Guest Column- College Football picks by William Jones

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William Jones examines the topsy turvy world of College Football and makes his recommendations on which teams will be your best bets.


This is a great week to start as there are several head scratchers when picking against the spread.

Air Force (+11) @ BYU - I'm hearing the "Gurus" talk about how BYU has a huge home field advantage and has a huge personnel advantage over AFA. BYU lost to UCLA and Tulsa (barely powerhouses) and AFA is coming off the improbable victories over Utah ("Make it two"- sorry, Point Break reference there) and TCU with last minute heroics. This should be a great matchup as AFA runs the option and BYU has kept opponents to under 90 rushing yards/game. BYU will air it out, but AFA will slow down the pace and keep the score nice and close. Don't be surprised if BYU wins outright.

Wake Forest (-3) vs. Maryland - UMD is 2-1 with victories over doormats Villanova (they HAVE a football team?!?) and Florida International...right. Wake Forest, at 1-2, coming up short against the very real Boston College and Nebraska, lost their starting QB in week 1. During his absence, the team ran roughshod over the Huskers for 236 yards. He's expected to return for this contest but that will be a gametime decision. Regardless of QB Skinner's status, MD gives up big yards on the ground and their quarterback has a 1:3 TD/INT ratio. This is a divisional game, so WF needs to get right to maintain any kind of prayer to stay in the race for the division championship. Let's "get right" ourselves and take WF, giving up the 3 pts.

GAME OF THE WEEK - Georgia Tech -3.5 @ Virginia - I've been following Virginia for years since their head coach Al "Don't call me Dave" Groh left my NY Jets to take the job. They have been a spoiler team vs. ranked opponents for three of the last four years but kind of fell off a bit last year in big games. This year, they are 2-1 but they've only beaten Duke and North Carolina ( both 1-win-against-a-scrubby-opponent teams) by a total of 19 points . Duke beat Northwestern and NC beat James Madison for crying out loud! They lost to Wyoming, whose only other win comes against my man Philly Gino the Latter Day Saint's alma mater, Utah State, an 0-3 team...GT's RB leads the ACC in rushing but has a tight hamstring...if he doesn't go, they have formidable backups to take his place. They also have the top run defense in the ACC even after losing to #14 Boston College by 2 TDs. They are 2-1 and the "weak" victory was by 30 points. BC has NFL talent, something Virginia hasn't had consistently in awhile, so the Virginia defense, which is average at best,will be on it's heels all day. The fourth quarter will be brutal for the Cavs. Furthermore, this is a divisional conference game with Virginia leading the conference with it's two creampuff wins. Coach Chan "First Cowboys Coach not to win it all" Gailey will stress the importance of winning since the BC loss was in-conference.Finally, I think the records, the RB question, as well as the fact that UVA is leading the division have skewed the points. Let's win big with GT-3.5.

That's it for NCAA, Children. Do with the picks as you will, but,PLEASE...these are for entertainment purposes only! Week 3 NFL picks coming soon!