You know what's bad? We're only six-point favorites against Duke Saturday. You know what's worse? There's a little trepidation that even that line might be too high. And it's only about one-sixth as big as it's been in years past.
Speaking of teams we're about to play on the road, I've talked to a few others who saw East Carolina run with No. 4 West Virginia over the weekend -- let's just say no one came away from the game fantastically optimistic about our chances in Greenville.
Fun times last week, going 5-0 and adding a little credibility to this column. Boo-yah.
Cincinnati -9 vs. Miami (Oh)
I wouldn't recommend any first half bets on the Bearcats here, but by the 60th minute, Cincinnati will have run away from Miami.
This has letdown game written all over it for the home team, coming off tiring losses to Ohio State and Virginia Tech -- and I think Vegas's line also shows they're a little wary of a stinker from the Bearcats.
Fortunately, these aren't your older brother's RedHawks. The once proud MAC power is 0-4 and was blown out by Northwestern, lost to Purdue in OT, lost to Kent State and was thrashed by Syracuse last week.
Plus, Miami annihilated Cincinnati 44-16 last year, giving the Bearcats a reason to get up for the game.
Even if they come out a little slow, Cincinnati shouldn't have much trouble managing at least a 10-point win at home against Miami.
Georgia Tech +9.5 at Virginia Tech
Except for the fact that it's in Blacksburg, there are a lot of reasons to like the Jackets Saturday.
Getting it at 10 points would make me feel a little bit warmer inside, but Atlanta's finest engineers could win this one outright, so I'll settle for 9.5 points.
Other than last week's unexpected test against Cincinnati, the Hokies have not played a real game yet this year. They haven't seen anything close to what Georgia Tech can bring defensively. On top of that, it's a relatively young VT team.
Even if QB Sean Glennon and his pack of stud wideouts are on their game, the Jackets have already shown they can handle potent passing offenses, shutting down Notre Dame and Virginia earlier this year.
Wait, what?
All kidding aside, Georgia Tech's experience will be a huge factor in a game of this magnitude -- you can bet Chan Gailey is reminding his players about the 51-7 shellacking they received in Lane Stadium last year (a loss they never really recovered from).
The only thing I don't like about this game is that it won't be on ESPN, so we won't get to hear Kirk Herbstreit wax on and on about how great a person Calvin Johnson is.
UCLA -23 vs. Stanford
This is a line that cannot be high enough. Stanford very easily could go 0-12. If Virginia's season continues to tailspin, look for some "excellence in the classroom, not on the field" parlays in the near-future.
As my brother (a Stanford grad) said, "Even if QB Trent Edwards wanted to throw in the towel on the season, he'd probably sail it high."
It's been one of those seasons in Palo Alto, when the only good thing people can say about the team is, "the new stadium looks great!"
UCLA RB Chris Markey goes for at least 175 yards and the Bruins roll at home.
Washington +3 at Arizona
Here's the letdown game. Arizona plays their guts out against USC and gets a feisty Washington team the next week.
The Ty Willingham bandwagon is quickly filling up again, and they're starting to think about bowling in Seattle.
Arizona looks pretty vanilla again this year -- the Mike Stoops era has settled into a nice lull of consistent mediocrity. As expected, his defenses are a rock and his offenses are no prize.
UW wins this one outright.
Pittsburgh -14 vs. Toledo
Total flyer here. I'm banking on the fact that Toledo is deciding between three QBs for this game -- a strategy that we all know has had abundant success for Virginia.
Even if Toledo's normally potent offense is firing on all cylinders, there's no way the Panthers lose this one (although then by the transitive property Virginia would be worse than another MAC team).
This looks like it could be one of those games where the Toledo QB pulls a vintage Kerry Collins stat line: 21-51 passing for 265 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. All in a losing effort, of course.
Last week: 5-0-0
Season: 8-4-3
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