Week 8 Pick-em results. A Slightly Boring Victory. But a Big Victory Nonetheless.

Of the 22 BCS Top 25 games this week, 21 teams did what they were supposed to do. Only two upsets this week, but Oklahoma over Kansas is hardly an upset, so the only ones who didn’t win their game in a weekend of gimmes was Miami. Clemson was a .500 team coming into this game and should have been outmatched by the once again rising Hurricanes, but Clemson was able to hold out and keep me away from a perfect week once again.

I can hardly claim perfection in such a boring week of competition. It’s hard to say that any weekend in October could mean a boring week for sports. There are dozens of major stories happening each week in October, but it wasn’t necessarily the action that was missing, just the match-ups. With the exception of an underrated Oregon State team facing USC, there wasn’t a real college game this week, even though there proved to be some exciting ones (Tennessee v. Alabama & Iowa v. Michigan State). Pretty much everyone in the Top 25 won by double digits, or it was never really even a contest. Oregon State put up some late game numbers in their bout with USC, but it was pretty clear early who would win. The final score doesn’t necessarily reflect the nature of that game. It’s always tough for me not to pick upsets, and even though I picked one on paper with OU beating 25th ranked KU, that wasn’t really an upset pick. So this was my first week of not really picking any upsets, but with this uninteresting week in both College Football and the NFL, I couldn’t pick any.

With a 21-1 week, I’m now at a 130-31 count. That puts me at the highest percentage I’ve been all season at .81, so I shouldn’t really be complaining. Next week should be much more interesting, which could once again negatively effect my numbers. The two major battles of the week will be No. 3 Texas traveling to No. 15 Oklahoma State and No. 5 USC heading up to Eugene to visit the mighty No. 10 Oregon Ducks. More than likely, Oregon is going to cause a lot of problems for the Trojans. After their season opening debacle against Boise State, Oregon has caught ablaze putting up ridiculously impressive numbers. They haven’t faced a defense like USC yet however, and SC has the advantages on both the defensive and offensive line. Everyone thinks it’ll be close and it’s always really hard to win in Oregon, whether at Corvallis or Eugene, but I think the Trojans will edge out the Ducks, if only by a little; but that’s assuming USC can score the points.

Week 7 Pick-em Results. Shame Once Again.

I guess I shouldn’t have gotten used to the near-perfect weeks. This week I got embarrassed with a poor, poor record of 12-6. 109-30 is the count now and puts me back in the barely passing category of .78. This is the way the college football gods keep hotheads like me in check. The gods of this great game favored a few others today with some outrageous finishes and oddly upsetting outcomes.

The story of the day is Arkansas’ near victory over Florida… but I’ll get to that later. First, I must defend my most frustrating loss of the day. Texas squeaks by a Bradford-less Oklahoma 16-13. Last year it was the battle of the outrageously impressive offenses, now it was the battle of the outrageously overrated offenses. I guess some say great defenses, but it certainly seemed like underperforming offenses to me. I’m always against should-a, could-a, would-a, but Bradford is worth more than 3 points to his offense. He maybe only worth 4, but that’s one point more than their final deficit. I’m just saying, Bradford plays more than two series, Oklahoma wins the Red River Rivalry.

Now we get to the meat and potatoes, Arkansas Razorbacks v. the Florida Tebows. Oh wait, that’s not their name? I could have swore it was. Was this Tebow’s final push for the Heisman? That’s what the early blogroll is saying, but I actually say the opposite. I’ll root for the Razorback and have become somewhat of a Razorback apologist, but the Razorback defense comes into this game as one of the worst in the SEC. IF Tebow was all that EVERY SPORTS ANALYST/ANNOUNCER/SIDELINE REPORTER says he is, they should have won this game by 55 points. Instead, we see a terrible Arkansas defense look really good. For the most part, it was the fact that the Razorback D played really well, no one can take that away from them. But shouldn’t Tim Tebow, the Savior of us all (pictured above in all his glory, and yes, that is bacon coming out of his hand), light up a defense no matter what? Tebow didn’t play that outstanding until the final drive, and even in the final drive, he was okay. Not outstanding. I didn’t see anything that would make me jump out of my chair and agree with all those analysts. Everyone is saying that the last drive shows he should win the Heisman, but “the best player in college football” shouldn’t ever even be in that situation in the first place.

I have to get this in because it really was important. I never say this unless it is an absolute certainty that a call affected the outcome of a game, but two really bad phantom penalties affected the outcome of this game. I swear that I will blame my own mother for the loss of a game before I’ll point the finger at the official. It’s a tactic that’s overdone and almost always misused. If you saw the game, you know which two penalties I’m talking about. The pass interference and personal fouls against Arkansas that led to Florida’s tying touchdown. When Verne Lundquist goes against his bias for Florida and Tebow and says that the call was terrible, I’ve got to believe he’s right. They were so bad I had several friends (none Arkansas fans) who called me and tried to have me explain what just happened because they truly didn’t know. Unfortunately for Arkansas and Alabama, Texas, Boise State, and USC, the referees certainly handed the opportunity to the Gators on a silver platter. They did have to execute and Arkansas missed their opportunities yes, but at the end of the day, the difference is shown in a single stat: Hogs 10 penalties for 92 yards (3 of which were on key win-or-go-home drives for the Gators), and Gators, 3 penalties for 16 yards. Stats never lie.

