Football for Breakfast

It’s ACL Fest weekend, so unfortunately I won’t be watching any games this afternoon. I will however be checking out several bands I haven’t seen live before, such as Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, the Mars Volta, and festival headliner Foo Fighters. There might even be a festival recap next week if you’re lucky.

I’m going to try to sneak out early tonight (sorry Beck) to watch Alabama/Georgia and Virginia Tech/Nebraska, but that will be the extent of my football viewing this weekend. Before I apply the sun block and head out to Zilker Park, here’s a few more picks:

Michigan State 36, Indiana 20
Javon Ringer is too much for the Indiana defense and Kellen Lewis is rusty after missing the whole offseason.

Duke 34, Virginia 14
Duke is a favorite in an ACC game for the first time in what must be a decade at least. And they should be because Virginia is bad. Side note: It looks like former Virginia quarterback Peter Lalich is transferring to Oregon State.

Pittsburgh 27, Syracuse 14
Speaking of bad teams, is there anybody playing worse than Syracuse right now?

Northwestern 27, Iowa 17
This is one of my locks of the week, as well as one of my upset picks of the week. Iowa isn’t anything special and C.J. Bacher and Tyrell Sutton will show the Hawkeyes a thing or two about how to score points.

Arkansas State 35, Memphis 32
Arkie State seems to be scoring a ton of points this year. Memphis seems stuck in neutral. This should be a shootout though.

Fresno State 28, UCLA 24
Your guess is as good as mine. Was Tennessee that bad? Or is UCLA just suffering from all the injuries? I’ll go with Fresno because it’s the safer pick, but you never know when UCLA’s defense is going to rise to the occasion.

Purdue 31, Notre Dame 20
Purdue running back Kory Sheets has been awesome so far this year. That’s way more than I can say for anybody on the Notre Dame offense. The Domers’ offensive line still needs a lot of work, and Purdue’s defense is sneaky-good at times. That’s why I think Purdue rolls in South Bend.

Oregon 46, Washington State 13
Both teams are down to their third string quarterbacks already. The difference is Oregon has a lot more depth all around than Wazzu does. It’s going to be a long first year for Paul Wulff. Jeremiah Johnson and LeGarrette Blount run wild.

Oklahoma State 37, Troy 24
The Cowboys won’t get blown out in this game again … will they?

New Mexico 27, New Mexico State 21
Even without quarterback Donovan Porterie, the Lobos are better than their in-state rivals. The Aggies fired Tony Samuel for a joke of a coach in Hal Mumme, and this is what they get.

UTEP 27, Central Florida 20
UTEP will finally get their first win of the season. UCF is struggling, especially offensively where George O’Leary needs to settle on one of his two average young quarterbacks.

Stanford 30, Washington 27
The difficult season for Washington will continue. I like the overall scrappiness of Jim Harbaugh’s squad, and I think the Stanford defense will get the best of Jake Locker in the fourth quarter.