After One Week At .500

After a wild Week One, the record stands at .500.
There weren't any big wiffs. I count Texas beating Notre Dame as probably the biggest surprise of the weekend.
Both Wisconsin and Houston won outright to cover their spreads. I nailed both of those games.
The big miss was Tennessee, a 20-point favorite, that had to fight like hell to beat Appalachian State.
I thought North Carolina could get Georgia, but Larry Fedora pulled his normal disappearing act in the first game of the season.
Clemson would have covered, but Dabo Swinney did too much thinking and decided not to kick the clinching field goal. Auburn took the ball and got off two Hail Marys before Clemson was finally able to end the game and keep numerous TVs in upstate South Carolina from being destroyed.
I got Florida State correct, but the Seminoles had to pull off the biggest comeback in school history to stun Ole Probation, I mean Ole Miss.
There was one push. Georgia Tech scored a late touchdown to beat Boston College by three.
This week's slate of games is not nearly as attractive as Week One. Here are this week's selections. As always, the picks are against the spread and for entertainment purposes only:

Friday's Game
-- Louisville at Syracuse -14.5. A somewhat interesting match up. This is the ACC opener for both teams. Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino is 5-0 against the Orange. Syracuse first-year head coach Dino Babers has installed a fast-paced offense and he promises to go even faster in the future. Babers wants 80-plus snaps per game. Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson accounted for eight touchdowns in the first half against outmanned Charlotte in the opener. The big question -- Will Louisville be looking ahead to Florida State? I don't think so. Pick -- Louisville

Saturday's Games
-- Troy at Clemson +36. No worries about kicking a field goal this week. Everybody plays. Everybody has a good time. Tigers in a laugher. Pick -- Clemson
-- South Carolina at Mississippi State -6.5. The Bulldogs blew a 17-point lead at home to lose their opener to South Alabama, a program that has existed for just seven seasons. South Carolina won a fist fight in Nashville thanks to the strong leg of Elliott Fry. Fry hit a career-long 55-yard field goal to win the game for the Gamecocks. The combination of State getting slapped in the face by South Alabama plus playing in Stark-Vegas will be too much for South Carolina. Pick -- Mississippi State
-- N.C. State at East Carolina +4.5. The Wolfpack travels east to renew a heated, under-the-radar rivalry. East Carolina plans to "stripe" the stadium with sections alternating purple and gold. Back in the day, these two schools hated each other. It is going to be interesting to see if time has cooled things down a bit. The Pirates can score, so I like the points. Pick -- East Carolina
-- Boston College at Massachusetts +16. UMass went to the Swamp and gave the suspect Gators all they wanted. BC went across the pond and suffered yet another narrow loss when Georgia Tech scored a touchdown with less than 30 seconds to play to win by three. The spread indicates to me that somebody knows something. Pick -- Boston College
-- Penn State at Pittsburgh -6, Pitt running James Connor is one of the best stories in college football. Connor has returned from a major knee injury and cancer to play for the Panthers. Playing in his first game after a year off last Saturday, Connor scored two touchdowns in Pitt's 28-7 victory over Villanova. The James Franklin era has yet to take off in Happy Valley. These two last met in 2000, a 12-0 Pitt victory that snapped a seven-game Penn State winning streak in the series. Connors' tough running and the Pitt defense will make the difference. Pick -- Pittsburgh
-- Wake Forest at Duke -5. I consider David Cutcliffe a miracle worker. He has been a winner everywhere he has been as a coach. He has made Duke football relevant. Wake football is back to where it came from before the glory days of Jim Grobe. In the toilet. Pick -- Duke
-- Kentucky at Florida -16. After the first week of the season, I think the key to this game is the line. I just don't think Florida can beat anybody by 16. Pick -- Kentucky
-- Arkansas at TCU -7.5. Here's a statistical oddity. Arkansas has won five in a row against TCU in Fort Worth. These two schools haven't played since 1991 -- Arkansas' final season in the Southwest Conference. It wasn't that long ago that TCU was known for defense. Now, the Frog faithful are wondering -- Where is the defense? This is a definite clash of offensive styles -- High-flying TCU versus plodding Arkansas. I will take the Frogs. Pick -- TCU
-- Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee -11.5 at Bristol, Tenn. A crowd of around 180,000 is expected at the converted Bristol Motor Speedway for this meeting between the Hokies and Vols. First-year Tech head coach Justin Fuente won his opener -- a 36-13 decision over Liberty. Tennessee, the preseason favorite in the SEC East, had to survive upstart Appalachian State in the opener. The Hokies are still too much of an unknown. Big question of the night. Will that say -- "Drivers, start your engines!" before the kickoff. Pick -- Tennessee

Weekly Record -- 5-5-1
Season Record -- 5-5-1