Six Pick: Week 11

It's week 11 and the Hokies, as well as Thursday night football, are back in the Six Pick. Week 11, week 11 ... damn, this season has flown by. There are only four regular season weeks left and this saddens me. I do take solace knowing big games and big upsets are coming. The BCS Championship Game is not set, no one, not even LSU is guaranteed a spot, they have to win out. The teams still in contention best keep your eyes on the crystal prize because each and every week there is going to be a battle for those who want to take that prize away away. This week those two teams are Oregon and TCU. Both do not have a shot at the national championship, but taking it away from Stanford or Boise State would be the next best thing to winning it, and I'll be watching just in case it happens.

Intense. Loud. Fanatical. Intimidating. All words NOT associated with Stanford football. Who else goes from a stadium capacity of 85,000 to 60,000 and still can't fill it up? I do suspect it will be a full house this weekend, but I am not expecting a T-Town environment. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised at fan base forsaking their usual Saturday night study hall for Saturday night football with Herbie and Brent and if they can cause one false start, that's a win.

Thursday, November 10th

10 Virginia Tech -1 at 21 Georgia Tech 8:00 pm ESPN

Hokie fans, if you are like me you've probably seen #avengenesbitt or other unfunny GiT jokes this week. Or maybe you've seen comments about 'How many National Championships does VT have?' or 'We have better Engineering' or VPI references (which really isn't a put down, but you can't tell a know everything he's wrong). It's like the Yellow Jackets are hoos, but without daddy's money and therefore an even smaller chance of getting laid. However, since they are nerds and socially awkward, we should be nice to Yellow Jacket fans. Remember they were the guys in middle school who made pretend paper cell phones to talk to their "friends." I'd even wager all of the male and half of the female students played pocket pool while reading reports in front of class in high school. Let's just be happy they've upgraded to tricycles in college, by their mid-life crisis they may even advance to second base. They deserve our pity.

Pick & Rationale: GiT. Trust me I hate picking against Tech here, but I think Paul Johnson's scheme is perfectly made to attack Bud Foster's defense. Maybe if Hop and Taylor were healthy, I would go with the Hokies, but I am not confident the team can hold the line. Frustrating to think Miami is CPJ's kryptonite and VT isn't, but this game is about matchups. I also think algroh's cover 2 shell will make the offense grind and dink n dunk to victory. On the road, my confidence is low.

Saturday, November 12th

19 Nebraska -3.5 at 12 Penn State noon ESPN

I was going to bypass this game, because I couldn't get around the elephant in the room and just talk football. So instead, I am going to leave you a very brief list of issues these victims have possibly suffered through over the years: Long term effects of abused children include: fear, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, inappropriate sexual behavior, poor self esteem, tendency toward substance abuse, difficulty with close relationships and a higher rate of suicide. Due justice will come to those responsible, enabling or turning a blind eye, but those kids, now adults, are the one who need our help the most. Let's hope attention, focus and help is sent their way.

Pick: Nebraska

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West Virginia at 23 Cincinnati -3.5 noon ABC

I was torn on whether to include this game. While the cousins don't deserve Six Pick space anymore, the fact that Cincy is the birthplace of Cornhole made me reconsider. Pushing it over the top for inclusion was our own RusynHokie. You see his girlfriend is a Bearcat and if he picks against them, I get the feeling she'd be pretty unhappy. Inflicting just a little bit of discord has always been a hobby of mine and this was low hanging fruit. Coach Bitch Jones after a one year hiccup has the Bearcats in first place in the Big East. Jones' squad can almost taste a BCS bowl trip if they defeat wvu in Big East Prime Time.

Pick & Rationale: wvu, getting points and to win outright. 'nati's pass defense is really, really bad. Holgorsen doesn't even have to pound red bulls to call plays that tune up the Bearcats secondary.

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20 Auburn at 15 Georgia -13 --Deep South's Oldest Rivlary-- 3:30 pm CBS

Let's get to the point. After starting 0-2, the dawgs have not lost, cooling Coach Mark Richt's seat considerably. If Georgia wins the SEC East, he has almost certainly bought himself another year in Athens. So the stakes are very high for Georgia, a win in this game all but locks up a trip to the Atlanta for a spot in the SEC Championship game. Auburn would like nothing better but to win one between the hedges, beat their cross division rival and re-energize their 2011 season. As a founding member of The Cult of Gus, I am not sure he can get this offense going enough to win against what has turned out to be a very good UGA defense. For the sake of competitive games, I hope so..

Pick & Rationale: Auburn getting points. The dawgs will win, and while their offense is decent, it is far from explosive. It is possible the ugga defense totally locks down War Damn Eagle, but I think Gus will have them playing well this week.

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TCU at 5 Boise State -15 3:30 pm Versus

Next time I will give you the awkward story about Kellen Moore's wife, Julie and how she thought she was marrying Kenneth the Page of NBC's 30 Rock fame. Today I am going to try and convince you that Kellen Moore and Boise State would be very competitive in the SEC. Yeah, yeah I know the arguments. If they had to play schedule X, they'd lose and yes, I've heard the argument that they beat everyone they face. It's been repeated ad nauseam and I see both sides of the argument very clearly. I personally think the Broncos would lose one game or more if they played a SEC schedule, but that would hardly keep them out of a BCS CG. I would like to remind you that in the past decade, LSU and Florida twice have won the national championship with imperfect records taking losses to average or worse Ole Miss, Arkansas and Kentucky teams. When I look at Boise, I see a physical, extremely well coached football team with a great competitor and tactician at quarterback. Certainly, the talent level, especially on the edges may be lacking, but they would be no worse than 3rd in the SEC or Big12 this year.

Pick & Rationale: TCU, getting points. Boise is the better team, but I am pretty certain their offense and defense aren't quite as good as the previous couple of years. The Horned Frogs have had an even bigger drop off, but they do appear to be getting a bit better and I think they'll keep it within 2 touchdowns.

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7 Oregon at 4 Stanford -3.5 8:00 pm ABC

For the third year running this is the premier Pac-whatever game. Everyone knows about the Oregon blur and everybody's All-American Andrew Luck, but injuries could very well be the story of this top 10 matchup. A few weeks back it was Oregon navigating TheMichael James and Darron Thomas injuries. Both appear almost fully healed now. Stanford, however is really banged up with 3 of their best players, LB Shane Skov, WR Chris Owusu and TE Zach Ertz all out with 3 more important players also far less than 100%. I am very interested to see how this game plays out. Oregon isn't quite he offensive juggernaut of years past, but Stanford without Skov and being a tad slow on the edge, the Ducks could have their breakout game. While the USC game was a Heisman showcase game for Luck, injuries to his receiving threats likely will refocus the Stanford offense back to the running game. Points are coming, but Oregon now has less to game plan for and that's a huge advantage.

Pick & Rationale: Oregon, winning out right. Too much speed on the outside and too many injuries to passing threats are going to allow the Ducks to load the box. Once UO gets up by 2 scores, Stanford is going to be in trouble.

Beer of the Week:

It's been far too long, time for the beer of the week to be an IPA. A new beer to Virginia distribution wise, New Belgium's Ranger IPA is an outstanding session IPA. I have had a few this week and will have quite a few more this weekend.

Quick Recap:

Remember these pics are against the spread.

VPI -1 at GiT
Nebraska -3.5 at Penn State
wvu at 'nati -3.5
Auburn at ugga -13
TCU at Boise State -15
Oregon at Stanford -3.5