WEEKEND PICKS

So Columbus Weekend is here and the picture is starting to become a little clearer in the College ranks on who are contenders and who are pretenders. Due to a lack of time today I am going to keep it short and sweet , so I will pick what I think are the top 3 college games of the weekend.

1)Oklahoma vs Texas: The Red River Shootout is one of my favorite college football games of the year, with half the stadium in red and the other in burn orange at the Texas state fair. Although both teams come in undefeated, I look for the Sooners to win pretty handily. The McCoy and Shipley on the Longhorns are not the McCoy and Shipley of two years ago (they younger brothers of Colt and Jordan), and I still think the Sooners led by Landry Jones and Ryan Broyles will still make the BCS Title game. So I, along with Lee Corso (the video above is my favorite Corso pick of all time) will go with the Sooners. Oklahoma 38 Texas 21

2) Auburn vs Arkansas: Like many pundits, coming into the season I thought defending BCS champion Auburn Tigers would be a borderline .500 team, having lost the majority of their defense and their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback in Cam Newton. But despite receiving a scare from Utah State in the season opener, they have held their ground, including most recently beating SEC East favorite South Carolina on the road. Arkansas on the other bounced back nicely from a drubbing at Alabama by having a nice second half comeback over Texas AM in Dallas last week. As for this game, I think this may be a case of who is ever the home team is going to win, so I am going to with the Razorbacks. I think Tyler Wilson and the Arkansas offense will in the end be too much for the young Auburn defense. Arkansas 41 Auburn 24.

3) Georgia vs Tennessee: This game may be a head scratcher for some, since neither team is ranked, but with South Carolina losing last week, this game has huge implications in the SEC East race. Georgia had a tough start to the season in losing to Boise State and South Carolina, but have played well in their last three outings. The young Volunteers come in at 4-1, with their wins coming against mostly cupcakes and got beat pretty handily at Florida. Their offense however, led by quarterback Tyler Bray, is 1th in the nation in passing yards and 19th in the nation in points per game, which is a year or two ahead of schedule from what many were predicting. Despite Tennessee's surprising start, I am going to go with the Bulldogs. I believe Aaron Murray is still one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC, and I think Mark Richt's hot seat gets a little cooler after this week. Georgia 28 Tennessee 24.

FINAL THOUGHT:

Due to my lack of time I'm not going to give pro picks this week, but I do think the Patriots will beat the Jets 35-21. It's a story of two sides for both teams. Patriots have a great offense and struggling defense, whereas the Jets have one of the better defenses and an under performing offense. In the end I believe Tom Brady and Wes Welker will overpower the Jets defense.

As for my Alma Mater Boston College, this weekend's game on the road at Clemson is one of the first games in a long long time, that I am going into thinking they have absolutely no chance of winning. They have been extremely frustrating to watch. All their games with the exception of the UCF game has come down to the final possession, but they continue to allow the big play on defense and their offense is settling for too many field goals. Clemson on the other hand has been one of the Cinderella teams this season coming off wins against Auburn, Florida State and most recently on the road at Virginia Tech. I have a feeling the announcers will be saying a lot of "Tajh Boyd to Sammy Watkins" on Saturday and as a result I'm going with Clemson 41 BC 10.

That's about it. I will most likely give my weekend recap on Monday. Have a good Columbus day weekend.