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Week 8 2015: Picks are graded; results are in! #cfb

Posted on by gamedaycole

Week 8 brought us more close games and a few upsets, but it was another tough week to predict.  Our expert panel of predictors and prognosticators had their second tough week in a row, so let’s dive right into the results.

We had a handful of winners this week but not many dominant performances like we get from someone most weeks.  Winners include Kirk Herbstreit (10-4), Desmond Howard (8-4), Chris Fallica (12-6-1, 4-5-1 ATS), Pat Forde (19-5), Booger McFarland (7-2), Chris Doering (5-1), Phil Steele (14-4, 5-2 ATS), and Paul Finebaum (6-1).  This week’s official win in the record book is going to go to Scott Van Pelt, who went 6-2 on the week but 4-2 against the spread, and we like that around here.  His “WINNER$!” segment went 3-2 on the week, but he also threw in the fact that he loved USC laying the points but basically refuses to issue favorites as an official pick for the segment.  That was enough to nudge him past Finebaum at 6-1, so congratulations to SVP this week.  Official correction: Due to an error in our data processing division, Phil Steele’s record was graded wrong.  Boy I hope someone got fired for that blunder.  Phil Steele booked a 14-4 week and went 5-2 against the spread, so that was enough to nudge him past SVP for this week’s win.  Congratulations Phil!

With every week of winners we also have a few losers which need to be pointed out.  Dari Nowkhah posted his second losing week in a row at 2-4.  However, our undisputed loser of the week was Robert Smith who went 1-5 this week.  In fact, he self reported a 2-8 week against the spread, but I couldn’t find a full slate of his picks so we only go with what we know and what we know is 1-5.  If you have his full slate of 2-8 picks against the spread, please let me know because I’d certainly like to see that.

Special guest celebrity Dierks Bentley went 4-4 on the week, confirming that showing up with little-to-no worthwhile input on the games you are picking is not a winning formula.  He basically rolled out of bed looking pretty disheveled and possibly reeking of whiskey and a 4AM taco run and proceeded to pick games based on cities where he liked the bars.  Way to go Dierks.  Jennifer had a solid week at 7-4 while both Charley the Cat and Lee Corso both missed on the headgear pick, going with JMU over Richmond.

Check out the full slate of results below to see how your favorite (or most hated) personality did this week!

Lee Corso: 7-5
WRONG James Madison over Richmond (headgear pick)
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers
WRONG Utah over USC
RIGHT Stanford over Washington
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Texas over KState (by 8)
WRONG Nebraska over NW (by 3)
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl (overtime, by 3)
WRONG FSU over GaTech
RIGHT Duke over VaTech

Kirk Herbstreit: 10-4
RIGHT LSU over WKU
WRONG FSU over GaTech
RIGHT Vanderbilt over Mizzou
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG Utah over USC
RIGHT Stanford over Washington
RIGHT Ole Miss over TAMU
RIGHT Baylor over Iowa St
RIGHT Texas over KState
WRONG Nebraska over NW
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
RIGHT Duke over VaTech
WRONG James Madison over Richmond

Desmond Howard: 8-4
WRONG FSU over GaTech (by 17)
RIGHT LSU over WKU
RIGHT Vanderbilt over Mizzou
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT USC over Utah
RIGHT Stanford over Washington
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Texas over KState
WRONG Nebraska over NW
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
RIGHT Duke over VaTech
WRONG James Madison over Richmond

Dierks Bentley: 4-4
RIGHT Texas over KState
WRONG Nebraska over NW
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG FSU over GaTech
WRONG VaTech over Duke
RIGHT USC over Utah
RIGHT Ole Miss over TAMU
WRONG James Madison over Richmond

David Pollack: 5-3
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG FSU over GaTech
RIGHT USC over Utah
RIGHT LSU over WKU
WRONG Mizzou over Vanderbilt
RIGHT Stanford over Washington

Jennifer’s Picks: 7-4
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT Texas over KState
WRONG Nebraska over NW
WRONG FSU over GaTech
RIGHT Duke over VaTech
WRONG Utah over USC (upset special)
RIGHT Ole Miss over TAMU
WRONG James Madison over Richmond
RIGHT Boise St over Wyoming
RIGHT Stanford over Washington

