CFB Weekend Preview: Big 10 Championship

by Suckatsports

College football weekend preview will run weekly, and will take a quick gander at some of the upcoming games. Quick breakdowns and predictions will be included, but don't quote it on SportsBook, they'll still take your money.

I was going to write a separate post on this, but I decided, hey why not create a clusterfuck of information all in one extremely long post! Why is Gameday going to Michigan this weekend? It's not like it was last year where it's two undefeated teams squaring off, it's two teams that have had their chances gashed, and both lost last week. Yeah, I guess it's for the Big 10 title, but what's that worth nowadays. Then I look and realize that just like most other weeks there's a lack of quality matchups this week. I guess there's always the Georgia-Kentucky game where Woodson is going to get killed, or the West Virginia/Cincy game where the Mountaineers will look to have their first win against a ranked opponent. Either way, if not for the upsets, this would be the worst year for college football.

I'm very close to the OSU-UM situation, not just because I'm an alumnus, but I try to read everything I can about it, including both OSU and Michigan blogs. In that case, I will leave it up to the experts to break down this game in detail. On paper, Ohio State is clearly superior in talent, even though Michigan wins on some specific positions. This however, is the least likely thing to contribute to a win in this game, seeing as how under the sad tenure of Cooper, Ohio State had the more talented team most of the time. I would like to say that Ohio State losing to Illinois is probably the worst thing Michigan could have hoped for entering this game, even though it gives them the opportunity to win the Big 10 outright and secure another trip to the Rose Bowl. If Ohio State had come in undefeated they would have had all the pressure on them, and Michigan would be playing pressure-less, with almost nothing to lose no matter how they played. Now with the loss, Ohio State really has one thing to focus upon, and that's taking out their wrath for an awful performance against the Fighting Illini. Jim Tressel is currently 5-1 against Michigan, but three of those included Troy "Michigan Killer" Smith, and he is sadly no longer on the roster, but no doubt still feasting on In-and-Out Burger. From my vantage point, Michigan will have tough sledding on the ground due to wrath, injuries, and the fact that they do not run out of the spread. The key, as always, is making Henne uncomfortable, because when he hears footsteps, he's liable to make mistakes. Because I'm positive Lloyd Carr reads around blogs for an example of how to beat Ohio State, I will throw no hints his way. He'll have to get them from Brian. Ohio State 37, Michigan 17.

Other games to keep an eye on:

1. West Virginia at Cincinnati. Really, I want the Bearcats to win this game so bad and some people have put the house on this. I just don't see it. In fact, I see the opposite fate of a good win befalling Cincinnati, and that is West Virginia winning big, big. The worst thing is, I don't even like West Virginia, they nearly choked to the likes of Louisville had it not been for a fortunate non-call of a block in the back. They also have not beaten one ranked opponent; I guess Rutgers was ranked 25th when they waxed them, but Rutgers is clearly the suck. So, they've not beaten any legitimate opponent, and lost a really bad loss, they are one dimensional, and their defense is as bad as advertised. And they'll still win because their one dimension (the spread option run) is really really good. They have two three of the fastest weapons on the field that can handle the ball. And granted, none of the three will be a quarterback at the next level, but it surely doesn't preclude them from being great players on this level. The plan is there to beat WVU, put 8 people at the line of scrimmage and single cover the receivers because Pat White has the arm of a wet noodle. Anyway, I'm sure Brian Kelly is fully aware of the theoretical way to stop WVU, he just does not have the players. So, with that in mind, WVU 45, Cincinnati 20.
2. Kentucky at Georgia. Yeah, Kentucky is ranked 22nd, but like OSU's ranking of 1st, it's purely by default. Kentucky has done everything it can to plummet out of the rankings, and yet has hung on by a thread. Oh well, there's nothing better than going out with a bang. Georgia comes into this game on as big a roll as you can be, scoring some 40+ points in the last three contests, two of which happen to be against Florida and Auburn. It seems like some sort of light went off on the offensive unit, because they've been dangerous both on the ground and through the air; that kind of offensive balance is hard to defend. They run between the tackles, they run to the outside, they throw deep, and throw short. Not that any of that matters against Kentucky because they plain out suck on defense. They'll have a tough time stopping Knowshon Moreno, Stafford (who looks 100% better than the beginning of the year), and Mohammed Massaquoi. Beyond that, they've got a defense that held its last three opponents to around 20 points a game, and look to do completely discredit and humiliate Heisman Candidate Woodson. Ha! Heisman candidate. As if it were September! Georgia big. Georgia 45, Kentucky 21.

And that's all folks, those are the only games anyone should be watching outside their own games. Sure, there's an ACC clash (I just chuckled) between 18th Boston College and 15th Clemson. But let's be honest, no one cares who plays in the ACC, or who'll come out of the ACC because that brand of football no one likes to watch. Yeah, they have the athletes, and maybe in a couple of years when FSU, Miami, and VT get back on their feet we'll have something to talk about. In the meantime, I fart in your general direction.

Also, you people need to start being named normal names. My text is all garbled with red underlines for misspellings. It annoys me greatly. Hot water burn baby!