Biggest Winner
Rutgers- With the Louisville loss, Rutgers takes control of the Big East but still have three big conference games left on the schedule- at Cincinnati, at Pitt and home against Louisville.
Kansas State/Oregon- The Tide lose, it's easy to see that the number two and number three teams win. K-State and Oregon assume the top two spots in the BCS and now have the inside track on national title births.
Hat's Off
Texas A&M- Not only is Texas A&M coming off it's biggest win of the season, but the Aggies have put an exclamation point on what has been an outstanding inagural season in the SEC. The Aggies are 8-2 overall, 5-2 in SEC play and have been much more impressive in thier first season in the SEC than expected. While an SEC Championship is virtually out of the question, they've been able to establish themselves as a team to look out for moving forward.
Mack Brown- It wasn't long ago that this Texas team looked like the wheels were about to fall off on their season and they were staring down the barrell of back to back losing seasons. Hat's off to Mack Brown and shame on us for not giving the guy more respect. After back to back losses to West Virginia and Oklahoma, it looked like the Longhorns were finished. The offense was struggling, the defense looked terrible and this team looked like it was on the verge of collapse. Well, Texas has rattled off four straight victories and sits at 8-2 on the season and in third place in the Big-12. The Longhorns aren't out of the conference race yet and if a few things go their way, they have a chance at knocking off the current No. 1 team in the nation, K-State on December 1 and perhaps working their way in to the drivers seat in the Big-12. Good on ya, Mack!
UCLA- Tell me who saw this coming..? With two games to play, UCLA sits alone atop the Pac-12 South with a chance to put it away this weekend against rival USC. In Jim Mora's first season as head coach, the Bruins have looked pretty solid from week to week and have a nice win over B1G frontrunner, Nebraska. A win over the Trojans this weekend will ensure a rematch of last years Pac-12 Champion, Oregon.
Moving Forward
Moving forward I see a giant mess brewing at the top of the BCS standings. Looking down the road I do not see how Oregon is going to lose unless it is upset by USC in the Pac-12 title game. That being said I know it is at home this weekend but Stanford is a tough physical team that has a chance to really slow down the Oregon attack. No. 1 Kansas State has a tough game left against Texas but other than that should be able to cruise its way to the BCS title game. Notre Dame's only semi-tough game left is USC in LA. I am not sure what to think about that the Irish have been hanging on by a thread in some games this season, but have a championship caliber defense. With this being a three-horse race right now I am not really sure who will fall first. If one goes down the next will easily step in and play for the title game but if two or more of them lose get ready for chaos. I don't think I will talk about scenarios yet because I can't even think about them yet. Right now you better just plan on an Oregon-Kansas State National Championship game, but maybe in third down this week Jeremy and I will discuss some scenarios that could play out to end this season. What a year it would be for a playoff...oh wait that's still two years away!
Kinney vs. Kinney
Nick and I agreed on 16 of the 20 games that we picked this week and split. Nick taking Stanford over Oregon State and USC over ASU. I took Nebraska over Penn State and Michigan over Northwestern. We both missed on Alabama-Texas A&M and Louisville-Syracuse.
Week 11 Tally:
Nick- 16-4
Jeremy- 16-4
Season Tally:
Nick- 95-34 (.736)
*Jeremy- 80-31 (.720)
*no picks week 7
Picks
#1 Alabama- 24, #15 Texas A&M- 29
Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M defense were too much for the Crimsen Tide on this day. Manziel 345 yards of total offense and two touchdowns, while the Aggies forced three Alabama turnovers, including the dagger by A&M defensive back, Deshazor Everett on what would have been a go ahead touchdown with 1:36 to play.
-Jeremy- Alabama, 34-28
-Nick-'Bama, 24-20
#2 Kansas State- 23, TCU- 10
The Kansas State defense lead the way against TCU, holding the Horned Frogs scoreless through the first three quarters and only surrendering 274 and 10 points to go along with two forced turnovers.
-Nick-K-State, 38-21
-Jeremy- K-State, 35-31
#3 Oregon- 59, Cal- 17
Cal was able to stay within a touchdown of Oregon for just over two quarters with an early third quarter touchdown making it 24-17 Ducks. In the end, the Ducks did what the Ducks do- blow the doors off in the second half. After the Cal touchdown, Oregon rattled off seven straight touchdowns for the 59-17 win.
-Jeremy- Oregon, 52-21
-Nick-Oregon, 63-24
#4 Notre Dame- 21, Boston College- 6
The Notre Dame defense continues it's dominance, holding Boston College to two field goals and helping the Irish improve to 10-0 for the first time since 1993.
-Nick-Irish, 31-10
-Jeremy- Notre Dame, 34-6
#5 Georgia- 38, Auburn- 0
Did you expect any other outcome against Auburn?
-Jeremy- Georgia, 38-17
-Nick-Georiga, 31-10
#6 Florida- 27, LA-Lafayette- 20
I was really surprised by this game. The Gators looked pretty bad in this game and it took a pretty tough effort to come back. What surprised me most is with what the Gators are playing for they have a chance at an at-large BCS berth but the looked very uninspired even at home.
