WEEK TWELVE - Preview

Sure, it’s hard to find games under the national radar in a week where seemingly every game is flying under the radar. There isn’t a single Top 25 matchup on the schedule, but I’ll give you three non-BCS conference games that will have an impact on the bowl season.

East Carolina (6-3) at Southern Miss (4-6)
(Saturday, 2 pm)
With new head coach Larry Fedora, you can expect Southern Miss to be a point scoring machine in a couple years. Fedora has made progress in his first season, and has some impressive weapons at his disposal on offense (RB Damion Fletcher, TE Shawn Nelson, WR DeAndre Brown). East Carolina started off the 2008 season with a bang, upsetting Virginia Tech and West Virginia on consecutive weekends. But since then a couple key injuries and a quarterback rotation derailed the season. ECU has picked up the pace with three straight wins, and Patrick Pinkney appears to have the quarterback job all to himself again. That’s all I need to know to give Skip Holtz’s veteran squad the advantage.
J.Pike’s Pick: East Carolina 24, Southern Miss 17

San Jose State (6-4) at Nevada (5-4)
(Saturday, 3 pm)
Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick is really starting to come into his own. The sophomore kept Fresno State off balance all game long last Thursday night en route to an easy Wolfpack victory. Bruising Vai Taua is also emerging as one of the most productive running backs in the WAC. His impressive season total of 1,159 yards rushing this year includes the 263 yards he went for against Fresno State last week. San Jose State on the other hand is in a slump, losing two of their last three. Spartan quarterback Kyle Reed looked really good early in the season, but like the rest of the team, his play has declined of late. With home field advantage, Nevada will continue their late season surge with another impressive win.
J.Pike’s Pick: Nevada 26, San Jose State 17

Tulsa (8-1) at Houston (5-4)
(Saturday, 7 pm, CBS College Sports)
Neither one of these teams cares much about playing defense (Tulsa allows 388.6 yards per game; Houston gives up 385.2). However both are accomplished offensively, as they combine to score an average of 89.8 points per game, so this one has the look of a shootout. New Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin looks to have the Cougars on the right track, and with home field advantage they are more than capable of handing Tulsa their second loss in as many games. But the Golden Hurrican used their off week to stew over the Arkansas loss and will be ready to play. I expect senior quarterback David Johnson to lead a more complete Tulsa team to a high scoring win over a still-growing Houston team.
J.Pike’s Pick: Tulsa 54, Houston 44

WEEK FIVE - Preview

Now it’s time for our weekly look at a handful of games that are flying under the national radar. Of the four games listed below, two are MAC matchups that should have a big impact on who makes it to the conference championship game. The other two matchups are in-state rivalry games, each featuring a team on the cusp of the top 25. All four games warrant at least a glance at the ticker because you’ll see the majority of these teams in bowl games at the end of the season.

Western Michigan @ Temple
When Western Michigan’s offense takes the field against Temple’s defense it will be team strength versus team strength. Western quarterback Tim Hiller has above average skills in the passing game, but he has shown that he can be rattled. So that’s exactly what John Haley and the Temple defense will try to do. The Owls’ defense has been decent so far this season, giving up less than 200 passing yards per game. Hiller has been on top of his game lately though, and he’ll get the job done in a tougher than anticipated game in Philadelphia.
J.Pike’s Pick: Western Michigan 28, Temple 20

Marshall @ West Virginia
This in-state rivalry ended up as a blowout a year ago, but Marshall actually led 13-6 at halftime. Mark Snyder finally has the Marshall program back on track after three straight sub-.500 seasons. The Herd sits at 3-1 (the lone loss was a competitive game against #9 Wisconsin) thanks to the play of their experienced defense. Marshall is limiting opponents to 118 rushing yards per game so far. Offensively the passing game is clicking due to the play of wide receiver Darius Passmore (26 receptions for 473 yards, 4 tds). Passmore has given freshman Mark Cann a reliable, playmaking target, which is always nice for a young quarterback. West Virginia on the other hand is 1-2 and struggling with their offensive identity. It seemed like new offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen wanted to make Pat White a pocket passer the first couple weeks, but got back to the running game against Colorado that won them 33 games in the past three seasons. The offense is still way to predictable, but there’s still enough speed between White and Noel Devine to score enough points to win this game.
J.Pike’s Pick: West Virginia 32, Marshall 27

Buffalo @ Central Michigan
It’s time. Turner Gill has slowly built this Buffalo program into one of the elite in the MAC. Central Michigan has been the measuring stick the last couple years thanks to quarterback Dan LeFevour’s Tebow-esque stats, but now is when Buffalo makes their move. Drew Willy has been playing lights out this year and he’ll guide the Bulls on another last minute touchdown drive to seal the biggest win in school history.
J.Pike’s Pick: Buffalo 28, Central Michigan 27

Nevada @ UNLV
UNLV’s upset of Arizona State two weeks ago is just one of the many examples of the quality and depth of the Mountain West conference this year. Led by sophomore quarterback Omar Conner, the Rebels are 3-1 and on the top 25 radar for the first time in a long time. I don’t know if Mike Sanford is chewing on any towels on the sidelines, but he should be. On the other sideline, Chris Ault leads Nevada with his innovative “Pistol” offense. The Pistol is now popping into playbooks at places like Florida and Ohio State, but Ault is the creator. Nevada has already played two top 15 teams this year, so don’t let their poor record fool you. The Wolfpack has beaten UNLV each of the last three years, but it looks like UNLV has finally turned the corner.
J.Pike’s Pick: UNLV 27, Nevada 24