Results for the Weak

That was a fun and exciting first weekend of college football!  There were a number of fantastic games and close finishes all weekend long – especially last nights – to properly whet our appetite for the rest of the season.

Of course, last night was National Semifinal #1 since Boise State basically plays no-one else all season.  They’re not allowed complaining when they reject an offer to play Nebraska 2 for 1.  Beggars can’t be choosers Broncos.  We’ll be keeping our eye on how Boise State does for the remainder of the season.

Lets find out how our prognosticators did last weekend!  If you guess “not well”, give yourself a cookie.

Illinois vs. Missouri (Neutral Site)

We said: Missouri 24, Illinois 14

Reality said: Missouri 23, Illinois 13

This was your prototypical Ron Zook game. Illinois tossed away a 10 point lead at halftime and didn’t score the entire 2nd half to give Missouri the victory. Keep ’em coming Zook.

Purdue at Notre Dame

We said: Purdue 28, Notre Dame 24

Reality said: Notre Dame 23, Purdue 12

Talk about grossly underestimating Purdue’s point total. I love when I get one team basically right and the other totally and completely wrong.
The Brian Kelly era at Notre Dame started off with a bang. They’re going to have to prove it on Saturday against a resurgent Michigan team.

Connecticut at Michigan

We said: Connecticut 21, Michigan 10

Reality said: Michigan 30, UConn 10

Talk about a complete botch job, and congrats to Jay for going away from the trendy pick. Michigan came out with a solid, simple game plan and executed it extremely well. UConn, however, came out with trash and executed it poorly. The results are plain to see. It will be very interesting to see where these teams go from here.

Washington at Brigham Young

We said: Washington 31, BYU 24

Reality said: BYU 23, Washington 17

Jake Locker basically removed himself from Heisman contention with this loss.  While Washington did look like they had a solid chance to claim the win, BYU snatched it away from them leaving Locker unable to secure the victory in the end.  I would’ve liked to see more from the man who plays like Tebow better than Tebow.

Northwestern at Vanderbilt

We said: Northwestern 24, Vanderbilt 7

Reality said: Northwestern 23, Vanderbilt 21

There was a preponderance of games that I called a score of “24” and the result for the team was a “23” this week.  Vanderbilt scored 2 touchdowns more than I expected, which may be a sign that they’re on the rise after the rough 2-10 season last year.  We’ll have to see how they do next week because, for now, Pat Fitzgerald’s cats are the Nerd Bowl winners.

#24 Oregon State vs. #6 TCU (Neutral Site)

We said: TCU 35, Oregon State 34

Reality said: TCU 30, Oregon State 21

This turned out almost exactly as I thought.  Oregon State looked great all game long, but simply not as good as TCU.  Expect the Beavers to make a play for the PAC-10 this year, especially with USC looking a little weak against Hawaii.

#21 LSU vs. #18 UNC (Neutral Site)

We said: LSU 28, UNC 14

Reality said: LSU 30, UNC 24

This game was clearly the tale of two halves.  The first half went about how everyone thought it would with LSU taking the 30-10 lead on a dominating display of football prowess.  However, Les Miles typical nature came through in the second half and LSU gave up two 4th quarter touchdowns and two last second chances for UNC to punch it in for the win.  This may as well have been a victory for UNC with how much they gained playing 13 players down.

Cincinnati vs. Fresno State

We said: Cincinnati 51, Fresno State 38

Reality said: Fresno State 28, Cincinnati 14

So much for the game that defense forgot.  Fresno State looked competent against “Ohio’s BCS team”.  Cincinnati, on the other hand, seems to have reverted back to their traditional ways.  All is again right with the world.

#3 Boise State vs. #10 Virginia Tech (Neutral Site)

We said: Virginia Tech 17, Boise State 14

Reality said: Boise State 33, Virginia Tech 30

You cannot spot Boise State 17 points and expect to come out with the victory. Good job by the Hokies, though, to put themselves in a position to win in the end. Boise State is clearly beatable, as long as you don’t let them get in your head.  Congrats to the Broncos for securing the tough win and giving themselves a leg up in the BCS title talk.

So how’d we do?

• Eric: 4-5 (4-5 season)
• Jeff: 3-6 (3-6)
• Mali: 5-4 (5-4)
• Jim: 6-3 (6-3)
• Joe: 5-4 (5-4)
• Jay: 7-2 (7-2)

Jay clearly wins for the week, though Jim gave him a run for his money.

As for the Yahoo Pick ’em, we currently have 26 participants, 6 of whom did not place any picks this week (or missed them all).  The top three performers for the week (and the season thus far) are:

• ckuehn: 14 points
• A four way tie between Not Quite First, InSaine in the brain (great name), Miller, and patspacersfan: 11 points

Great job guys, congrats on the fantastic first week!

We’ll be back tomorrow with this coming weekends slate of games.