Week Four Predictions

Week Four is now upon us. After watching Miami take care of Texas A&M rather easily last night, I am ready for the Irish and Spartans to get it on! If Miami can come ready to play, why not the Irish. I'm wondering how Charlie's back-to-basics week of practice went. Michigan St. is the perfect team to see if the past 6 days were worth it. I posted a picture this morning just to fan the flame that is my hatred for the Green and White of Michigan State. Even though John L. is gone, the Spartans still have hold-overs from the game in South Bend two years ago. I wonder if Michigan State's new coach is going to smack himself on National TV like the poster boy for a lobotomy did last year. We shall see.
This past week I went a disappointing 2-3 with my picks. Overall this season I am 10-8. I still have a winning record, but I am getting closer to 500 each week.

Last week:
Wins

Predicted Score: Florida 30 Tenn. 21 Actual Score Florida 59 Tenn. 21
This game was as bad as the score indicated.

Predicted Score: Alabama 17 Arkansas 14 Actual Score Alabama 41 Arkansas 38
Alabama received an early Christmas gift on an interference call at the end of the game.

Losses:

Predicted Score GA. Tech 34 Boston College 30 Actual Score Boston Coll. 24 GA Tech 10
BC rolls into South Bend in a couple weeks. It is almost a guarantee the Eagles will be undefeated.

Predicted Score: Nebraska 31 USC 28 Actual Score USC 49 Nebraska 28
In case you do not know, USC is really good. Also, the Trojans found a starting running back during this game.

Predicted Score Notre Dame 27 Michigan 21 Actual Score Michigan 38 Notre Dame 0
When you start the game with a 27 yard loss, the rest of the afternoon goes downhill pretty quickly.


This Week:

I decided only to predict two games this week. This way if I lose both I am sitting at 10 wins 10 losses. I chose the two that I by far have the most interest in.

Penn State VS Michigan
Anthony Morelli leads the Lions into the Big House after PSU's thrashing of Buffalo last weekend. Michigan played like they were expected to last week and destroyed the Irish. Michigan is a two point dog going into this huge Big 10 game. It all comes down to the QB's and who will make more mistakes. The Lions start Morelli, who makes at least 3 bad choices per game. Michigan is going with Freshman Ryan Mallett, due to Henne's injury. Michigan relied on Michael Hart last week to run his way to a victory over ND. Hart will be going up against a much stiffer Defense this week though. I think Michigan has a new sense of confidence after last week's game and will be ready for this one. Penn Stat has not played anyone yet, including ND, so who knows how they will react to 110,ooo fans against them. Morelli makes three mistakes. Mallett makes two mistakes. Michigan pulls this one out by a hair.

Michigan 24 Penn State 20

UPSET SPECIAL: Notre Dame VS Michigan St.
So far this season I am 0-3 picking the Irish to win. Notre Dame desperately needs to show some life in this game. The fan base is beyond eager to see passion and intensity. It just so happens Michigan St. is the perfect opponent for this weekend. The hatred between these two school goes back for years. However, the last two meetings alone, we have the flag planting incident (see Friday's post) and Notre Dame's magical comeback in the monsoon last season shows the intensity when these two meet. I am not going to talk about X's and O's this week. Notre Dame needs to show heart, passion, nastiness, and above all pride for this one. The Irish find a way to get it done.

Notre Dame 21 Michigan St. 18