[Editorial Note: Today is a big day in the evolution of TheGreatWahl.com. I am proud to introduce my first guest writer, B. Jones. I know a lot about pro football, but not nearly enough about college football -- which I know some people would enjoy reading about. That is where my new hired gun comes in (being paid in respect, pride, fame, and cool new pick-up lines to use with the Great Wahl groupies at the bars). His preferred pen name was Eddie Vedder, but I don't have a good IP attorney, so we are sticking with B. Jones for now. We are hoping to make this a weekly column. Enjoy. I know I will.]
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B. Jones, Senior Great Wahl College Football Writer
After ranting via email about teams and games about which few care, Wahl has let me rant to a broader audience of folks who likely care little about my NCAAF predictions. All the same, here I am. I’ll save further introduction and let you surmise my origins by my picks.
What to expect from one significant game per major conference:
ACC – Boston College, 4-1 @ VA Tech (#5), 4-1: VA Tech lays a modest beating on Boston College, reminding Bostonians that Uncle Dave Shinksie is not Matt Ryan. Not yet anyway, but what can you expect? The 25 yr. old still has 3.5 years of eligibility to mature. VA Tech probably is not the 5th best team in the country, but won’t need to be to beat the team that almost ended Bobby Bowden’s career last week.
Big East: Nothing is big about this conference except the amount of empty seats in their stadia. When Cincinnati is your conference’s best team, you get no predictions.
SEC – Florida (#1), 4-0 @ LSU (#4), 5-0: LSU squeaks out a win at the bayou over the concussed Florida. Why? Because it makes the Tigers one-TD win over Washington look even better for the Huskies. Also, Tebow likes God just a little too much for comfort. In reality, LSU as an 8-point home team underdog even to a stacked UF team seems wrong considering the QB situation in Gainesville. The victory makes Les Miles no less of a dirtbag.
Big 10 – Wisconsin, 5-0 @ Ohio St. (#9), 4-1: Ohio State trounces Wisconsin’s own undefeated, and still unranked, Badgers, in what I’m sure will be yet another week of Wisconsin getting national TV time that few people care to see outside of our nation’s dairyland. Ohio St. did a decent job of stuffing USC’s running attack for much of the game, so don’t expect too much from John Clay this week. Wisconsin falls to 5-1, leaving them thousands of votes away from catching the 3-2 Oklahoma Sooners in the rankings.
Big 12 – Oklahoma St., 3-1 (#15) @ Texas A&M, 3-1: The biggest game in this conference played on Thursday, so I go to Texas A&M and Oklahoma St. Really I find neither team to be impressive. Such is the nature of this conference that shows just 2 or 3 meaningful games per year. But even with suspensions hitting the Cowboys, I am still taking them on the road against a school that can’t decide whether to farm or fight. If you fight, you don’t need to farm. If you farm you don’t have time to fight.
Pac-10 – Arizona, 3-1 @ Washington, 2-3: Jake Locker wins fairly convincingly over the Arizona Wildcats, making America wonder even more whether he is only a superstar when I am in the stadium cheering. As a side note, after last week’s game @ ND, the media seems to like Clausen for the Heisman. But how much better was he than Locker? Clausen of course played at home and had one of his better games, while Locker was on the road and relatively flat. And yet, Locker was still better than Clausen in many ways (except, of course, x and goal to gos). Do I think Locker should get the Heisman? No…even more reason for everyone to forget about the newest overrated ND QB.
A few for the road…
Alabama (#3), 5-0 @ (#20) Ole Miss, 3-1: Nick Saban’s fully salaried college football team is no match for the touted, but still unproven Jevan Snead. If he can’t beat Spurrier’s defense, he is no match for Saban’s, even if he does try to fool people into thinking he’s not a white southern boy by calling himself Jevan. Don’t beat Vanderbilt and pretend to be an SEC contender.
Michigan, 4-1 @ Iowa (#12), 5-0: Let’s not get too excited about Iowa. Remember JoePa prefers not to win conference openers. Rodriguez shows that he can win a few games that matter…but will continue to lose some too. Was Lloyd Carr really not 20x better than this clown? In any case, Wolverines win outside of the big house in a close one, leaving the Big 10 with a bunch of one loss teams destined to lose in bowl games.
Last Week: Did Not Exist
Season: Zilch for Zilch
“A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” Since BJones is a genius, how could I doubt any of his picks?
Nice to see some of your writing, but let’s be realistic and say Bobby Bowden’s career has been over for quite some time now at least one that his honest. I’ll be sure to spread the word about your new blog.
Something tells me Brandon isn’t wearing pants in that picture.
No spreads here, although if all teams win in the fashion I predict, they will cover. I actually have quite the grungy beard, Wahl must of photoshopped it off to appeal to the more clean cut audience.
Are you picking against the spread or just picking the winners? By the way, I am being inducted into the BC High Hall of Fame this year! You are more than welcome to attend. I know you were a huge fan of mine
what happened to the columnist’s great beard from circa five years ago? i am reading his column under protest.