[NU Sports] PIGSKIN PICKS - Week 4

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

No standings yet ... sorry, but the rankings are up on the new Web site (360.yahoo.com/sjtruog). Here's the lineup for week 4, due by kickoff Saturday ...

PIGSKIN PICKS - WEEK 4
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A bad weekend for Big Ten and Pac Ten teams here, but from the KU-South Florida game Friday night to the Fresno State-Wisky nightcap Saturday, some good football. Not much of an encore this week. The Thursday game should be interesting, but with only seven league games, we’ll trim the slate to ten this week and have the usual Saturday kickoff deadline.

COLLEGE PICKS
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BIG TEN
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Game  1: Ball State @ Indiana
My pick: HOOSIERS … gonna be close with the redbirds, but Lewis is shifty enough at QB to outscore Ball State.

Game  2: Iowa @ Pittsburgh
My Pick: HAWKEYES … tough call here as Pitt looked awful to start the season and Iowa was exposed on offense last week, but I like the grit of the Hogeyes.

Game  3: Notre Dame @ Michigan State
My Pick: SPARTANS … you know everyone outside of South Bend is praying that Sparty can save us from the nightmare of ND in the BCS since the schedule softens considerably between this game and SC.

Game  4: Florida Atlantic @ Minnesota
My Pick: GOPHERS … Minny gets revenge for last year and goes to 4-0 heading into the Big Ten slate (and a harsh reality check with three of the next four at Columbus, at Champaign and at West Lafayette).

Game  5: Troy @ Ohio State
My Pick: BUCKEYES … there’s no question that the Bucks SHOULD win the rest of their games, but whether they want to with the quitter attitude shown last week is still up for debate.

Game  6: Temple @ Penn State
My Pick: NITTANY LIONS … the big question right now is whether anyone can hold the Nits under 40. They’ll probably top 50 again against the Owls.

Game  7: Central Michigan @ Purdue
My Pick: CHIPPEWAS … I was sooooo close on the upset last week and I think the Boilers are gonna have a bit of a hangover as well. Plus they’ve played CMU seemingly every other week the past 12 games and may be looking ahead to the Evil Empire next week.

NATIONAL
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Game 8: Georgia @ Arizona State
My Pick: BULLDOGS … they were both looking ahead last week but the Dawgs still had enough talent to eke out the win.

Game 9: Florida @ Tennessee
My Pick: GATORS … classic upset scenario here as the Vols have had time to stew over the UCLA collapse while the Gators are getting cocky over a closer-than-expected win against Miami. But I’ll play it safe.

Game 10: LSU @ Auburn
My Pick: TIGERS – THE LSU TIGERS … all right, now it’s time for those SEC yakkers to start beating up on each other and this should be a dandy of a slugfest. I was all set to go with Auburn until they only beat MSU 3-2 last week. So I’ll go against the trend in this series and pick LSU.

And off the board …

* NORTHWESTERN 35, Ohio 27 – It won’t be easy, as we saw the Bobcats’ potential against OSU two weeks ago … but the Cats SHOULD have enough firepower to win at home and the D will make adjustments in the second half to hang on for the win.

Remember, picks in by SATURDAY!!!
GO CATS!!!
GEAUX SAINTS!!!
- SjT


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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!