from Adam Sandler's "Eight Crazy Nights" than Walter Matthau from "Grumpy Old Men." I guess this only confirms that Joe Pa really is a do-gooder after all. He may still trail Bobby Bowden in all-time wins, but I'll bet he leads him in citizens arrests. Runners up this week - Mike Leach of Texas Tech who broke his arm when he fell off of his bike (yes he was sober), 100 LSU fans who bought "faux-ny" tickets to last week's game against the Gators, and Gator QB Tim Tebow who had so many threatening phone calls to his cell phone that he had to change his number. Rumor has it that LSU students were walking around campus with t-shirts printed with Tebow's number. I guess there's a reason the Tigers are number 1 - they sure have the fan support. On to the picks.

Home team in BOLD

Rutgers -15.5 Syracuse

I'm not sure what happened to Rutgers this season. After losing only two games last season, the Scarlet Knights have lost that many in the past two weeks. After falling from 10th to 21st, the boys representing the State University of New Jersey are now unranked. Even worse, Bon Jovi has yet to sell out their 10 shows at the Prudential Center this month. How much more disappointment can the Garden State handle? Syracuse, on the other hand, was picked apart by West Virginia last week in a game where the Mountaineers needed to show the world that their loss to South Florida was a one-time thing. This week, Rutgers looks to show the world that while they might not go 10-2 this year, they are better than their 3-2 record suggests. Ray Rice, who is third in the nation in rushing TDs, will look to exploit an Orange defense that has given up 19 rushing TDs this season. Even if they do manage to stop Rice, QB Mike Teel is averaging 300 yards and 2 TDs per game. Sorry, B, but Syracuse is not going to lose this by less than 3 scores. I'll take Rutgers giving the points.

VA Tech -12.5 Duke

Uh, this is the same Duke team that is 1-5 this season while scoring an average of 9 fewer points each week than they allow, right? And this is the same VA Tech team that is 5-1 and has only lost to LSU, right? I thought so. At least basketball season starts this weekend, which is a good thing for both Duke and Syracuse. I'll take VA Tech to beat the spread.

TCU - 6 Stanford

"The band is still on the field! The band is still on the field!" Can Stanford pull off two upsets in back-to -back weeks? I don't think so. On the other side of the field is a TCU squad that hasn't met expectations this season, and is currently sitting at 3-3. The Horned Frogs lost a tough one last week to Wyoming and are looking to right the ship this week. Tavita Prichard is getting the start this week for the Cardinal, and I have it on good authority that there is nothing that TCU hates more than QBs named Tavita. For TCU, they will be without DE Tommy Blake who will likely be out of football forever due to excessive stress. Not to make light of Blake's situation, but I've been without a paying job for the past 4+ months, I have rent, car insurance, and student loans to pay, and I don't have any great prospects on the horizons. Not to mention, I haven't had a solid bowel movement in a week. I'm just saying.
I'll take TCU giving 6.

Central Michigan -13 Army

MAC leader Central Michigan takes on Army this week, a week after the Black Knights came from behind and stunned Tulane 20-17 in overtime. I've never been a big fan of picking service academies to win games in which they're getting double digit points to a MAC team (okay so I can't think of this situation ever coming up before, but work with me here). However, this week seems different. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Army is giving up less than 21 points per game, and CMU has won 2 of their three games in barn-burner fashion. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Chippewas' leading rusher is also their QB Dan LeFevour. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Army looks invigorated after winning in dramatic fashion last week. Whatever the reason, I think Army is better than ND State, and the Bison beat CMU by 30. I'll take Army with the points.

UTEP -1 East Carolina

Has it really gotten so bad that I'm picking Conference USA games this week? It sure looks like it. Here's what I know about these two teams:
1) UTEP has played all but one of their games this season in the state of Texas.
2) UTEP is averaging 49.3 points per game in their last three wins.
3) The Miners have a running back named Marcus Thomas who has more rushing TDs per game (2.2) than all of Notre Dame's running backs (2) this season.

4) Even though ECU's colors are purple and gold, they are not the best team in the nation this season.
5) ECU's mascot is a Pirate. Seton Hall's mascot is also a Pirate. Unfortunately, Seton Hall doesn't have a football team. If they did, maybe I'd go to a college football game. Probably not though.
6) The university is ranked one of the "Best Value Colleges" by The Princeton Review in 2008. That doesn't have much to do with their football team, but at least it gives students more money to buy beer - which is a good thing I guess.
Sinced I really couldn't find much to say about their football team, I don't like ECU's chances here. I'll go with UTEP giving a point.

Until next week, enjoy the games and the ALCS (well, at least those of you who don't root for chokers).