College Football week 5 predictions: | 98Bones's Blog

Nebraska and Virginia Tech thumbwrestle this week and fans of the winning team will want a top 25 status, no doubt. Perhaps both teams belong there but for measurement's sake I don't think this is the week that proves anything. Va Tech lost to a good ECU team, no shame there. However it's obvious that the Hokies need to kick start offensively and as they were down 17-10 to North Carolina after three quarters it's not hard to picture them losing the game if starting NC QB T.J. Yates hadn't left the game with an ankle injury. The substituting quarterback proceeded to throw 2 picks and completed under 38% of his passes. Va Tech scored 10, NC scored 0 and the Hokies move on victorious. Nebraska should win this game as the Huskers' biggest problem on D seems to be in the secondary, pass O seems to be the Hokies weakness. If Nebraska wins I'll be more interested to see how they fare against Missouri next week. Should they lose to Va Tech it will prove the rebuilding is moving along slowly.

OU and TCU get to battle it out again. TCU is ranked and should be the toughest test for the Sooners yet. If OU is a top contender they could prove it here. TCU has surprised OU before and they aren't a team to underestimate.

When I think about it there are four ways a heavy underdog can pull an upset:

1: Have a great gameplan, outcoach the other team, profoundly...

2: Win by intangibles, i.e. injury, weather, turnovers, coaches' last game, etc...

3: Amazing performance by a star player, to jump sports... the Larry Bird syndrome

4. Dominate in an unforseen way, i.e. speed over size or size over speed, which really amounts to the favored team being overrated

Last time the Sooners lost to TCU Adrian Peterson hurt his ankle and the Sooners (I think Bob Stoops admitted to this) were outcoached thinking their running game could dominate the game. Referring to above that's #s 1 and 2 in one game. I'll hope the Sooners have a good strategy this time out and the team is more complete than to have to depend on a single aspect of offense.

Alabama/Georgia is the second great matchup of the year after Auburn/LSU last week. Sorry Ohio State fans, the USC game was mostly hype and the final score proved it. I see Georgia is wearing their black jerseys as a 'psych' tactic. If they play like they did against ASU they won't need a mental advantage. If they revert to their South Carolina game methods they won't need to think about a national championship.

Illinois/Penn State should start cleaning up the clutter that is the Big 10. I think Penn is a couple of rungs up the ladder stronger as the rankings indicate and Penn State, Wisconsin and maybe a regrouped Ohio State should volley for the conference title later this season.

Wisconsin, however, better be ready for an ambush by Michigan. The Wolvereens are looking mighty weak right now but anger and embarassment might make them dangerous. Seems a wounded Michigan or Ohio State often catches some contender by surprise during their down seasons. I don't think this is the week. I'll take Wisconsin by at least 10.

Same situation for Auburn playing a frustrated Tennessee. Neither team has looked great and Auburn must be mentally drained after letting the game against LSU slip away. The way these two have played offensively lately you'd think we're in for a very low scoring game. I like more offense, I hope this one isn't on the TV in my area.

I'll be keeping an eye on Florida St./Colorado and California/Colorado St. just to see where some of these teams fit in the mix. USC says they're 'wary' of Oregon St., maybe that was a typo I read and the quote was actually 'weary' of Oregon St. The Beavers have had some luck against USC over the past few years but this year OSU looks truly dreadful, I think officials enacted the 'mercy rule' in the Penn State didn't they? Maybe I just thought they should when I turned the channel 2 minutes into the game. At any rate a close game will start voters wondering so that might be what the Trojans are really concerned about.

Not much else draws me in now although I'm sure surprises await come Saturday. Gotta love college football, so ...until Sunday, Bones

Comments (5) Add A Comment

September 24, 2008 12:51 PM ET

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When Nebraska lost Blaine Gabbert, they lost a lot of national respect. If they didn't have Marlon Lucky, they would really have no respect around the nation. A win over VA Tech might help, but Joe Ganz will have show up big.

Also, ehhhh, I have to say something about the Georgia situation since you brought my ASU into this blog. ASU had their three most talented RB's out for that game(Keegan Herring, Pac-10 freshman of the year two season ago an all out speedster, Jerrell Woods, and Ryan Bass) and if it werent for the guy no one can stop, Knowshon Moreno, ASU would've made that a game...

that's all I have, thanks for the comment on my blog.

DCforkIN'em

Total Comments (479)

September 24, 2008 08:34 PM ET

Losing Blaine Gabbert did nothing to our national respect. Joe Ganz is one of the best quarterbacks we have had in years and this year's recruit Cody Green is an amazing quarterback. We will crush Blaine Gabbert like we crushed Freeman from kansas state who backed out the same way Gabbert did. He will regret going with the one hit wonder Missouri.

huskers1983

Bennington , NE

Total Comments (1)

September 25, 2008 09:09 AM ET

Nebraska lost respect nationally because an unproven high school qb recruit changed his mind and went to Mizzou instead? Wow that's just.......wrong. I'm sure most the country could care less where Gabbert ultimately decided to go to school, let alone causing them to disrespect Nebraska. When Cody Green signs he will make husker fans forget Gabbert was even thinking of coming to Nebraska. Not to mention the other qb's on the husker roster and there are some good ones.

HuskerFan55

Bedford , TX

September 25, 2008 01:53 PM ET

People, we need to really look at history, both within and outside the collegiate program. As a college football fan, i watch the recruiting with a 'lazy' eye. At Nebraska, a walk-on program has been a strong influence in the building of our historically strong football program (please set aside the last 4 years) - national championships or not. On the flip side, look at the schools that have the highly recognized, and recruited, players and how many of those ever end up with the #1 title at the end of the season? Only 1. It has been proven that with the nationally ranked high school recruits, you need the rest of the team to be COACHED into their full potential to enhance the abilities of those superbly skilled recruits. So I don't beleve that anyone in the NU staff, or across Husker Nation overall really is concerned about the respect gained or lost by a recruits decision. This year we gained respect because we have an athletic director who hired a staff that is more concerned about getting back to the self-respect, that will in turn earn national respect. What was it Dr Tom or BP said " here at NU, you play 'for' Nebraska, not 'at' Nebraska"I apologize for the misquote.