West Virginia at Texas
Buyer beware…as I said beginning of this week the Mountaineers are getting high praise for their 70 point outburst against Baylor and most have handed Geno Smith the Heisman after four games. I am here to say Not So Fast…. Let me be the voice of reason. This has shaped up to be important game number two for the season. (Florida State Clemson number one) BCS Championship hopes are at stake. Let’s go back to my original article when I said better watch out for UNRANKED Texas this year and looks like that may be true. Geno Smith has an obscene 208.4 quarterback rating throwing 20 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He is averaging 441.5 passing yards per game. His two primary targets Stedman Bailey and Tavon Austin are 1st and 6th nationally in receiving. They will face a must stiffer opposition against the pass this week. The Longhorns are ranked 29th nationally against the pass. Texas quarterback David Ash has came into his own this year as well throwing for 1007 yards 10 touchdowns and only one interception. The only quarterback with a higher ranking is Smith. When I watched the West Virginia game back for a second time, I noticed that they do an incredible job of using the width of the field and crating space for those receivers. Another factor for their success last week was Baylor just couldn’t get to the quarterback. A lot of the time they would rush only three down lineman giving the receivers time to break their routes and ad-lib with all of that extra time. I think this week will be a little different. Texas has two very good defensive ends in Alex Okafor and Jackson Jeffcoat. My belief is Texas will create stunts to do whatever it takes to make Smith uncomfortable in the pocket. When I went back and watched the Maryland game that is the approach they took and were able to slow the Mountaineers down. If Texas is weak it is against the run. They are allowing 180 yards per game to their opponents. If I was game planning the West Virginia offense I would be running the ball much more this Saturday. But I am not sure if they can be patient like that with all of their weapons they have. The key most have not talked about is the West Virginias defense. The defense is ranked 96th in the country in points allowed at 32.5 points per game. They are also allowing 352.8 yards in every contest. I think they will struggle to stop Texas. This is West Virginia’s first road game of the year and many have high hopes after the fast start by the offense. My very unpopular prediction; the medicine becomes the poison. West Virginia will try to throw too much on Texas and the Longhorns will get to Smith and I don’t think he comes out of the lone star state with 0 picks.
Texas will handle West Virginia
Final Score: Texas 38 West Virginia 28
Georgia at South Carolina
Both teams come into the game ranked in the top 10. First thing I had to do is go back and take out Michael Bennett’s vital role in the Georgia Offense. The Bulldogs lost Bennett to an ACL tear on the last play of Wednesday’s practice. This is a huge blow as Bennett was the leading receivers for Georgia and more importantly quarterback Andy Murray’s go to guy on 3rd down. Georgia has two freshman running backs that had a combined 300 yards and 5 touchdowns last week against Tennessee. South Carolina has won their last 9 games. Last week in a win over Kentucky tail back Marcus Lattimore had 123 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries and quarterback Conner Shaw was 14/18 148 yards and 2 scores while rushing for 76 yards. Make this the 3rd important game for this season to determine the national champion. Andy Murray hasn’t always played real well in these games. He is going to have to be at his best against a Gamecock defense that is allowing only 11 points per game. This will be the biggest game of South Carolina quarterback Conner Shaw’s life as well. This game comes down to Georgia’s high powered offense against South Carolina’s stingy defense. All that being said I think the difference in the game is Jarvis Jones. I think he is one of the 3 best defensive players in the college game right now and he will be making big plays all evening. But this game is close throughout.
Final Score: Georgia 23 South Carolina 20
Oklahoma at Texas tech
I want to bang my head into the wall for even going here, but I just cannot ignore what I see.Texas Tech is the hot team in the big 12 right now that everyone is riding. Throw in that Oklahoma hasn’t won in Lubbock in their last three tries and you can see why most experts have the Red Raiders winning for a fourth straight time.Throw in the fact that I just think Bob Stoops is a lousy coach and all of the factors line up. Now let’s look at the numbers. Texas Tech is ranked first in the country in total defense. They are allowing 10.8 points per game and a measly 167.5 yards a contest. On offense quarterback Seth Dodge has a 168.9 quarterback rating and has 15 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. He threw for 331 yards and 3 touchdowns as Texas Tech manhandled Iowa State winning 24-13. After watching the game back my concern is Oklahoma will be too stubborn to switch out of its base defense should Texas Tech go to a 4 or 5 man wide out set. If they don’t make adjustments and put a linebacker on one of the receivers they will get carved up. You would think it would be an automatic adjustment but not with this staff. And that’s why they continue to disappoint. When Oklahoma has the ball it’s much like West Virginia and they rely on Landry Jones far too much. To be successful Oklahoma must give the ball to Damien Williams and Dominique Whaley and keep possession of the ball. On defense Casey Walker’s return will help but they must get pressure on Seth Dodge to have success. The biggest problem with Oklahoma continues to be the coaching staff. They just don’t get it. They go 4 deep at tail back and have Landry Jones throwing the ball way too much. With all that being said and I have a friend Brad who knows his college football who will laugh when he sees this. He knows there is a fair chance I will be screaming about following Stoops and once again kick myself. But I have to trust my own eyes and Oklahoma just has too much talent to loose to this team.
Final: Oklahoma 27 Texas Tech 21
Have a great weekend everyone!