Chris Fallica: 12-6-1 (4-5-1 ATS)
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss 33-31
WRONG TAMU+5.5 vs Ole Miss
RIGHT USC over Utah 34-24
RIGHT USC-3.5 vs Utah
RIGHT USC-6.5 vs Utah (Bear’s Bank)
WRONG Charlotte+16 vs S.Miss
RIGHT S.Miss over Charlotte 38-28
PUSH E.Michigan+28 vs NIU
RIGHT NIU over E.Michigan 49-28
RIGHT TX State-3.5 vs S.Alabama
RIGHT Tx State over S.Alabama 42-31
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl 27-24
WRONG Miami Fl+6.5 vs Clemson
WRONG Miami Fl+7 vs Clemson (Bear’s Bank)
RIGHT Vanderbilt over Mizzou 17-13
RIGHT Vanderbilt+2.5 vs Mizzou (Bear’s Bank)
RIGHT App St over Georgia Southern
WRONG Georgia Southern+5.5 vs App State
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee

Pat Forde: 19-5
RIGHT Memphis over Tulsa
WRONG FSU over GaTech
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers
RIGHT Pitt over Syracuse
RIGHT Duke over VaTech
WRONG Nebraska over NW
RIGHT OU over TTU
RIGHT Okla St over Kansas
RIGHT Wisconsin over Illinois
RIGHT Mich St over Indiana
WRONG Arizona over Wash St
WRONG Utah over USC
RIGHT Stanford over Washington
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT Arkansas over Auburn
RIGHT LSU over WKU
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Miss St over Kentucky
RIGHT Baylor over Iowa St
RIGHT Texas over KState
RIGHT Louisville over BC
RIGHT Toledo over UMass
RIGHT Houston over UCF

Mel Kiper Jr: 4-1 (0-1 ATS)
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG Miami Fl+7 vs Clemson
RIGHT USC over Utah
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers
RIGHT OU over TTU

Dari Nowkhah: 3-4 (0-2 ATS)
RIGHT Miss St over Kentucky
WRONG Miami Fl+7 vs Clemson
RIGHT Mich St over Indiana
RIGHT OU over TTU
WRONG Utah over USC
WRONG TAMU+6 vs Ole Miss
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss

Trevor Matich: 3-2
RIGHT Ole Miss over TAMU
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG FSU over GaTech
WRONG Utah over USC

Tim Tebow: 3-2
WRONG Mizzou over Vanderbilt
RIGHT Miss St over Kentucky
RIGHT Arkansas over Auburn
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee

Marcus Spears: 3-2
WRONG Mizzou over Vanderbilt
RIGHT Miss St over Kentucky
RIGHT Arkansas over Auburn
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee

Greg McElroy: 3-2
RIGHT Miss St over Kentucky
WRONG Mizzou over Vanderbilt
RIGHT Arkansas over Auburn
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee

Paul Finebaum: 6-1
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers
RIGHT USC over Utah
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Vanderbilt over Mizzou
RIGHT Miss St over Vanderbilt
RIGHT Arkansas over Auburn
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee

Booger McFarland: 7-2
RIGHT Arkansas over Auburn 35-31
WRONG Mizzou over Vanderbilt 28-13
RIGHT Miss St over Kentucky 28-21
RIGHT LSU over WKU 42-21
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee 27-21
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss 30-27
RIGHT USC over Utah
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
RIGHT Duke over VaTech

Jon Berger: 2-0
RIGHT Texas over KState
RIGHT OU over TTU

Kevin Carter: 1-0
RIGHT UNC over UVA

Stanford Steve Coughlin: 9-6 (5-3 ATS)
RIGHT USC over Utah 27-20
RIGHT USC-3.5 vs Utah
RIGHT Ole Miss over TAMU 31-28
WRONG TAMU+5.5 vs Ole Miss
RIGHT Temple over ECU 24-21
RIGHT Temple+3 vs ECU
RIGHT LSU over WKU 42-28
WRONG WKU+16.5 vs LSU
WRONG FSU over GaTech 31-26
RIGHT GaTech+6.5 vs FSU
WRONG Georgia Southern over App st
WRONG Georgia Southern+5.5 vs App St
WRONG UCLA vs Cal over 68
RIGHT Cinci-13 vs UConn
RIGHT GT+6 vs FSU

