ESPN College Pick Em Picks Week 5 2018: Ohio State looks great

It was a rough week for ESPN college pick em last week, and not just for me. I did miss my ten pointer for the first time this season, and also lost my eight pointer, so there goes a whole bunch of points.

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My 34 point week dropped me out of the top ten in the Fantasy CPR reader’s league. breedlove1234 led our group with 46 points this week. 14 of the 23 that made picks this week had 40 or more, so it was mostly just me with the horrid week.

Brian Prete still leads the group with 167 points. Jay_da_gr8_1 took over sole possession of second place, four points back. mdaallen is one point off of Jay. Brandon8736 and Protege21242 round out the top five with Kev Shep! also tied for fifth.

Again, there were no clean sweeps, but 22 out of 23 of us took the Irish again this week over Wake. 22 of us also went with Washington. Congratulations are due to mdaallen and espn32962731, the only two to pick Kentucky over Mississippi State.

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.

This is going to be an interesting week since mos of the road teams in these ten games are favored. Welcome to the first week of the conference season for most!

(1) North Carolina State over Virginia:

This is one of those games that I could see going either way. Virginia’s defense has looked better. The Wolfpack look decent, but I haven’t really seen anything special from them. Still, the best player in this game is Ryan Finley, the Boise transfer turned Wolfpack quarterback. The Cavs let Ohio move the ball on them all day. Dominating Louisville’s awful offense doesn’t purge that memory. Finley could be in for another big day.

(2) Washington State over Utah:

The Cougar defense is going to have their hands full here with Hundley and Britain Covey. This is a winnable game for Wazzu at home, but it wont be easy. This may end up my one pointer before Saturday arrives. The more I think about this, the less confident I am in the Leaches.

(3) West Virginia over Texas Tech:

The Red Raiders finally beat a ranked team for the first time in 14 tries last weekend, but this defense struggled with the big, physical receivers of Ole Miss earlier this year. The Mountaineers receiving corps are at least as big and probably faster. Not to mention they have one of the best quarterbacks in the country throwing to them. This is going to be a scoreboard strainer, but I think Tech fails to pull this one out.

(4) TCU over Iowa State:

The Iowa State defense is going to have trouble with the explosive playmakers that TCU has on offense. Team speed is lacking, which was on display against Oklahoma and to some extent against Iowa. I think the Cyclones put up a fight, but TCU eventually wears them out.

(5) Kentucky over South Carolina:

This one could be tougher than it looks. South Carolina went into Nashville and embarrassed a solid Vanderbilt team. Kentucky has been very good at home, but will being ranked go to Kentucky’s head? I believe they have a better team, but it’s not so much better that South Carolina can’t beat them if they don’t have their heads in the game.

(6) Mississippi State over Florida:

Well, Kentucky beat them both. The difference was that the Wildcats beat the Gators in the Swamp. Florida has to travel to StarkVegas for this one. This one is moving up my list, and could be higher by the end of the week. It already would be if I weren’t snakebitten from last week. Still, Mississippi State is a better team that Florida. They should win at home.

(7) Army over Buffalo:

The Bulls are a very solid team, but Army has proven to be a really tough team, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Why? The D is well rested. Army has had at least one ten minute offensive drive in every game of the season so far. Tyree Jackson is a very good talent, but Army’s defense is plenty good enough to stop him and the Bulls don’t have anyone else that can beat the Knights.

(8) Notre Dame over Stanford:

Now that the Irish don’t have the turnover machine Brandon Wimbush under center, this team looks entirely different. Notre Dame moved the ball well against Wake. The Irish have a strong defense and wont let Arcega-Whiteside run wild in the secondary. They are plenty good enough to stop Bryce Love since a few teams have given them a blueprint on how to do it. I could see this game being lopsided, especially in South Bend.

(9) Washington over BYU:

The Huskies had their hands full with Arizona State when maybe they shouldn’t have. BYU is nothing flashy, but they execute well on both sides of the ball. Teams that don’t beat themselves are pretty rare in college. BYU is one of those, so they are always in games. That said, they aren’t beating Washington in Seattle. Sorry.

(10) Ohio State over Penn State:

Penn State may be the least impressive undefeated team out there. Their defense has been gouged on the line several times this year already, and the secondary isn’t all that strong either. Ohio State, meanwhile, has been like a hurricane, destroying everything in their path. Trace McSorely seems to have regressed, but I think it’s mostly the receivers and the fact that until last week Penn State had trouble running the ball. As good as Sanders looked last week, he is going to have a lot of problems trying to get anything going against this defense. This one may stay close, but I doubt it’s within a touchdown.

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