FTRS Picks Week 4: The “Prove It” Week

By Logan Sandor Sep 19, 2023, 10:00am EDT

NCAA Football: Georgia Tech at Mississippi

Week 3 was not the best from a GT fan standpoint, but it was a good week for our pickers. here are the results from the week.

Our top picker this week with 9 correct picks was doghtr. This gives doghtr a 72% correct pick percentage on the year, great job doghtr.

Our overall score leader is back to being a tie between 2 people. Anuj Bhyravabhotla, and Ched C. have the lead with 24 correct picks on the year despite having a rough week overall. With 11 people having 21 points or more, this is still anyone’s game.

One additional note. The past two weeks we have had multiple entries from individuals. If you submit multiple entries I will be using the first submitted entry for your score. The previous double entries all had the same score; this week though BearJackets submitted twice this week, with their first submission scoring 5 and their second submission scoring 7, as such I had to score them as a 5 this week. Please be aware in the future of how multiple entries will be scored.

Boston College really wanted to pull the upset against FSU, unfortunately BC kept shooting themselves in the foot with penalties. 18 penalties in a game is not inspiring. BC falling short didn’t stop other teams from pulling upsets this week. Florida proved me wrong and made Tennessee look silly in the swamp. Mizzou proves that kick distance is just a state of mind as they beat Kansas State with the longest kick in SEC history.

The Colorado State v Colorado game got weirdly violent. I understand it was a rivalry game but there were some egregious late hits and plenty of chippy fighting throughout the game. Colorado found a way to come out on top, but it was certainly a tougher game than most expected. Not sure how Coach Prime is going to adjust after this game now that he is going against Oregon this week.

Last week didn’t quite go the way GT fans wanted. Sure there were some good flashes from GT, but the final score is not going to tell that story. we now get into the meat of our ACC schedule with a big road game against Wake Forest. This is a critical game for the Jackets if we intend to make a bowl game. Plenty of ranked teams are going to need to prove they deserve they’re rankings and I want to see our guys come together and prove they want to be in a bowl game.

picks:

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets @ Wake Forest
Demon Deacons (-6.5)

Logan: Wake Forest didn’t inspire confidence last week after narrowly escaping a loss to Old Dominion. What gets lost in that game is that ODU got 4 turnovers (or more, the box score is kind of unclear) and they still found a way to lose. The Wake Forest front is strong and may cause pressure on the Haynes King, but their run defense is not as stout as it may seem as they get a benefit from the negative run yards recorded from sacks (College Football stats get confusing). I think this is a decently matched game which GT can win if our defense can find a way to keep things together in the 2nd half. One of our biggest problems seems to be the defensive struggles in the second half of games, if we can get things together and maybe get some turnovers I think GT not only covers we win this game. Please let us win this game!

Logan’s pick: Georgia Tech

#4 Florida State Seminoles (-1.5) @ Clemson Tigers

Logan: Do we think Florida State might have been looking ahead to Clemson given how the Seminoles performed last week? Clemson has had plenty of time to bounce back from the week 1 loss they suffered to Duke, so do we think the team they are fielding now is good enough to matchup against FSU? So many questions to be answered... I’m taking FSU because thinking about these questions is making my head hurt.

Logan’s pick: FSU

#22 UCLA Bruins @ #11 Utah Utes (-4.5)

Logan: I know Utah has that one good win against Florida which sticks in people’s minds, but that can only take you so far. Since then the luster of this Utah team has muddied a bit. I think UCLA has the type of offense which can overcome the Utes if they avoid turning the ball over. I’ll take UCLA.

Logan’s pick: UCLA

#14 Oregon State Beavers (-2.5) @ #21 Washington State Cougars

Logan: This game is going to decide who the undisputed champion of the PAC-2 is. If the spread was larger I might have had a different take on this game. I do think Washington State can keep things close with Oregon State, but Oregon State should win this game despite being on the road. Oregon State has a fantastic offense and a strong enough defense to win this game by about a touchdown.

Logan’s pick: Oregon State

#24 Iowa Hawkeyes @ #7 Penn State Nittany Lions (-14.5)

Logan: Iowa has looked better on offense than last year, but not by much. Their defense has taken a step back. What does that mean for the Hawkeyes, it means that this will be another year of being on the edge of the top 25 without really challenging for the BIG10. -14.5 is a big spread, but I think Penn State can make it happen in this game.

Logan’s pick: Penn State

#15 Ole Miss Rebels @ #13 Alabama Crimson Tide (-7.0)

Logan: Is this finally going to be the week where I break my rules and pick against Alabama? I honestly don’t think Ole Miss looked that great last week. They definitely had some moments late in the game when we kept going for things and giving the ball to the rebels, but that might as well have been garbage time. The overall game was pretty close. Alabama scraped by last week, but they spent most of the game in a torrential downpour. Other than that Bama only has a tough loss against a very talented Texas team to hold against them. I still side with Bama on this one, but depending on the results that may be the last time I ride with the Crimson Tide for a while.

Logan’s pick: Alabama

SMU Mustangs @ TCU Horned Frogs (-6.0)

Logan: Even in their loss to Colorado, TCU showed they have a heck of an offense. This game has been a shootout in the past and I expect no different here. SMU has a great QB and a decent run game to match up with TCU, although TCU has been very good at shutting down the run game. My head is saying TCU and my gut is saying “ACC! ACC! ACC!”... I’ll go SMU, why not.

Logan’s pick: SMU

#16 Oklahoma Sooners (-14.0) @ Cincinatti Bearcats

Logan: I believe this is Cincy’s first in conference BIG 12 game. They got dealt one heck of an opponent. Oklahoma’s closest game this year was a 26-11 battle against SMU. Meanwhile Cincy struggled against Pitt and just lost to Miami of Ohio in OT. I think the Sooners should meet or beat the spread pretty easily.

Logan’s pick: Oklahoma

Auburn Tigers @ Texas A&M Aggies (-8.0)

Logan: My first Auburn coinflip of the year. I’ll say heads is Auburn wins the game because TAMU isn’t very good, and tails Auburn covers because TAMU isn’t very good. Here we go everyone, coin flip noises, and... it landed on its side. Not sure what to do in that case, I guess I’ll take Auburn to cover.

Logan’s pick: Auburn

#6 Ohio State Buckeyes (-3.5) @ #9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Logan: Both these teams are loaded with talent and have looked good so far this season. This game is going to help us learn so much about what to expect for the rest of the season. I am going to take ND, I have seen them kick butt since week 0 so there is no reason to doubt them now.

Logan’s pick: Notre Dame

#10 Oregon Ducks (-20.5) @ #19 Colorado Buffaloes

Logan: This probably doesn’t deserve to be in the prime time pick spot, but people can’t seem to stop talking about Colorado. So, without thinking about the actual talent at play here, it seems pretty obvious that Colorado is still not being taken seriously. Oregon is a fantastic team, but once again do you think 20.5 points is a fair spread given everything we have seen from Colorado this year? On that fact alone I am going to take Colorado to cover. I certainly see the possibility of Oregon winning by 21 points or more against an average Power 5 opponent, but not against this current Colorado team with Coach Prime.

Logan’s pick: Colorado