Colin Cowherd: 5-2
WRONG Miami Fl over Clemson
RIGHT Mich St over Indiana
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT OU over TTU
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Stanford over Washington
RIGHT USC over Utah

Chris Doering: 5-1
RIGHT Vanderbilt over Mizzou 16-6
RIGHT Arkansas over Auburn 28-23
RIGHT Miss St over Kentucky 34-29
RIGHT LSU over WKU 27-24
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee 34-17
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss 31-27

Brad Edwards: 1-0
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers

Joey Galloway: 5-2
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG Utah over USC
RIGHT Memphis over Tulsa
RIGHT Mich St over Indiana

Travis Haney: 2-1
WRONG Cal over UCLA
RIGHT OU over TTU
RIGHT USC over Utah

Danny Kanell: 5-3
RIGHT Houston over UCF
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG Miami Fl+7.5 vs Clemson
RIGHT Ole Miss over TAMU
WRONG TAMU+6.5 vs Ole Miss
WRONG Utah over USC
RIGHT LSU over WKU
RIGHT Memphis over Tulsa

Ivan Maisel: 1-1
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG Utah over USC

Ryan McGee: 1-0
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee

Mark Schlabach: 0-1
WRONG Utah over USC

Jason Sehorn: 5-3
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
WRONG Utah over USC
RIGHT Stanford over Washington
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
WRONG FSU over GaTech
RIGHT Okla St over Kansas
RIGHT LSU over WKU

Robert Smith: 1-5 (0-2 ATS)
WRONG TAMU over Ole Miss
WRONG FSU over GaTech
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
WRONG Miami Fl+7.5 vs Clemson
WRONG Utah over USC
WRONG TTU+14.5 vs OU

Phil Steele: 14-4 (5-2 ATS)
RIGHT LSU over WKU
RIGHT Ohio St-21 over Rutgers (double play)
RIGHT UCLA over Cal
WRONG Miami Fl+7 vs Clemson
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
RIGHT OU over TTU (by 21)
RIGHT OU-14 vs TTU
RIGHT USC over Utah
RIGHT USC-3.5 vs Utah
RIGHT USC-3 vs Utah
RIGHT Stanford over Washington
RIGHT Alabama over Tennessee
RIGHT Ole Miss over TAMU
WRONG FSU over GaTech
WRONG FSU-6 vs GaTech
RIGHT Baylor over Iowa State
WRONG VaTech over Duke
RIGHT Syracuse+7 vs Pitt

Scott Van Pelt WINNERS!: 6-2 (4-2 ATS)
RIGHT Vanderbilt+3 vs Mizzou
WRONG UMass+14.5 vs Toledo
RIGHT GaTech+6.5 vs FSU
WRONG Miami Fl+7.5 vs Clemson
RIGHT Maryland+6.5 vs Penn St
RIGHT Clemson over Miami Fl
RIGHT USC-3.5 vs Utah (unofficial pick)
RIGHT USC over Utah (unofficial pick)

Andre Ware: 1-0
RIGHT Ohio St over Rutgers

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Week 8 2015: College Gameday review! #cfb

Posted on by gamedaycole

Welcome back to the return of our inconsistent and way overdue College Gameday review.  We missed the last few weeks to a lot of important business going on (i.e. laziness) and we are glad to be back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today’s broadcast was coming to you live in color from Harrisonburg, Virginia for the matchup between FCS powerhouses the Richmond Spiders and the James Madison Duke Dogs.  After some quick research, it looks like James Madison has an enrollment of 20,181, and judging by the scene out there today every single one of their students were on hand for this broadcast.  I thought the NDSU crowd of two years ago was the biggest I can remember seeing, but this may have topped it.

JMU Crowd
JMU Crowd

As the show got underway, we were introduced to some woman named Margo who teaches English in Spain.  Margo crowdsourced a plane ticket home to JMU for Gameday today.  That is dedication.

