College Football Results Against The Spread Week 9
By Mike Marteny
College Football Results Against The Spread Week 9
This college football season has not gone as planned. Oklahoma opened the season in the top five. Now they are 12th, even after two losses. I was supposed to be well above .500 by now, trying to reach my goal of 55% for the season. Plans change.
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Instead, I am 186-226 on the season,
I need to hit roughly eight games over .500 per week the rest of the way to finish at 50 percent. Did I gain any ground this week?
Here are the results from my college football picks for week 9. Winners against the spread are in BOLD. My result will follow.
Just in case you want to follow along:
Thursday-Friday
Noon Saturday
Saturday Afternoon
Saturday Evening
Virginia Tech(-3.5) at Pittsburgh: MISS! A half gets me on the first pick! I can see where this is going….
Akron(-17.5) at Buffalo: MISS! The running of the Bulls was apparently moved to Buffalo this year, and Akron felt the full wrath.
Ohio at Toledo(-16.5): MISS! Not only did the Rockets not come close to covering, they also lost to Ohio at home for the first time since 1967.
Appalachian State(-4.5) at Georgia Southern: HIT! The Mountaineers showed why they are the team to beat in the Sun Belt.
California at USC(-16.5): MISS! Cal never had a chance in this one.
Navy at South Florida(-6.5): HIT! The Bulls scored 28 first quarter points, yet still managed to almost give this one away.
San Diego State(-5.5) at Utah State: HIT! This is what is so frustrating about the Aztecs. They have the ability to look very good, like they did here. Then they turn in clunkers like they did against South Alabama.
Air Force(-13.5) at Fresno State: HIT! The Bulldogs had to make me sweat it. If this game were five quarters, Air Force would have covered.
Kentucky at Missouri(-6.5): MISS! Maybe I should change my statement to I can’t see Missouri beating anyone right now.
Central Florida at Houston(-9.5): HIT! Can we say a 7-2 team has fallen apart? If so, Houston has fallen apart. They had a clear path in front of them to a New Year’s Six bowl at worst. Now they will have a problem not playing in the first ten days of bowl season.
Connecticut at East Carolina(-7.5): MISS! The Pirates decision to keep James Summers on the field as a running back is playing huge dividends.
Duke at Georgia Tech(-6.5): MISS! Tech’s defense not coming out of the locker room for the third quarter sunk me.
Louisville(-33.5) at Virginia: HIT! The Cardinals are very lucky they didn’t join the horde of unbeaten teams to lose last weekend. Do you think the committee will take notice of their road struggles?
Kent State at Central Michigan(-14.5): MISS! Where did that come from?
Kansas State(-6.5) at Iowa State: HIT! A furious fourth quarter from the Cyclones brought this game back within reach.
West Virginia(-3.5) at Oklahoma State: MISS! So much for the Big 12(10)’s unicorn (the West Virginia defense, for those of you that haven’t been here before).
Minnesota(-8.5) at Illinois: HIT! I will try not to be fooled by this performance. The Gophers have fooled me before, after all.
Michigan(-25.5) at Michigan State: HIT! This was easy money. Of course, the others I thought were may have been fools gold instead of real gold.
Penn State(-13.5) at Purdue: HIT! Saquon Barkley is finally becoming a household name. He is putting up huge stats against tough run defenses. The Penn State offense is the best it has been in at least ten years, and may be the best since Larry Johnson was there. They scored 45 in the second half. Enough said.
Boston College at North Carolina State(-15.5): HIT! I thought it looked high, but I will admit that I didn’t expect BC to win outright!
Cincinnati at Temple(-7.5): HIT! It make have taken them a few weeks to get going, but Temple looks almost as good as last year. The rest of the AAC has been warned.
Western Kentucky(-21.5) at Florida Atlantic: HIT! When I said big, I meant it.
Florida(-7.5) vs. Georgia: HIT! This was actually closer than I expected it to be.
Baylor(-3.5) at Texas: MISS! Well, it’s official. The Big 12 has a whole bunch of average teams. Then again you knew that because I have been saying it for weeks.
Army at Wake Forest(-7.5): MISS! Wow, this was ugly. That was a big showing in the fourth quarter on the road for Army.
Miami(FL)(-1.5) at Notre Dame: MISS! The magic was there early for Miami, but is has worn off. They showed a lot coming back in this game, but they never got over that hump.
Washington(-10.5) at Utah: HIT! The Utah defense is largely underrated. They did a great job against that Washington offense, but fell just short.
Maryland at Indiana(-3.5): HIT! These offenses are both a lot of fun to watch. It is crazy saying Indiana has the better defense though.
