Tom's Past Picks
Duke's defense has been horrible for the last month, and that includes Virginia putting up 31 points against it earlier despite taking its foot off the gas in the fourth quarter. The Hoos should move the ball well here again, but I expect Duke's offense to find a bit more success too.
Ohio State hasn't allowed more than 16 points in a game this season. Indiana is the best team its faced, but it's also an Indiana offense that has struggled against the better defenses it's seen. And none of them are as good as Ohio State's.
Texas Tech's defense dominated the first meeting and should do so again. BYU's offense is built around physicality and the run game, but the Cougs cannot match the physicality of Tech's defense. Few teams can. At the same time, BYU's defense held up well considering the bad spots turnovers put it in during the first game, and should do well here again.
This doesn't strike me as a great matchup for Tulane. While North Texas was destroyed in its last spotlight game against USF, just about everything that could go wrong that night did go wrong. Now the Mean Green will bring one of the most explosive passing offenses out against a Tulane pass defense that's struggled quite a bit this season.
Provo at night is a difficult place to play, and given TCU QB Josh Hoover's turnover tendencies, I can see things going sideways quickly for the Frogs.
Coastal has been one of the better teams in the country over the last month and the market is yet to catch on. This team could still win the Sun Belt, and I expect it to go on the road and win here.
I like Coastal Carolina on the spread and I like them on the money line for the same reasons. Coastal is the better team right now, and it has far more to play for.
North Carolina moves at a snail-like pace on offense and tries to win games with defense, special teams and field position. Wake Forest moves slowly on offense too, and it's offense has completely stalled in recent weeks.
Josh Heupel never passes up on a chance to entertain Tennessee fans with touchdowns when given the chance.
Alabama's offense is one-handed and has struggled to score points in the SEC all season. Oklahoma's offense has also been horrible in SEC play, as we don't hear much about John Mateer's Heisman campaign anymore. The defenses will dictate this game.
Iowa caught a slight break last week with the weather and Oregon being down it's three best pass-catchers. They won't catch that break here. Yes, it'll be raining, but you try to cover Makai Lemon and Ja'Kobi Lane on unsolid footing. That, and this is Iowa's fourth straight "big" game, and that wears on you.
The Red Raiders dominated BYU at home last week and would've won by far more if they scored touchdowns instead of field goals. That's been a problem all season, but with how UCF has struggled on the road, I don't believe it'll be a problem here.
Colorado State fired its coach a few games ago and the team has responded by getting outscored 70-10 in its last two. Meanwhile, New Mexico still has a narrow path to the Mountain West Championship Game after last week's win over UNLV.
UAB isn't particularly good at anything, but when you look at what it's truly bad at it all happens to line up with the things North Texas is exceptionally good at.
This is an early start for Oregon State at 10am PT, and the Beavers are coming off a horrific home loss to Sam Houston last week. Now they have to travel for this game against a team that means nothing to them under an interim coach. Meanwhile, Tulsa sees this as an opportunity to put a win on the board.
