Very little today went the way I hoped it would, thanks to a certain online learning platform which I use in my capacity as public educator, so these picks are very late. Since late: also brief. I’ve hated the Pigs all my life, but it sure was lovely watching Arkansas destroy Texas last week.
I’m worried OSU is just bad. I’m not even gonna go into the stats. They’re all awful. If you’ve watched the Pokes for even a single quarter you know what I’m talking about. And now they get the pleasure of playing in Boise on the blue turf!
Once, while making the three day drive from Seattle to Oklahoma, I stopped in Boise and bought an audio book of The Great Gatsby. I think I ate at a Denny’s there once, too.
Last week: 9-1 (.900)
Overall: 16-4 (.800)
Nebraska 9, No. 3 Oklahoma 65. The first match-up between these two teams since the 2010 Big 12 Championship game, which featured two coaches named Bob Stoops and Bo Pelini, which OU won 23-20, and billed as a celebration of the so-called 1971 Game of the Century, Nebraska’s current (likely soon-to-be-former) head coach Scott Frost was apparently so frightened of this game that he tried, this past summer, to get it canceled. After watching the once-fabled program lose to Illinois in Week 1, it’s easy to see why. His team sucks. NU’s only chance is to keep things within two touchdowns in the first half and then for Oklahoma to have one of the third quarter siestas of which the Sooners have grown fond under Lincoln Riley . . . unfortunately I don’t think anybody would be surprised if OU’s up thirty midway through through the second. I’ve seen quite a few folks commenting that this celebration of the Game of the Century isn’t even the Game of the Week—it might not even be the Game of the Accursed 11 O’clock Window. OU owns a 45-38-3 edge over the Huskers all-time.
No. 15 Virginia Tech 30, WVU 34. This is exactly the kind of game I imagine West Virginia fans have dearly miseds since the fold-up of Big East football. These two teams first met in 1912 (incidentally the same year of the first OU-NU game) and played every year between 1973-2005, with the Mountaineers holding a 28-23-1 lead over the Hokies. WVU hasn’t taken home the Black Diamond Trophy since 2003. Virginia Tech opened their year with a 17-10 victory against then tenth-ranked UNC, they’re a tough draw; this game should be close, but I’ll go with Seth Doege and the ‘Eers at home and take the over.
Nevada 28, Kansas State 30. Nevada’s young season includes a win at Cal. K-State’s Skylar Thompson is out indefinitely after an injury last week. The Wolf Pack is favored by less than a field goal. I’ll go with a grind-it-out win for K-State.
Baylor 27, Kansas 21. Why do I think this might be close? Baylor’s struggles against Texas State. We’ll see.
Florida International 21, Texas Tech 35. This just seems like the kind of game Tech’s gonna play this year.
Rice 17, Texas 45. After last week’s act of porcine brutality the Horns are probably very grateful to have the Owls on tap for this week.
Oklahoma State 34, Boise State 31. As my twitter-friend Trevor Rogers pointed out last week, Spencer Sanders is basically the same dude as he was when he started his first game for the Pokes three years ago. I agree. If this thesis is correct, however, he’s due for one of those games where he not only tries to play hero ball, but succeeds (a model of inconsistency, Sanders is). On the other hand, as Stewart Mandel ominously observed in his picks for this week: “Mike Gundy’s perennially prolific offense has been decaying for four years. The Cowboys went from averaging 38.4 points in 2018 to 32.5 in 2019 to 30.2 in 2020 to just 25.5 in two games thus far.” OSU has done nothing in its first two games to suggest a reversal of that trend, though Gundy in his post-game remarks last week did sound as if he were cognizant of the fact that something is, indeed, the matter. This is typically where OSU actually comes to life; that’s my bet this week.
No. 14 Iowa State 31, UNLV 17. Iowa State looked to be in historic form last week against Iowa—which is to say the version of ISU that both ISU fans and folks around the country expected of the Cyclones for most of the past century. The historic season (in its more usual sense) that I-State fans were looking for is in major jeopardy if Brock Purdy doesn’t return to his old self, and soon.