By: Brandon Ford
Conspired against more than James Harrison, its Brandon Ford’s week five College Football picks.
Last week, I pulled something off that would make Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Mark May, and every other college football analyst jealous.  Last week, I showed why I am the greatest college football analyst to ever live.  Last week, I went 10-0 in my college football picks and became the Nostradamus of this paper and of my generation as well.  I predicted every game right, which meant that I also predicted the fall of the Marshall football, who have now fallen to 1-3 on this season, and quarterback Rakeem Cato (aka Fresh Meat and neck beard ) is proving that he indeed isn’t the savior to get Marshall to the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s bowl.  Fortunately for them, backup quarterback A.J Graham (aka Dumbo and Thief) is waiting in the wings to hopefully take them to the promise land.  Oh, and unlike Marshall, I was perfect last week.
Week four of the College Football season was just fine.  Oklahoma State defeated Texas A&M in a fine game in College Station, LSU defeated West Virginia in Morgantown, even though Geno Smith scorched the LSU defense in such a way that an arsonist would be jealous and Boise State continues their road to glory by defeating the ever dragooning Tulsa Golden Hurricanes.  This week, we have such titillating matchups such as Tulane taking on Army, Virginia challenging the Idaho Vandals and in a titillating Conference USA matchup, the Rice University Owls take on the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and in a shout out to Jack Minchew, the Duke football powerhouse travels to Florida to take on the Sun Belt Conference Machine, The Florida International Golden Panthers.  What a great week of College Football we have ahead of us!
In a game that is somewhat more intriguing than the ones I listed above, the #3 Alabama Crimson Tide travel to Gainesville to take on the #12 Florida Gators in a battle of traditional SEC powers.  The Alabama defense, like I said last week, is full of NFL players, and it showed last week when they limited Arkansas to fourteen points.  Florida’s offense isn’t as strong as Arkansas’, and I expect Alabama to have no trouble shutting down John Brantley and the Florida offense.  The game might come down to the wire, as Florida’s defense isn’t that bad either, and when you factor in the home field advantage that Florida will have on Saturday night, you have the making for an upset. Alabama is, however, my pick to win the National Championship, so I have to stick with them by default.  Alabama to win this by single digits and remain undefeated.
In the 12:00 game, we have the #14 Texas A&M Aggies taking on the #18 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks when they face off during the Southwest Classic at Cowboys stadium.  Both teams are coming off tough losses, and by the end of the week, one of these teams will be in danger of falling out of the top twenty five and the aspirations of a BCS bowl that both of these teams had will be gone for one of these teams by about 3:00 PM on Saturday.  Arkansas looked like a JV team against Alabama last week (although most teams do), and the Aggies looked like a top ten team last week if you take away the second half of their game against Oklahoma State.  In the end, I expect the Aggies to walk away with the victory in this one and to possible send Arkansas out of the top twenty five.  Speaking of victories, those are all I had last week when I went 10-0.  Eat your heart out, Mark May.
In the Primetime game on ABC, the #8 Nebraska Cornhuskers take on the #7 Wisconsin Badgers in what is easily the game of the week.  Both of these teams have great defenses and just like the Alabama-Florida game, I expect this game to go down to the final two minutes.  Just like in all games that come down to the final two minutes, the team with the better quarterback usually ends up winning and that is why I’m picking Wisconsin to pick up the victory.  Wisconsin Quarterback Russell Wilson has been nothing short of amazing so far this season and Nebraska’s struggles against Fresno State and Washington so far this year has been concerned.

Other Picks

#19 Michigan defeats Minnesota

#1 LSU defeats Kentucky

#4 Boise State defeats Nevada

#10 South Carolina defeats Auburn

#21 Georgia Tech defeats North Carolina State

#22 West Virginia defeats Bowling Green

Upset Alert: #13 Clemson defeats #11 Virginia Tech