ESPN College Pick Em Week 5: Should You Ride Penny Or Chubb In The Top Slot?
By Mike Marteny
ESPN College Pick Em Picks Week 5, 2017
For the second straight week, I missed my nine point game in Pick em. I only got one other game wrong, so I still ended up with 43 points. pitt2534 led the Fantasy CPR readers pick em group with 45 points this week. He also took over the top slot with 190 points on the season. I held steady on to third place, but am now six points behind.
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Fun facts for week 4: It was a clean sweep for Washington and Penn State in the group. Brian Prete was the only one to pick Kentucky, but he only had one point on it. Gatesy100 was the only one to pick TCU.
These picks will be for the confidence version of the game, where you assign a point value from 1-10 based on how confident you are in each pick.
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(1) Memphis over Central Florida:
If Memphis can take down UCLA, they shouldn’t have that big of a problem with UCF. Then again, UCF may have a better defense than UCLA. This is also a road game. Scott Frost can take one step closer to the Nebraska job that he may not even want.
(2) Clemson over Virginia Tech:
It seems at though a lot of people think Clemson is just going to waltz into Blacksburg and win this handily. I’m not one of them. Clemson was not very good for three quarters at home against Boston College. If they struggle like that against the Hokies, they will lose. I still think Clemson wins, but it’s going to be close.
(3) Auburn over Mississippi State:
Much like last week, I would take the Bulldogs if they were at home. Maybe. Auburn was impressive last week. I do realize that Missouri is just not very good right now, but you could tell that Jarrett Stidham had a much better grasp of what was going on around him. That wasn’t just Missouri playing badly. That was a quarterback learning. That gives Auburn a huge advantage against the One Man Gang (Nick Fitzgerald).
(4) Oregon over California
Cal turned it over six times, and still only lost by ten to USC. They are good enough to put a scare into Oregon, but if they can’t take care of the ball again, they will get blown out. They can’t match the speed of the Ducks without keeping their offense on the field for long stretches at a time. That said, this Oregon defense still has a ton of holes. They were very fortunate to keep it close against Arizona State. Cal has a QB that can burn them deep as well.
(5) Colorado over UCLA:
What exactly am I missing here? Why is everyone on UCLA? It’s not like the Ralphies played poorly against Washington. I can guarantee you that Colorado has a better defense than UCLA, and better than the Memphis team that beat them and the A&M team that should have. This is not he same offense as last year for Colorado, but they wont need it against a UCLA defense that has been run over this year.
(6) Florida over Vanderbilt:
I don’t have a ton of confidence in Florida, but they aren’t going to lose to Vandy in The Swamp. Also, that beat down suffered at the hands of the Tide is going to stick with the Dores for a while. That was brutal. The Florida defense is good enough to hold them in check as well.
(7) Oklahoma State over Texas Tech:
Tech doesn’t have the defense to fluster Mason Rudolph like TCU did. TCU controlled that game with their defensive line. Tech can’t do that. They also don’t have the secondary to handle the Oklahoma State receivers. This game has me curious because I want to see what a really good passing team can do against the Cowboy defense. TCU lit them up through the air with average receivers.
(8) Minnesota over Maryland:
For me, these top three are pretty much interchangeable. Maryland is having serious issues moving the ball without Pigrome. They aren’t going to fare any better against a stout Gopher defense in Minneapolis.
(9) San Diego State over Northern Illinois:
The NIU win over Nebraska is more a byproduct of Nebraska’s poor passing game than anything the Huskies did. One thing NIU did well in that game was stop the rush. The good news ends there for Northern Illinois. I can guarantee you that Rashaad Penny is better than any running back on the Nebraska roster, and the SDSU line wont get pushed around like the Huskers did. This one could get ugly.
(10) Georgia over Tennessee:
Butch Jones lost this team when he lost Jalen Hurd last year. Things didn’t get better after he left the program. This disaster almost culminated with a loss to UMass last weekend at Neyland Stadium. The Vols only beat the Minutemen by four points. UMass is a bottom five team. They stand virtually no chance against a Georgia team that looks like it is going to run roughshod through the SEC East.
Next: College Football Picks Results The Spread Week 4
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