The Big E Picks are no more. Due to setting up shop at our new site and getting a little bored with our weekly picks format I’ve decided to retire that pick ’em league. My apologies to anyone who may have been looking forward to that this fall. In truth, roughly half of the participants routinely forgot to make their picks and even fewer made it all season long picking every week. It was time to move and try something different.
Instead, we’ll try something a little more loose, less formal, and a weekly feature that doesn’t always have to be from me but instead contains other voices from our staff throughout the year, too.
Enemy Watch
THURSDAY
William & Mary (OFF) at NC State
FRIDAY
Army (+16.5) at Temple
Furman (OFF) at #12 Michigan State
Colgate (OFF) at Syracuse
Kansas State (+15.5) at #8 Stanford
Cal-Poly (OFF) at Nevada
SATURDAY
Fordham (OFF) at Navy
Liberty (OFF) at Virginia Tech
NC Central (OFF) at Duke
Florida A&M (OFF) at Miami
#20 USC (+11.5) at #1 Alabama [AT&T Stadium]
What’s the opposite of a feast? Actually, this isn’t a terrible thing for Notre Dame fans as it’ll allow us to focus on a really strong national slate of games. I’ve got my eye on that Army game where Temple really isn’t that big of a favorite and opens up its first game without stud defenders like Tyler Matakevich, Matt Ioannidis, and Tavon Young.
Who’s with me on a Kansas State cover? Then again, Stanford has been a rock at home in recent years. If only this wasn’t a crazy Friday night game in Manhattan.
Of course, the whole nation will be settling in Saturday night for the Trojans and Tide playing each other for the first time in over 30 years. That’s a main line shot of tradition right into your veins. That’s good for your soul. What isn’t great for the soul if you’re USC is Nick Saban having an entire off-season to prepare for an inexperienced Max Browne at quarterback. I’ve got a 43% chance that Browne implodes and loses the job to Sam Darnold after this game.
Shout out to Michigan State for playing a FCS team and then waiting 15 days to play Notre Dame.
Upset Watch
#3 Oklahoma (-11.5) at #15 Houston [NRG Stadium]
This game is kicking off at 11:00 AM central time. It’s pretty much a guarantee to be an upset loss for the Sooners. Which is why I don’t understand how so many throughout the media have Oklahoma in the playoffs.
Raised Eyebrow Game
Appalachian State (+20.5) at #9 Tennessee
We tend to look at preseason polls in one of two ways: Are you going to be good and do you deserve to be ranked where you are based on past performance? Well, the Vols fail miserably in the latter category. Think about all the good things Brian Kelly has done over the last 6 years and only this year has he hit his highest preseason ranking. Now think about what Butch Jones has done in Knoxville and how the Vols casually stroll in ranked ahead of the Irish.
Anyway, App State is kind of good, you guys. I’d definitely put some money down on a cover and some second half friskiness.
Double Raised Eyebrow Game
BYU (+1.5) at Arizona [University of Phoenix Stadium]
Don’t forget about this game! It’ll be a 10:30 eastern kickoff on Saturday so all you brave souls can stay up late. Not sure what’s great about this game besides the fact that either program could come through with a strong campaign and a win here would be a nice notch on the old belt.
National Spotlight Games
#16 UCLA (+3) at Texas A&M
#5 LSU (-10) at Wisconsin [Lambeau Field]
#22 North Carolina (+2.5) at #18 Georgia [Georgia Dome]
#2 Clemson (-7.5) at Auburn
#11 Ole Miss (+4.5) at #4 Florida State [Citrus Bowl]
Did you know Kevin Sumlin is 21-17 in his last 3 seasons without Johnny Football or Case Keenum? Boy, that 2011-13 window has closed fast and hard. And yet, the Aggies are home favorites against Golden Boy quarterback Josh Rosen going up against the 12th man.
I admire this new Wisconsin playing tough games before week 5. The Bayou Bengals inside Lambeau is going to be pretty cool. Even their uniforms are similar to the Packers in a way.
There are the Tar Heels…just lurking at the bottom of the Top 25 waiting to move up. Does anyone trust Georgia with Kirby Smart and a hugely unproven quarterback situation? Mitch Trubisky has showed a lot of promise and his presence feels like a major advantage in this game.
