FTRS Picks, Week 8: Michigan, again

Can you imagine playing a football game that went to double overtime and finished with just 37 points? That would have to be the dumbest game ever, probably full of dumb coaches who make dumb decisions. Thank goodness we don’t live in a world where such a game happened, right?

After last week’s bloodletting, everyone seems to have bounced back..... decently well. A greater number of picks means higher average scores, but the average was still just barely above .500, which.... is the literal definition of average, so I guess I can’t be mad about that. Congratulations to last week’s winner, which.... is me! Y’all all must be so embarrassed. Only Notre Dame made a fool of me, but, to be fair, they made fools of all of us. Those seven points have rocketed me into.... a tie for fourth, while RamblinRocketman remains atop the mountain, laughing at us all down below. This week’s selection is.... surprisingly light on intrigue, but that should change as the weather continues to get colder. Good luck!

#12 Oregon Ducks (-3) @ #25 Washington Huskies

I was all ready to shout “oh yeah, Cascadia Cup time!”, but I got my sports mixed up; that’s actually an MLS trophy series and the Oregon-Washington series has no actual name, despite having been played 111 times. I saw some supposedly reputable outlet claim this game had “title implications”, and look the Huskies already lost to Cal and Stanford, so this basically only has stakes for the Ducks. I mean, Washington is already sitting at two losses and.... [checks standings] everyone else in the Pac-12 North also has two or more losses, except for Oregon. So maybe there’s a chance after all, Huskies. Meanwhile, if Oregon wins their next couple of games, they’ll basically have the division locked up already. Can Mario Cristobal’s crew do that? Well, they still have Justin Herbert, so yeah, yeah they can.

Pick: Oregon

Temple Owls @ #19 SMU Mustangs (-7.5)

At 6-0, the SMU Mustangs are ranked for the first time since the Pony Express days back in the early 80s, and have firmly cemented themselves as Dallas’s football team. As such, it is fitting they face a visit from their hated rivals from Philadelphia. Yes, Temple and SMU have a storied history lasting....... five games, of which only three are from the AAC years, with the remaining two being played in the 40s. And, naturally, a major Dallas-Philly matchup like this could have major playoff implications — hmm, maybe not. But you should probably watch it! It’s probably the top G5 matchup this weekend.

Pick: SMU

#18 Baylor Bears @ Oklahoma State Cowboys (-3.5)

Does anyone look back on that short period of time when Baylor was actually good at football and miss those times? No, of course not! The only good thing about it was Robert Griffin III play football, and then the NFL had to go and ruin him so his only good film is from his college years. Anyway, they’re 6-0 and one of two still undefeated teams in the Big XII, so now I have to talk about them. Coach McMullet and company are their latest obstacle, and hey, did you hear Mike Gundy is a huge fan of Donkey Kong? I’m not sure how using comically oversized hammers to defeat giant apes is like developing your quarterback skills, but he apparently does.

Pick: Oklahoma State

#17 Arizona State Sun Devils @ #13 Utah Utes (-13.5)

I feel like I’ve already gone back to my well of Arizona State jokes once this year. Let’s see.... Herm Edwards doesn’t like the Devil, everyone totally expected ASU to be this good, okay, yeah. Well, I’d say this game has stakes in the Pac-12 South, but everyone is at either 2-1 or 1-2, so that’s literally every Pac-12 South game right now. And while Utah and ASU are both 5-1 overall, both of those 1s are some inexplicable conference losses. So you were already expecting this to get weird, right? ‘Cause it’s gonna get weird.

Pick: Arizona State

#16 Michigan Wolverines @ #7 Penn State Nittany Lions (-8.5)

The thing about Michigan this year is, maybe they are actually really good, despite narrowly avoiding a deserved loss to Army. But you know who all is on their schedule? Wisconsin (who they already lost to, badly), Iowa (who they beat, in a game no one should watch), Notre Dame, Ohio State, and this one, Penn State.

Pick: Penn State

(If you’re having trouble viewing the form on mobile, click here to view it directly.)