Not Living Up to Expectations

It continues to be a stuggle for Apollo's Creed to match his high expectations for himself. After years of success in the hypothetical gambling world, A.C. has felt the wrath that is the parity in college football this year. This goes not only for his picks on this blog, but also in terms of his hypothetical online gambling. He has never lost money over a college football season, but this looks to be the first season in which that will happen. He isn't used to this lack of success, and it comes at a very inopportune time as Apollo's Creed is between jobs. Maybe this is the week things will turn around. I have no idea why I wrote this paragraph in 3rd person, but it just felt like the right thing to do. Now, it's on to the losing picks.

USC 31 ND 10

This game really shouldn't be close, but you never know in this season of craziness. Sources say that Southern Cal will be starting Mark Sanchez who looked incredibly mediocre last week in his college starting debut. Putting that fact aside though, Notre Dame remains a horrrrrrrible (in the words of the immortal Bill Walton) team. USC's talent will overwhelm the overmatched Irish as the Notre Dame crowd looks on in absolute horror. This will not be a repeat of the classic 2005 battle in South Bend that USC won on a controversial touchdown at the end of the game.

Florida State 23 Miami 16

Talk about two programs that have fallen on hard times. Both teams still possess boatloads of talent, but it hasn't always shown on the field this year. FSU and Miami boast strong defenses and inept offenses. This could easily be a game where the winner doesn't score over 10 points, but I think that it will be a bit more high-scoring than that. FSU wins due to Kyle Wright and his penchant for turnovers and the home-field advantage at Doak Campbell stadium.

LSU 17 Auburn 16

LSU hasn't looked like the team they were supposed to be at the beginning of the year for the entire season. However, they had been good enough to win until running into a solid Kentucky team last week on the road. Auburn has been up and down this year, but they have been playing better lately and they sport a very good defense. LSU will kick a late field goal to end Auburn's hopes of an upset in Death Valley.

Alabama 23 Tennessee 16

Tennessee has looked very solid since their absolue debacle against Florida. Alabama has come down to earth since their impressive start of the season. Phil Fulmer has had Alabama's number throughout his tenure at the helm of Tennessee, but that will end this Saturday when John Parker Wilson leads the Tide to victory at Bryant-Denny Stadium. It will take Saban a few years to put his stamp on the Alabama program, but he has good enough players now to make some noise in the SEC. Alabama's defense will shut down the Volunteer running attack, and put all the pressure on Eric Ainge to make plays in the passing game. It won't be enough, and a Tide defensive touchdown will prove to be the difference.

Cal 34 UCLA 21

UCLA is still trying to recover from being the first team to lose to Notre Dame this year. Sure they were down to their fourth-string QB in that game, but they still lost to Notre Dame. Cal is also struggling with quarterback issues as Nate Longshore is questionable for this game. Cal's backup QB ended up costing them the game last week, but prior to his mistake he was playing pretty well. Cal is simply too good for UCLA, and will prevail rather easily.

Florida 23 Kentucky 17

Kentucky is coming off possibly the greatest win in program history last week over LSU. Florida comes into the Bluegrass with two conference losses, but is still a very good team. Florida will overwhelm Kentucky early and hold on in the second half for the win.

Ore 31 Wash 17

Why are we picking this game?

Illinois 24 Michigan 17

Michigan seems to have righted their ship after an extremely rough start to the season, while Illinois suffered their first conference loss last week to an extremely bad Iowa team that lost to Iowa State. Illinois will turn things around for the Wolverines, whose visit to Champagne will mark the Illini's biggest home game since the Kurt Kittner years. Despite last week's loss, I feel that Illinois is still a good team (especially for a Big Ten team). They will overcome Michigan's overall talent advantage with the home-field advantage and their solid running game.