College Football - Week 8 Predictions

Week 8 of the college football season officially began tonight...well, if you can call an ESPN Thursday battle of the sorrys (Virginia vs. North Carolina) a real football game. As I have sat here flipping between this poor excuse for ACC football and Game 7 of the NLCS, I have decided to start a new tradition on the Total System Failure blog....college football predictions.

So, screw the Harmon Forecast...this is the Total System Failure forecast, baby!

Game of the Week - #13 Georgia Tech at #12 Clemson

The ESPN GameDay circus makes the trek up Interstate 85 from Auburn to Clemson, SC...which is fondly referred to as "Auburn on a Lake". As a child, I went to many Clemson games with my elementary school classmate Joe Tyson so I know firsthand what the environment in Death Valley is like for a showndown on national television. I really didn't have much of an opinion on Clemson this season after the graduation of Charlie Whitehurst, but Will Proctor has stepped in and played fantastic football, which can be rather easy when you've got CJ Spiller and James Davis to carry the football. While Will Proctor has been steady for the Tigers, Georgia Tech Reggie Ball has been spectacular this season. Ball's completion percentage is around 51 percent, and he has only thrown 5 interceptions this season. Of course, it is easy to have a good year at quarterback when Calvin Johnson is hauling in the majority of the passes.

The real key to this game will be the Georgia Tech defense. Can Jon Tenuta devise a gameplan to slow down the Clemson running attack and the unpredictable nature of Rob Spence's offense? I look for Spence to use CJ Spiller and James Davis out of the backfield to slow down the speed and quickness of the Jacket defense. Calvin Johnson is going to make big plays - that's a given - but I just have a gut feeling that Reggie Ball cannot continue to keep up his solid play. He has been too inconsistent for 4 years of the flats to all of a sudden turn it around...god, I hope that I'm wrong about this....Clemson 27 Georgia Tech 13

#4 West Virginia at Connecticut - I've spent a lot of my life working in labs, conducting experiments, and occassionally blowing things up during those experiments...and we're all going to witness an explosion of the rushing variety on Friday night when Steve Slaton and Pat White go up against the #105 ranked rushing defense...West Virginia 45 Connecticut 13

Indiana at #1 Ohio State - I'm really pulling for Indiana to pull off big upsets in back to back weeks, but unfortunately for Coach Hoeppner and the Hoosiers, Drew Tate isn't the quarterback for the Buckeyes...Ohio State 56 Indiana 17

Iowa at #2 Michigan - Some might predict that this could be where Michigan slips up before the rapidly approaching Ohio State game at the end of November...obviously, those people have forgotten that Drew Tate is the quarterback for the Hawkeyes...Michigan 27 Iowa 7

# 5 Texas at #17 Nebraska - Colt McCoy has yet to pull a true road game as the quarterback for the University of Texas, and Lincoln, Nebraska is not an easy place to lose your road virginity. The Cornhuskers do bring a 6-1 record into Saturday's game, but the best win of those six came against a 4-3 Kansas State team. The Cornhuskers are getting too much credit for their 'close' loss to USC. I don't think the Texas offense will light up the scoreboard, but the vaunted Texas run defense should be solid enough to hold off the Cornhuskers...Texas 17 Nebraska 13

#6 Louisville at Syracuse - I actually was starting to believe that the Orangemen were really on the road to respectability again. Then, I watched the second half of the West Virginia game this past Saturday. How any Division 1-A football team can give up 457 yards on the ground to a conference opponent is beyond comprehension? And that is just what Syracuse did last week against West Virginia. Oh yeah, Brian Brohm is back for Louisville - this is a blowout...Louisville 63 Syracuse 10

Alabama at #7 Tennessee - It is the third Saturday in October, so it has got to be time for the Crimson Tide and the Vols to battle it out on the gridiron. Last week, we started to see some life in Alabama running back Ken Darby, but of course, that was against Ole Miss. I know this is a rivalry game, and it should be a close one. But I just cannot help but recall that Ole Miss got spanked by Wake Forest at home and then it took Alabama overtime to hold off the Rebs in Tuscaloosa. You aren't supposed to compare teams and games like that when making picks, but when it comes to a Mike Shula coached team, it will work....Tennessee 27 Alabama 13

Tulane at #8 Auburn - Auburn and Tulane haven't played a football game since 1955, and I don't think this contest will inspire much nostaglia. Auburn will certainly come out flat, and I believe that Tulane will hang around for much of the first half. How Auburn is a 30 plus point favorite, I'll never understand. Even though the Green Wave is ranked 115th in scoring defense, the Tiger offense under the direction of Al Borges has not exactly set the world on fire, and yet again, the Tigers will settle for field goals on several drives. Auburn should use its depth to pull away in the second half, but the Tigers won't cover the spread...Auburn 37 Tulane 14

And now predictions for other games this week:

#10 Notre Dame 42 UCLA 17
#11 California 38 Washington 13
#14 LSU 49 Fresno State 14
#15 Arkansas 28 Ole Miss 7
#16 Oregon 24 Washington State 23
#18 Boise State 52 Idaho 14
Pittsburgh 21 #19 Rutgers 20
#20 Oklahoma 35 Colorado 6
Purdue 17 #21 Wisconsin 13
Florida State 16 #22 Boston College 10
#24 Missouri 28 Kansas State 17
Miami(FL) 48 Duke 7
Nevada 38 San Jose State 24
Virginia Tech 27 Southern Miss 24
Southern Methodist 21 East Carolina 14
Houston 45 UTEP 35
TCU 38 Army 14
Georgia 28 Mississippi State 0
South Carolina 24 Vanderbilt 14
Texas Tech 31 Iowa State 20