One note about today’s schedule is that Desmond Howard was particularly giggly during today’s show.  Enjoying the Desmond Howard over-laugh is one of the truly great pastimes of any College Gameday connoisseur and today did not disappoint.  Jennifer said that maybe he took one too many uppers after the Michigan disaster last week.

Desmond Howard LOLs
Desmond Howard LOLs

Sign game was on point this week.  Highlights included “Sober as Sarkisian”, “Lou Holtz parties with Lamar Odom”, “Todd McShay is a Commie”, multiple signs referring to Richmond only eating plain Pop-tarts, and some guy who printed his impressive resume as a sign.

Hire this man
Hire this man

And of course, courtesy of the official College Gameday reddit account:

Butt Stuff
Butt Stuff

They recycled last year’s segment by Gene W. about FCS players who made it big in the NFL.  Or maybe he rewrote it from this year.  Either way I enjoyed it, even though there was a distinct lack of Sam Houston State talent such as Josh McCown, Dustin Long, Rhett Bomar, or Guido Merkens.

They had a segment breaking down down the Michigan Meltdown or whatever you want to call that Michigan State/Michigan finish from last week.  Apparently Rece and Kirk shut the game off early thinking it was over, and we all remember Desmond Howard cursing the Wolverines on the sidelines when he tweeted the following:

gameday-des

Now it’s time for VIDEOS!!!

Today’s most touching piece was the story of Princeton offensive lineman Mason Darrow, who is the first openly gay division 1 player to take the field.  Check out the full video HERE!!!

Another “story” piece was reliving the story of that Michigan State Miracle mentioned earlier, which can be found HERE!!!

And finally a piece on Hunter Knighton, who almost died of a heat stroke during practice one day.  Check it out HERE!!

Also, we had a bizarre moment when Sam Ponder was interviewing JMU head coach Everett Withers.  After the interview, he announced to the team that they would be wearing old school helmets.  That’s pretty cool, but the team and crowd went BANANAS when he showed it off.

Other notes from today’s show:

Bear’s Bank was 10-10-1 heading into the show today, where he took Miami Fl with the points, Vanderbilt and the points, and layed the points with USC.  However, his ESPN Chalk record against the spread was 30-16 heading into the day.  In other words, he is printing free money on ESPN Chalk, but be careful with the Bear’s Bank.

The Sam Ponder outfit of the week was a nice one.  Jennifer says “I like the skirt, I like the sweater, and I like the shirt underneath.  Overall it is an excellent look.  I really like Fall Sam Ponder”.

Sam Ponder Week 8
Sam Ponder Week 8

Apparently Richmond bought a spider to bring for Gameday today so they would have a mascot on hand.

The Richmond Spider
The Richmond Spider

George Whitfield and Rece Davis did their regular segment where they uncomfortably walk through the crowd while breaking down quarterback play.  This one actually had a great highlight for once, when the ESPN cameraman fell down going up the stairs and chaos ensued.

https://twitter.com/mikedyce/status/657924872350253056

When it came time to make some picks, today’s guest celebrity was country music singer Dierks Bentley.  Corso was conspicuously absent from the set during the entire pick segment.  However, Herbie read off Corso’s notes for all of Corso’s picks and it was actually pretty funny.  Apparently in the USC/Utah game, SOMEBODY KNOWS SOMETHING when it comes to that spread, and that SOMEBODY was identified as Chris Fallica I guess because he ate 3.5 points early this week, and ate even more laying 6.5 today.  Anyways, when it came time to pick the big JMU/Richmond game today, Desmond, Kirk and Dierks were in agreement that JMU would take the victory today.  The camera then cut to the JMU campus where Lee Corso emerged from a grand hall, presented by trumpets and streamers while dressed as James Madison before putting on the Duke Dog headgear.  I did not think I would write the previous sentence when I woke up this morning.  Anyways, pretty funny stuff and a white knuckle ride as Corso walked down stairs unassisted.  This marks the second time Corso has dressed up in costume as a founding father, with his previous time being Ben Franklin for the Harvard/Pennsylvania game of 2002.  Jennifer and Charley both went with JMU as well, making it a clean sweep in the predictions this morning.  Enjoy the rest of your football night.

Corso picks Penn in 2002
Corso picks Penn in 2002

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