This was not a good weekend of predictions for me, and actually it just wasn't a good weekend period. I'm sick, my fantasy team got blasted, I'm about to go through my second straight Braves-less October, Shinzo Abe was my favorite foreign politician, and then there was that whole mess in Lexington.
If it weren't for these baby blues I'd be nowhere.
WEST VIRGINIA 31, MARYLAND 14
I have seen the future, and his name is Noel Devine.
For the second straight week Barry Sanders reincarnated stole the show despite a limited role, this time amassing 125 yards on his first three carries, and finishing the game with 136 on five. The casual college football fan is going to be absolutely blown away by this kid in two years.
Oh yeah, and Steve Slaton rushed for 137 yards and three touchdowns.
The 'eers get East Carolina in Morgantown on Saturday.
CC Prediction: West Virginia 49, Maryland 21
CONNECTICUT 22, TEMPLE 17
Uconn assured itself the title of least impressive 3-0 team in the country when an apparent Temple touchdown was overturned with just 40 seconds remaining.
Owl receiver Bruce Francis was ruled out of the end zone after coming down with a deflected pass on a wild fourth-down reverse play, and while the replay appeared to show Francis coming down in bounds, Big East replay official Jack Cramer said there wasn't conclusive evidence to overturn the call.
"We got lucky," UConn coach Randy Edsall said. "But I'd rather be on this end of it than the other end of it."
Despite being sacked six times and having his receivers drop at least three balls, Husky QB Tyler Lorenzen had yet another productive day, going 19 of 29 for 222 yards.
A player who continued to be surprisingly unproductive was sophomore running back Donald Brown who scored the team's only two touchdowns, but rushed for just 54 yards. The star of the show was fellow sophomore running back Andre Dixon, who carried 21 times for 129 yards in his 2007 debut. Dixon was suspended for Uconn's first two games for an unspecified violation of team rules.
Since I don't need to be credible, I'm just going to start specifying exactly what the infraction was in these instances. So you heard it here first, Andre Dixon is back after serving a two game suspension for masturbating in the university's swimming pool.
Dixon and the rest of the Huskies will look to add Pitt to a list of slain giants that currently includes Temple, Maine and Duke when the Panthers host them on Saturday.
CC Prediction: Connecticut 45, Temple 7...always have to make me look like an asshole Edsall
MICHIGAN STATE 17, PITTSBURGH 13
I really didn't think Pitt was going to put up much of a fight in East Lansing, but if Bill Stull hadn't gotten hurt or Pat Bostick hadn't left camp for a week and-a-half, they probably win this game.
If you haven't seen LeSean McCoy yet then you're in for a rude awakening on Oct. 27, because the kid is special. With sophomore QB Kevan Smith doing more harm than good, McCoy took a huge chunk of the snaps from the shotgun in the second half and was still effective despite everyone knowing exactly what the play was going to be. The freshman finished the game with 172 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.
I think it's safe to say that in two years the trio of McCoy, Noel Devine and Mike Ford are going to mean to the Big East what Brohm, Slaton, White and Rice mean to it now.
Smith actually came alive a little bit on the game's final drive, but his heave into the endzone on the last play was batted down. He finished 9-of-18 for 85 yards and threw two interceptions.
The 2-1 Panthers open their Big East slate on Saturday when Uconn comes to town.
CC Prediction: Michigan State 34, Pittsburgh 14
ILLINOIS 41, SYRACUSE 20
That was not two touchdowns fellas.
CC Prediction: Illinois 27, Syracuse 7
CINCINNATI 47, MIAMI OF OHIO 10
Bearcat quarterback Ben Mauk didn't play because his still recovering shoulder was tired, but it didn't matter as former starter Dustin Grutza stepped into Brian Kelly's offense and completed 25-of-35 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns.
Kelly did say today that if Mauk is healthy he's still the starting QB.
The UC defense did surrender it's first touchdown of the season, but it came when the score was 40-3. They also forced four turnovers, including interceptions by Mike Mickens, DeAngelo Smith and Lamonte Nelms. The interceptions by Mickens and Smith were their fifth of the season.
Cincinnati will continue to beat up on the MAC when winless Marshall comes to the Queen City this weekend.
CC Prediction: Cincinnati 24, Miami of Ohio 10
RUTGERS 59, NORFOLK STATE 0
Ray Rice scored touchdowns on 1/4 of his carries, and Mike Teel threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns on just eight completions as Rutgers rumbled in a glorified mid-September scrimmage.
The only other noteworthy item from this game was that backup running back and return man Kordell Young injured his knee and is out for the season. The Scarlet Knights now have two freshmen (one true, one redshirt) behind Rice on the RB depth chart.
RU has a week off before hosting Maryland on Sept. 29.
CC Prediction: Rutgers 42, Norfolk State 3
Week Three Record: 6-1 (Sons of bitches....BUMPUSES!!!)
Season Record: 21-2