-Nick-Florida, 41-17
-Jeremy- Florida, 30-13
#7 LSU- 37, Miss. St.- 17
Despite last week's loss to Alabama, LSU played, perhaps its best game of the season. They picked up right where they left off against a Mississippi State team that has now lost three straight. LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger had another solid outing, throwing for 273, two touchdowns and no picks.
-Jeremy- LSU, 24-10
-Nick- LSU 31-17
#8 South Carolina- 38, Arkansas- 20
South Carolina just keeps rolling along. After a couple early losses this team looks for real and looks like a BCS at-large contender. Arkansas gave the Gamecocks a game for the first half but couldn't hang/
-Nick-South Carolina, 45-10
-Jeremy- South Carolina, 37-21
#9 Louisville- 26, Syracuse- 45
And there you have it. In our picks last week, Nick and I mentioned that Louisville had been living on the edge this season. That finally caught up with them at the Carrier Dome as the Orange steamrolled giving Louisville its first loss of the season.
-Jeremy- Louisville, 31-20
-Nick-Louisville, 31-13
#10 Florida State- 26, Virginia Tech- 22, Thursday
The Seminoles take a good shot from the Hokies and survive a tough November road game.
#11 Oregon State- 23, #14 Stanford- 27
Hard fought game here. Two solid defenses going at it. Stanford needed a big win to gain some momentum for a big game against Oregon this week.
-Jeremy- Oregon State, 28-24
-Nick-Stanford, 20-17
#12 Oklahoma-42, Baylor-34
Good back and forth matchup as Baylor keep it close with the 12th ranked Sooners for most of the game. The Sooners win despite turning the ball over twice and giving up 252 rushing yards to Baylor.
-Nick-Oklahoma, 42-21
-Jeremy- Oklahoma, 45-28
#13 Clemson- 45, Maryland- 10
Clemson did what it had to do. Couldn't expect much more from Maryland starting linebacker at quarterback. Clemson still with an outside chance at a BCS game.
-Jeremy- Clemson, 44-21
-Nick-Clemson, 38-14
#16 Nebraska-32, Penn State- 23
Well Nick, that's what you get for picking against the Huskers at home. With the win over Penn State, Nebraska improves to 8-2 on the season and 5-1 in the B1G. With their head to head tie-breaker over Michigan, the Huskers are in the drivers seat of the Legends division.
-Nick-Penn State, 31-30
-Jeremy- Nebraska, 24-23
#17 Texas- 33, Iowa State- 7
Texas seems to finally be finding its stride. Iowa State is a solid team and did not look that way against Texas on Saturday. The Longhorns ran the ball very effectively against the Cyclones racking up 222 yards and looking like the Longhorns of old.
-Jeremy- Texas, 31-24
-Nick-Texas, 38-24
#18 UCLA- 44, Washington State- 36
UCLA holds on in a game that was a tail of two halves. The Bruins jumped out to a 37-7 halftime lead, only to be outscored 29-7 in the second half. UCLA now leads the Pac-12 South by a half a game and will face rival USC this weekend for a chance at a rematch against Oregon in the conference championship.
-Nick-UCLA, 38-17
-Jeremy- UCLA, 44-21
#19 USC- 38, Arizona State- 17
I called this game, but I did not think USC would dominate like it did. Both teams are above average at best but the combo of Barkley and Lee was too much for the Devils.
-Jeremy- Arizona State, 37-31
-Nick-USC, 38-27
#20 Louisiana Tech- 62, Texas State- 55
If there is one thing that this shows about Louisiana Tech is it can play offense, but that defense is horrible. Giving up 55 points to a Texas State team that is still in transition from FCS is pretty bad. If LaTech runs into a team that can play defense it is in trouble.
-Nick-Louisiana Tech, 56-35
-Jeremy- LaTech, 54-27
#22 Texas Tech- 41, Kansas- 34 2OT
Well, hat's off to Charlie Wies. Kansas has been surprisingly competitive against some of their Texas rivals (played TCU, Ok St. and Texas close) and Texas Tech was no exception. It took the 22nd ranked Red Raiders double overtime to finally take care of the Jayhawks who racked up 390 rushing yards against what was supposed to be a stout Tech defense.
-Jeremy- TTech, 41-17
-Nick-Red Raiders, 52-10
#23 Rutgers- 28, Army- 7
The Scarlet Knights got back on track with a good defensive win over Army. Rutgers defense show why it is ranked in the top 20 in the country.
-Nick-Rutgers, 28-10
-Jeremy- Rutgers, 24-13
#24 Northwestern- 31, Michigan- 38 OT
This game could have gone either way. Give it up to Michigan for winning without Denard Robinson, that included a game-tying drive at the end of the fourth. This just shows how up and down the B1G has been this season.
-Jeremy- Michigan, 30-28
-Nick-Northwestern, 35-31
#25 Toledo- 27, Ball State- 34, Tuesday
Toledo's top 25 home was very short lived after a loss to Ball State on Tuesday. Don't count out the MAC this season though, tough conference with some good teams.
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