I’m all aboard Clemson this year. Their offense could be one of the best in recent memory. Still, for as mediocre (or worse) as Auburn has been lately you can sense Jordan-Hare rocking n’ rolling at night to make things a bit more interesting. Lots of cross-recruiting in this game, too. It’s going to be passionate.
Labor Day evening brings the conclusion of week one as the Seminoles and Rebels collide in Orlando. For me, this is probably the biggest game of the weekend in terms of not knowing who will win as both programs could legitimately use a victory as a springboard to a playoff run.
Welcome back, football!
TL;DR.
So we are supposed to just put our picks down here in the replies? Won’t it be harder to track this way? I’ll just jump over to Yahoo and see if I can find you there.
MOTS Reply – Also, are you going to do a Q&A with a nomadic group of ex-BON bloggers?
This might be my favorite comment of the preseason, and that’s saying something given the quality of discussion here. Very well done.
You can use it in any future promotional materials.
“Think about all the good things Brian Kelly has done over the last 6 years and only this year has he hit his highest preseason ranking. Now think about what Butch Jones has done in Knoxville and how the Vols casually stroll in ranked ahead of the Irish.”
WAIL YESS BUT EEESSSSSSEEEEEESEEEEE PAAAWWWLLLL
Midway through 2nd quarter and the ESS EEE SEE is losing 13-3
I like K State to cover too – that’s a huge spread for a team that’s going to have a new starting quarterback for just the third time in the last eight seasons and has laid the occasional early-season stinker (>cough< Northwestern >cough<).
Those national spotlight games are tough. If I was a betting man, I would stay far, far away from all except maybe Clemson over Auburn, and even that one seems far from a lock.
I’m just excited that we get to watch some college football again.
I know, man… I found myself watching Cal-Hawaii last week at 1:00 AM, because football. I felt like Kitty Dukakis with a bottle of Scope.
She drank Scope too??
Was it perfume? Or rubbing alcohol? I was a kid back then, and I didn’t entirely get it so I wouldn’t be surprised if I botched that one.
Rubbing alcohol, according to the Wikimachine.
Reminds me of the time a kid on my dorm floor freshman year decided to take a shot of lighter fluid in front of the RA…to see if it counted as alcohol.
Strong pour. I like it.
Is this…is this where everyone fled to? I swung by OFD and it’s infested with Texans, like some horrid venereal disease.
He found us! Run!
I check in over there every few days or so, but I’ve given up on commenting.
The decline over there have been rapid
I agree, the habit of going there is gradually starting to fade. Really not much I find interesting or entertaining.
Yes, TOS has been replaced on my favorites bar, and has completely dropped off my list of most frequently visited sites. They dropped faster in the rankings than that time Michigan lost to Appalachian State. The comments are unreadable.
The comments aren’t quite Keith Arnold’s site-level bad, but they’re heading that direction.
I assume that you either like his style or you don’t, and I don’t. I guess some people do, so good for them. But the actual content over there is nowhere near as informative as it used to be, I don’t understand or appreciate his brand of humor, and it appears that the commenters from his old site have moved in (which is only natural) and I don’t know them. A good portion of why I come to a “home” ND blog is the commentariat, so now that it’s mostly over here, there’s really not much reason for me to hang out there. I’ll admit that perhaps the humor of the content or comments is based on inside jokes brought over from his old site, and would be amusing if I had the proper context, but I don’t. The inside jokes I get and are funny to me are over here.
Nailed the Tennessee-App State call. Sure you don’t want to bring back the Big E picks? (Still would probably bet Tennessee next week against Va Tech, the Vols will most likely be undervalued there)
Feels wrong but rooting hard for USC.
I don’t see OU losing, but think Houston can keep it closer than that 11.5.
Why would you root for USC? The hierarchy of hate only permits that if USC is playing the skunkbears, and even then it’s questionable.
Hierarchy of hate took a hit once Strength of Schedule and SEC bias became so prominent.
If our schedule strength can get a boost while knocking down the top SEC team a notch, I’ll grit my teeth and Fight On.
I understand this, especially if you live in Bama territory.
I still want Bama to win by 50, and then perform their traditional pratfall against Ole Miss.
With the Irish only needing to be top 4, I think it’s premature to allow worries over SOS to preempt the righteous hatred for the Trojans we should all have.