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ESPN College Pick Em Picks Week 2 2018: Boomer Sooner!

ByMike Marteny|
NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 01: Wide receiver Marquise Brown #5 of the Oklahoma Sooners celebrates a touchdown against the Florida Atlantic Owls at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Sooners defeated the Owls 63-14. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - SEPTEMBER 01: Wide receiver Marquise Brown #5 of the Oklahoma Sooners celebrates a touchdown against the Florida Atlantic Owls at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Sooners defeated the Owls 63-14. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
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ESPN College Pick Em Picks Week 2 2018: Boomer Sooner in the Troy Aikman bowl!

We are back with more ESPN College Pick Em! If you would like to play along, join this group and compete head to head with the writers at Fantasy CPR and with fans like yourself! It’s not too late to join the fun!

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Brian Prete led our group with a solid 45 points in the first week. I finished with 40 by putting too many on Arizona. That puts me in a tie for eighth, so I have some work to do.

Believe it or not, we did not have anyone make a clean sweep this week! 17 of 18 had Ohio State and 16 of 18 had Oklahoma. 16 of 18 had Arizona, so that’s where we lost the most points.

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. I will publish mine here each week. If I make a change, I will just amend the original article.

ESPN college pick em
TEMPE, AZ – SEPTEMBER 09: Wide receiver N’Keal Harry #1 of the Arizona State Sun Devils catches a five yard touchdown pass against cornerback Ron Smith #17 of the San Diego State Aztecs during the first half of the college football game at Sun Devil Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

(1) Houston over Arizona:

This year’s version of the One Man Gang is Arizona QB Khalil Tate. He had NO help against BYU. None! Houston didn’t look all that great against Rice as they started slow, but Ed Oliver was a beast the entire game. He is going to destroy the Arizona line as well.

(2)Iowa State over Iowa:

I really did want to see Iowa State play without Allen Lazard, who was their best receiver ever. Hakeem Butler has big shoes to fill, but he is capable of that. Kyle Kempt made this a different team last year once he took over the starting job, and David Montgomery is an underrated back. Iowa State lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the Hawkeyes last year when Iowa was much better than they are now and Iowa State wasn’t quite as good. I think they get revenge here.

(3) Arizona State over Michigan State:

Is it possible that Utah State has a better defense than Arizona State? Yes. What really disturbed me about Michigan State’s lackluster performance was the big plays given up by the defense. I guarantee you that Manny Wilkens is better than Jordan Love. N’Keal Harry is one of the better receivers in the country. Add in the fact that this is in Tempe, and you have a recipe for the upset!

(4) Penn State over Pittsburgh:

I was not all that impressed with Penn State in the opener, but Appalachian State is probably better than Pitt. However, these two teams hate each other from when they used to play in the 70’s. It has never really went away. This is a rivalry game, so even though I think Pitt is overmatched, they are at home and strange things happen in games like this. The safe thing to do is lower the points.

(5) Florida over Kentucky:

The only reason that I’m on Florida here is that the defense looked dominant. Kentucky has a shot with Benny Snell there, but this offense looked out of sorts for much of the opener. Florida looked great, but that’s easy to do with five star recruits against a FCS team. Kentucky is capable of keeping this close, but I don’t see them going into the Swamp and winning. It is far more likely that they get whipped.

ESPN college pick em
STARKVILLE, MS – SEPTEMBER 01: Aeris Williams #26 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs scores a touchdown as Ryan Woods #50 of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks defends during the first half at Davis Wade Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Starkville, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

(6) Stanford over USC:

USC is ranked because they are a name. Period. The offense is bound to have growing pains, and UNLV is the best they have been since the Randall Cunningham era. Still, that is a game USC should have dominated. We saw the freshman become more comfortable as the game went on, but this Stanford defense is going to be far more trouble than UNLV was. Add in the fact that Stanford has far better offensive players, and USC is in trouble. They couldn’t stop UNLV in the first half. Stanford is catching them at the right time. A month later, this may be a different story.

(7) Clemson over Texas A&M:

A&M and Clemson both dominated in the opener, but we really didn’t learn much about either of them. This game makes me nervous. I know that everyone is heavily on Clemson, but this is a road game in a tough environment against a decent team. I’m really considering lowering the bet. Stay tuned!

(8) Georgia over South Carolina:

I like South Carolina. I think they are heading in the right direction. Georgia is a team that they usually give fits to, but wow, this Georgia team is stacked. They have so many athletes at every offensive position and an underrated defense. South Carolina isn’t going to just lay down, but Georgia will pull away at some point.

(9) Mississippi State over Kansas State:

Kansas State needed two late touchdowns to pull a dramatic victory over……South Dakota. Not South Dakota State, who flirts with the FCS playoffs every year, but South Dakota. You know, the team that got creamed by Nebraska during the Bill Callahan era. That tells you all you need to know. The Wildcats offense is horrid. Mississippi State ran over a Stephen F. Austin team that is a perennial contender for the FCS playoffs. This is going to get ugly, especially with Nick Fitzgerald back.

(10) Oklahoma over UCLA:

The Troy Aikman Bowl doesn’t look like much of a game. Aikman began his college career at Oklahoma. After Jerome Brown broke his leg early in the 1985 season, Jamelle Holieway took over and led the Sooners to the National Championship. Aikman transferred to UCLA and became one of the best quarterbacks in program history.

On to this year, the UCLA defense that was terrible last year isn’t any better. The offense actually looked better without Wilton Speight on the field. I know, big surprise there. UCLA is young, and they are going to make some noise at some point, but not here. Oklahoma bulldozed a team that won 11 games last year. The same fate awaits UCLA

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