Texas Tech at TCU(-9.5): HIT! Wow, did you see that defense? 27-24 in overtime? This is exhibit A on how good the Oklahoma offense is, and just how bad the defense is.
Northwestern at Ohio State(-27.5): HIT! Is it just me, or does it look like J.T. Barrett has regressed? I know his receivers aren’t as talented, and the line isn’t quite as good, but even since the beginning of the season he seems to have taken a step back. That can’t be good for the Buckeyes.
Miami(OH) at Eastern Michigan(-7.5): MISS! This was a huge win for the Redhawks. They may not make a bowl this year, but I will bet they do next year. They have won three straight after starting 0-6.
SMU at Tulane(-1.5): HIT! Don’t look now, but SMU is 4-4. That is quite an achievement after how dreadful they were early on.
Georgia State at South Alabama(-6.5): MISS! Defense dominated this one. South Alabama is trying to go to a bowl, which is quite remarkable considering how badly they have played on the road.
Arizona State at Oregon(-9.5): MISS! Uh oh, the Ducks found a quarterback!
Boise State(-14.5) at Wyoming: HIT! I knew this would happen at some point this year. Don’t be surprised if this isn’t Boise’s only loss.
Kansas at Oklahoma(-40.5): MISS! Way to go, boys. Let’s see you do it against a good team. Please!
Rice at Louisiana Tech(-30.5): HIT! Because we have all of these stupid conference bowl tie-ins, we wont get to see what could be one of the most entertaining bowl games ever: Okahoma and Louisiana Tech.
Marshall at Southern Mississippi(-16.5): MISS! I’m still dumbfounded that the Eagles didn’t cover this. If you look at the stats, they should have.
North Texas at UTSA(-3.5): MISS! Well, so much for that…..
Middle Tennessee State(-16.5) at Florida International: MISS! FIU picked a fine time to play their best game of the season.
Louisiana-Monroe at Arkansas State(-20.5): HIT! This is what everyone was waiting to see from Justice Hansen. Can he build on this?
Nebraska at Wisconsin(-8.5): MISS! A fourth quarter collapse by the Badgers lost this for me, and nearly for them outright.
Auburn(-4.5) at Mississippi: MISS! This was another beatdown by Auburn. Kamryn Pettway is one of the better backs no one has heard of. Can you imagine if he has started for the Tigers from the start? They would have beaten Clemson.
Tennessee(-13.5) at South Carolina: MISS! I don’t remember the last time I saw a team do less with more than Tennessee has done this year.
New Mexico State at Texas A&M(-44.5): HIT! The garbage time touchdown saved it for me. I’m glad A&M called off the dogs halfway through the third quarter.
Old Dominion(-4.5) at UTEP: MISS! I stand by my logic for this one. Unfortunately, logic doesn’t have much place in college football this year.
Tulsa at Memphis(-6.5): MISS! High scoring? Check. Entertaining? Check. A backup running back running for five touchdowns and 249 yards? Even I didn’t see that one coming. Obviously Memphis didn’t either.
Clemson(-4.5) at Florida State: HIT! Florida State had this won, but let it get away. How much luck does Clemson have left?
UNLV(-2.5) at San Jose State: MISS! And of course, The Spartans take down UNLV for the first time since 1994. All because I picked UNLV…..
Washington State(-13.5) at Oregon State: MISS! Washington State needed a huge third quarter to stave off the upset. That does me little good though.
Stanford(-4.5) at Arizona: MISS! Maybe Stanford should have switched quarterbacks, oh, about five weeks ago?
New Mexico at Hawaii(-2.5): HIT! It was Tyrone Owens, not Teryion Gipson that led the Lobos to victory, but I’ll take it.
This week started off promising, but ended badly. Very badly. I only got six of the 18 night games right to drop me to a 25-27 week. Sadly enough, that is still among my best of the season. That moves me to 211-253 on the season. It was one of the more wild weeks of the season, so maybe 25-27 isn’t so bad. It isn’t that good either, especially when I’m still trying to dig out of a hole.
Did the points do any better? Honestly, the points have suffered more due to my inability to pick the big bets right. Did that continue? The season totals are in parentheses:
1. 5-5 (42-37) +5
2. 8-7 (79-81) -4
3. 8-7 (50-83) -99
4. 3-4 (29-31) -8
5. 1-4 (11-21) -50
I lost another 14 points this week to put me at -156 on the season. That is a huge hole, and it honestly pains me to see it in writing.
Next: ESPN College Pick Em Picks Week 10
There are 60 games coming up this week and weekend, so I have the opportunity to make up a lot of ground if these teams just play like they are supposed to. Well, they don’t. They say that’s what makes it fun! Everyone loves to see someone fail, so stay tuned for my picks this week!