[NU Sports] PIGSKIN PICKS - Week 4

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

I tell ya, we’ve been blessed with some terrific football these past few weeks. All of the prime time and national games seem to come down to the wire and even last week’s slate of college games with few big matchups on paper produced some notable upsets. Too bad we didn’t pick that Washington-SC game!

So maybe it’s time we all start paying attention to football instead of the sanctimonious whinings of Urban Meyer and anyone who dare refuses to bow to the Gators – including that court jester from Rocky Top.

About the only thing that went wrong was stupid NU walking right into that trap road game at Syracuse. We all saw it coming, and an early 17-0 hole sure didn’t help. Nice comeback, but tough to give away the game at the end. But no time to mope! It’s time for that “Big Ten tingly feeling” as my old college roommate Jim used to say as conference play begins. And don’t look now, but the ACC may be starting to become relevant again! It’s a pretty good lineup this week, so let’s get to the games!

No Thursday night game this week – we have enough to fill our slate without another overhyped SEC game with an Ole Miss team I just don’t believe in yet.

PIGSKIN PICKS – WEEK 4
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Name: 

BIG TEN
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GAME 1: Illinois @ Ohio State
WINNER: 

GAME 2: Indiana @ Michigan
WINNER: 

GAME 3: Iowa @ Penn State
WINNER: 

GAME 4: Michigan State @ Wisconsin
WINNER: 

GAME 5: Notre Dame @ Purdue
WINNER: 

NATIONAL
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GAME 6: Miami (Fla.) @ Virginia Tech
WINNER: 

GAME 7: South Florida @ Florida State
WINNER: 

GAME 8: California @ Oregon
WINNER: 

GAME 9: North Carolina @ Georgia Tech
WINNER: 

GAME 10: Arizona State @ Georgia
WINNER: 

MY PICKS
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* OHIO STATE 38, Illinois 17 – The Buckeyes have finally opened up the offense while the Illini have quietly faded from relevance.

* MICHIGAN 42, Indiana 20 – The clock strikes midnight for one of these 3-0 Cinderellas … the smart money’s on Michigan still dancing at 12:01.

* PENN STATE 20, Iowa 16 – Should be a heck of a game under the lights and it will be great to see the PSU White Out in full effect – they’ll need all 100,000+ of those fans to finally get past the pesky Hawkeyes, who are coming in on a roll with that win over Arizona. PSU gets it done at home – barely.

* MICHIGAN STATE 29, Wisconsin 27 – This may be the toughest call of the week – all the signs point to the Badgers shaking off their sluggish start and Sparty going into mental meltdown after blowing two games they should have won … but I sense the Badgers are a tad overrated and MSU needs this one more.

* NOTRE DAME 45, Purdue 28 – The F’ing Irish finally get a breather against the Big Ten, scoring a lot, but allowing a lot – the Boilers just can’t keep up.

* MIAMI 27, Virginia Tech 17 – Another tough call here … under the lights, I’d take the Hokies in Blacksburg, but the Canes are used to tough environments and have too much offense. Tech needs to keep it ugly to stay close.

* FLORIDA STATE 31, South Florida 27 – Not sure what happened to the Noles in Provo last week, but they better hope they remember how to do it. The Bulls will keep it close in Tallahassee and are looking for some Big Least respect, but ole crafty Bobby escapes, just in the plum of daggum time.

* CALIFORNIA 49, Oregon 27 – Have the Quacks turned the corner? Nah. Bears roll and get ready for a visit from SC.

* GEORGIA TECH 24, North Carolina 20 – One of those ACC toss-up games.

* GEORGIA 33, Arizona State 26 – The Dawgs can’t play D and the SEC is a tad overrated, but I got burned believing the hype about a local team last week!

And off the board …

* NORTHWESTERN 35, Minnesota 31 – The Cats can’t get off to a slow start this week with the Gophers coming off a nice effort against Cal. Still, with Decker banged up a bit and NU fully focused after last week’s embarrassment, I’m hoping they rebound at home.

Those of you in the pro picks, don’t forget to log on and make your selections! As for the rest of you, get the picks in by kickoff Saturday.

GO CATS!!!
- SjT



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