NCAA Football Week 8 picks-College Pick’Em

The Alabama Crimson Tide will need another big offensive game as they head to Tennessee to face the Volunteers. In this photo running back Kenyan Drake (17) is congratulated by teammates tight end Harrison Jones (82), and tight end Kelly Johnson (31), and offensive linesman Ryan Kelly (70) last week. Photo by Dak Dillon-US PRESSWIRE

Week 8 on the college football schedule has some pretty interesting games. South Carolina is involved in another top-10 matchup as they travel to the swamp to face the Gators. There’s two other games that pit top-20 teams against each other as well as the number one team in the country with an in-conference road test. It shapes up to be another great Saturday of college football.

For the first time this season, my top-ranked pick went down last week as the Mountaineers offense finally sputtered in Lubbock. Fortunately for me, the rest of my picks did ok (only SC and Michigan State lost) and I was able to still have a decent week with 35 points.

In our Fantasy CPR group (click here for info on how to join), johnackeren had the best week scoring 44 points. He had the same three picks wrong I did but had much fewer points placed on them. Overall, the lead still belongs to Josh Black M2 who had 32 last week and maintains a narrow five-point lead over Ackeren.

Here’s my picks for this week, week 8:

Oct 13, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA: Northwestern Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter (2) drops back to throw a pass in the third quarter against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium. The Wildcats won 21-13. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

1 point-Northwestern over Nebraska: In an interesting Big 10 matchup, the Wildcats host the ‘Huskers. Last week Northwestern bounced back from its first loss of the year going into Minnesota and getting a nice 21-13 win. They’re unbeaten this year at home with wins over BC, Vanderbilt, South Dakota, and Indiana. Nebraska has been up and down this year and is coming  off a bye week after getting worked over by Ohio State 63-38. Nebraska’s two losses have both been to ranked teams but I think Northwestern at home can pull this one out. They beat Nebraska last year 28-25 in Lincoln.

2 points-Texas A&M over LSU: The Aggies host LSU in a big SEC game at 12:00 on Saturday. LSU got a huge win last week against South Carolina but they were at home. On the road this year they’ve struggled a bit barely edging Auburn 12-10 and losing to Florida 14-6 in their two games away from Tiger Stadium. Texas A&M’s offense will get a huge test against a tough LSU defense after trashing Louisiana Tech last week and winning a crazy 59-57 game on the road. At home this year they trounced Arkansas 58-10 and hung right in with Florida in their season opener. I’m taking Johnny Manziell and the Aggies to pull the mild upset here and knock off Les Miles and LSU. I just don’t think the Bayou Bengals offense will be able to keep up with the Aggies who’ve shown they can score even against SEC defenses.

3 points-Florida over South Carolina: South Carolina faces the tough task of traveling to LSU and Florida in back-to-back weeks. To make things even tougher, they may have to take on the Gators without their star running back Marcus Lattimore. Going into the swamp is never easy even with all your stars, but it would take a perfect game from the rest of the Gamecocks to get a W there without Lattimore. The Gators defense is getting healthy and looking elite, so I’ll take the home team in this SEC showdown as SC drops their second tough game in a row.

Oct 13, 2012; Lubbock, TX, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders quarterback Seth Doege (7) prepares to pass against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the second half. Michael C. Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

4 points- Texas Tech over TCU: Texas Tech celebrates their defeat of West Virginia as they travel to Fort Worth to take on TCU in a top-25 matchup. It all comes down to Set Doege who looked great last week and horrible against Oklahoma. The Horned Frogs have had to change quarterbacks after Casey Pachall withdrew from school, and I think the Red Raider defense will be able to shut down Trevone Boykin and TCU and that Doege will take care of the ball enough to get Texas Tech a nice road win. The danger here is a letdown aftertheir big game last week.

5 points-Kansas State over West Virginia: In possibly the most intriguing evening game, the Wildcats head to Morgantown to take on the Mountaineers at 7:00 on FOX. K-State and run-first quarterback Collin Klein will take their smash-mouth, old-school brand of college football against the high-octane, new-school  attack of Geno Smith and his aerial assault. K-State can pull away from the rest of the Big 12 with a win here and I think they’ll be able to keep WVU off the field enough and contain the Mountaineer passing game like they did Oklahoma four weeks ago. I can’t take that West Virginia defense until they show they can make stops against good offenses.

6 points-Stanford over California: Stanford travels north to face in-state rivals Cal. The Cardinal will try and bounce back after their controversial loss in South Bend last week. In their last three games theyve lost at Washington, need OT to beat Arizona, and lost at Nortre Dame, but I still think they can handle a Cal squad that stumbled early in the season but has won the last two weeks. Don’t get overly confident with this one since Stanford’s offense struggles on the road, but I do think they’ll beat the Golden Bears here due to a strong effort from their defense.

7 points- Texas over Baylor: Another in-state rivalry is featured on ABC at 8:00 Saturday night as the Bears head to Austin to face the Longhorns. Texas has dropped back-to-back games to West Virginia and Oklahoma while Baylor has dropped two in a row to WVU and TCU. This should be an incredibly high-scoring game and it could be first defensive secondary to make a play wins. Mack Brown can’t afford to lose three in a row this season and three in a row to Baylor. I think the Longhorns get it done Saturday at home.

October 13, 2012; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines running back Thomas Rawls (38) runs the ball against the Illinois Fighting Illini at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

8 points- Michigan over Michigan State: The Spartans have struggled to live up to expectations with their only big wins of the year coming against Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan. They barely escaped Boise State and Indiana and lost to Iowa, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. Michigan isn’t perfect to be sure, but they’ve only lost to top 12 ranked opponents and only away from the Big House, so I think they’ll take this one over their in-state rivals.

9 points- Clemson over Virginia Tech: Clemson is coming off a bye and hosting their ACC-rival Hokies. Clemson beat Va-Tech twice last season on their way to the ACC title, and I think they’ll make it three with Tajh Boyd, De’Andre Hopkins, and Sammy Watkins on offense proving too much for the Hokies defense.

10 points-Alabama over Tennessee: The Vols passing offense is good and they’ll be fired up in Knoxville  to try and knock off the Crimson Tide. I don’t think the Vols will be able to move the ball against ‘Bama’s defense though, and AJ McCarron and Eddie Lacy will be able to put enough points on the board to keep the Crimson Tide on top of the BCS standings. Before you go picking the upset remember Tennessee is 0-3 in the SEC having lost to Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi State so far in conference play.