ONE MORE TEBOW RANT: I am sick and tired of everyone talking about how “Tebow finds a way to win.” I’ve heard it said many times today about the end of that game. How about “the Florida offense finds a way to win?” Why is it always Tebow’s responsibility when they win, but never his responsibility when something goes wrong? I recently heard a college football analyst reflect on a short crossing pass where Tebow threw the ball behind his receiver by about 3 or 4 yards. His response was, “that receiver OVERRAN the route.” So apparently, Tebow threw the ball in the right location, but the receiver was wrong. Like’s like punching someone in the face and getting mad at them for running into your fist. It would have been about a 7 or 8 yard game against LSU last week. It’s absolutely ridiculous how much love this guy gets. The bummer is, I actually like the guy. I think he’s a great human being, but, like Brett Farve, announcers and analysts have this absolute love affair with him. It’s difficult to hear so much praise for one person. It’s time to stop looking at the man, and look at the team. Because the team’s pretty good. He helps it, but the TEAM is still in 1st. At least for now. Bama may jump you this week Gators.

Week 6 Pick-em Results. Near Perfect Victory.

So much for being in trouble this week. I was 3 measly points away from having a perfect week. Total for the week? 17-1. 17-1! Had it not been for 5 Michigan turnovers, I’d be riding higher than I already am. Michigan had the opportunity but completely blew it. Back up QB Denard Robinson completely collapsed under the pressure. Robinson is another player to categorize under an epidemic that’s been growing over the last 10 years, the “Running back posing as a Quarterback Syndrome.” Sure he can throw the football. He can overthrow his receiver by 15 yards on a last-shot game-winning drive to blow the game.

Starting QB Tate Forcier was unable to ignite the Wolverine offense in the second half, so with 7:42 left in the game, Rich Rodriguez puts in their back up RB, I mean QB, to try and energize his boys and confuse the ones on the other side of the line. It worked. Robinson put together an 11-play, 59 yard touchdown drive. Robinson ran 8 times, threw twice, and handed off the ball once. It seemed like Robinson was the guy who was going to win it for you. Unfortunately, with only 1:30 left, you can’t call a QB draw every play. Not enough time. So you put the ball in the air, try to throw more than 10 yards, and end up with the 5th turnover of the game. That’s what happens when you rely on a running back to take the snaps.

After this week’s near-perfect record, Hatchline’s College Pick-em total is 97-24, putting me cleaning in the 80th percentile. Check back on Thursday for next weeks picks, trying to take me up from .80. I’m going to need a week’s worth of research to try and top last week.

Week 5 Pick-em Results. Victory.

Coming off of an incredibly respectable 14-3 weekend where Oklahoma lost to Miami and Houston lost to UTEP, this may be a rebound week. Meaning I may be in trouble this week. Last week’s picks add my total to 80-23. Now I’m at 78%, inching my way back towards a B-.

The big news of the week is that I picked one of the "big" upsets of the week. Michigan State over Michigan is hardly an upset, at least not on paper it isn't. Michigan St. has had Michigan's number over the last few years. Come to think of it, everyone has had Michigan's number over the last few years, but this overtime loss to a decent Spartan team shows that the silver lining for the Wolverine's cloud is starting to shine brighter every week. The boys in blue are on their way back to domination in the Big 10. They may be only a few years away from even being discussed in the National Championship contenders. Rich Rodriguez has his boys in blue pointed towards the right direction.

Week 4 Pick-em Results. Even more shame.

Another crazy week in college football is in the history books. I’m not necessarily sure what history books those might be, but they might be titled “Why College Football is the Most Exciting Time of Year.” So far, a major top 5 upset has happened each week. Oklahoma in Week 1, Oklahoma State in Week 2, USC in Week 3, and now Penn State in Week 4. Who’s the next loss on the list? Well, it’ll either be LSU or Florida because they play each other in week 6 in what will be one of the biggest college games of the year. Assuming LSU can make it past current No. 18 Georgia (not a given), it will be the first top 5 matchup of the year, it will also be Florida’s first REAL test, considering they’ve only been playing High School teams up to this point. Florida has a bye this week, giving a recovering Tebow a chance to shake off a concussion, so I’m guessing that LSU will probably not have much of a chance. But as my 14-8 record shows this week, you never really know.

It looks like we’re going to have another playoff controversy this year as it seems that Boise State has a pretty good chance to run the table. Considering they’ve only faced and will only face one ranked team this year, there’s a pretty good shot that they’ll make it through. All of the little guys will have more fodder to feel like they should be a part of the big game and that a playoff system is the only real solution. I personally don’t like the idea of a playoff, which I can expand upon later, (quickly though, I feel it would devalue the regular season that we all love so much), but what a playoff would do would obviously put teams like 2008 Utah and Boise State against the big boys. On those regards I’m all for the playoff. It would get the “this isn’t fair” whining monkey off of our back and I don’t think it’d really affect who would wind up in the BCS National Championship game anyway (unless Ohio State is slotted to go to the big dance, even the little guys could beat up on them). If Utah and Boise State have to go through the likes of USC, Texas, Florida, and Alabama just to get to the Championship game, there’s no way we see blue and orange broncos dancing around in the End Zone anyway.

My season-to-date total is now 66-20, putting my winning percentage at a solid C (.77). Although for the record 3 of my 8 losses were losses that every analyst was surprised by. Who knew we’d have three top ten teams fall in one week? It still doesn’t excuse my 5 other bad picks. Shame, terrible shame falls on me like a dark cloud of self doubt.