Week 7 Football Picks/13-14

Good evening everyone.  I'm feeling a little under the weather today, but as they say, "the show must go on..."  Today is a very big day here at the intersection of Bikini Hill, 6th, & the Strip as the blog that you're reading right now hit 50,000 total pageviews just over 2 hours ago (yes, it is unbelievable, and thank you)...  Although no one entered 'Coach's Hall of Fame' last weekend by predicting a perfect final score, 3 of the 5 experts that weighed-in on the UT/Iowa State game (Mike Finger, Justin Boyd, and Leah Vann) PLUS Alyssa had Texas scoring exactly 31 points.  AND with the 31-30 UT victory over Iowa State, Joey forecast an outcome of 28-23 Texas.  Pretty impressive folks...  The celebrity experts went 6-4 last week as the Bobcats' 48-24 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette tripped up almost everyone here (Christopher Green had ULL winning 31-27).  As I've been advertising all week, my birthday weekend is on the horizon, and I'm looking forward to watching the Bobcats host Louisiana-Monroe (who used to be Northeast Louisiana a hundred years ago).  Of course the appetizer to that 6:00 p.m. kickoff will be the 11:00 a.m. meeting between Texas and Oklahoma.  Due to the magnitude of the 'Red River Rivalry,' you'll notice that I solicited the help of some extra experts for this matchup.  Several of these experts are bloggers (all listed in the blogs to the right) who write about a wide variety of topics and are worth checking out.  Okay, now for our celebrity experts and their picks in the '50,000th Pageview Edition' of the blog on my BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!  No pressure...  ;)

Celebrity Experts (Last weekend 6-4/Overall record of 62-39 on Bobcats and Longhorns games)

Saturday, October 12th - Texas Longhorns (3-2) vs. Oklahoma Sooners (5-0) @ Cotton Bowl

OU  42-17     George Garcia - Bobcat Nation Sports Bar & Grill, General Manager

UT  24-21     Marissa Wagner - Morning Drive Anchor, 550 KTSA/TXST Alum,

                   Optimistic Horns' Fan

OU  34-14     Kenny Robb - Italian Garden/OU Fan

OU  47-17     James Needham - Louie's Oyster House & Beer Garden/TXST Senior

OU  34-24     Pete Wyatt - Brother, Longtime Blow Follower

UT  37-34     Sergio Cavazos - UT Student/@sergcavs

OU  64-27     Nicole Marshall - OU Fan

OU  49-10     Scott Marshall - OU Fan

UT  41-38     Coby Evers - UT Student/@cobsta3

OU  37-21     Ryan Galvan - U.S. Army/Harper's Public House 

OU  42-24     Audry Begg - UT Fan/@audrybabe

UT  35-27     Christina Reno - Tarleton State Alum/UT Fan/@ChristinaReno

OU  48-14     Lucki Duck - smallpotatospoker.blogspot.com number1sportspicks.com

OU  38-20     Rob - robvegaspoker.blogspot.com www.anteupmagazine.com @robvegaspoker 

OU  31-24     Scott Pierce - lahainahaole.blogspot.com @LahainaHaole

UT  17-14     Julie Pierce - mauihonuhoni.blogspot.com @Honuhoni

OU  41-20     Pete P. Peters - thepokerbarrister.blogspot.com

OU  37-21     Lightning36 - lightning36.blogspot.com @lightning36

OU  21-7      Alyssa Lesa - findurfreedomnmusic.wordpress.com @sweetcheeks2006

UT  30-27     Grrouchie Serge - www.grrouchie.com @grrouchie

By the way, Lucki Duck left his prediction for the UT/OU game in a very detailed and well-written comment on my last post ('A Killer From A Savior') if you're interested in checking it out...

Saturday, October 12th - Texas State Bobcats (3-2) vs. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (2-4)

TXST  34-17     Harper's Hall - Harper's Public House/Slackers/The Veranda

TXST  36-21     Celesta Turnbo - Texas State Senior/Psychology

TXST  21-14     Jessa Lee - Texas State Student/@jessakayelee

TXST  17-10     Christina Garcia-Sierra - Birthday Girl

ULM   35-7       Monica Rodriguez - Birthday Girl

TXST  21-17     Tylar Cowart - Texas State Student/@TylarChance

TXST  21-17     Landon Coleman - Texas State Student/@landoid

TXST  35-28     Elyse Rountree - Texas State Student/@elysemichelle25

TXST  31-14     Blake Meuth - Texas State Student/@blakemeuth

ULM   35-21     Linda Contreras - San Marcos CISD

Now we go to our New Mexico State Alum Joey.  His alma mater decided to take this weekend off after a 66-17 loss to in-state rival New Mexico last Saturday.  I just learned watching the Bobcats' telecast last Saturday that the Aggies will be joining the Sun Belt Conference next year, so the Bobcats will be getting to know them much better.  Now coming to you live from the Palace Station Sportsbook, here's our favorite Las Vegas ticket writer...

Joey's Parlay Card (Last weekend 2-1/Overall record of 5-4 on Aggies, Bobcats, & Longhorns games)

The good thing about parlay cards is that they forget what happened last week (This is Coach telling you that I will be stealing this quote).  My New Mexico State squad is worse than I thought. Thank goodness they are off this week, but I still pick them to lose.  Lol...  Texas takes on Oklahoma and I don't think the Longhorn D can handle QB Blake Bell.  It's Oklahoma with the win 34-17.  Finally the Bobcats are back home and more likely to play like they did against Wyoming, plus La-Monroe quarterback Brown is out this week.  I'll take Texas State to win 28-17.  That's it for this week.  May all your tickets cash...

Joey

You don't know how much I hate having to post the photo below again this week.  I'll give my friend Alyssa a hug anytime, but the presence of this snapshot means that the Texans lost again last week.  You'll see what I think about the Houston's prospects for this week below in my 'Ten Best Bets.'  Now coming to you live from the big city of Abilene, here's our favorite Texans' fan...

    

Alyssa's Corner (Last weekend 1-2/Overall record of 7-8 on Texans, Bobcats, & Longhorns games)

Hello blog readers!  This month has been incredibly stressful for me.  My job has taken on a lot with the open enrollment of the marketplace.  Hopefully things will get better and my days won't be so stressful.  Maybe I would be a little more happy this month if my Texans would win!  Guh!  These games have been so stressful and this last game was terrible, but I was happy to spend it with one of my best friends, Melanie.  Melanie is moving to Missouri and I took a trip to spend the weekend with her.  I'm going to miss my partner in crime!  I miss all of my friends from San Marcos terribly!  Now for my predictions...

Texans vs. Rams:  24-17 HOUSTON TEXANS

Horns vs. Sooners:  42-17 Sooners

Bobcats vs. Warhawks:  21-10 Warhawks

Alyssa

And now it's the birthday boy's turn...  

Coach (Last weekend 1-1/Overall record of 6-4 on Bobcats & Longhorns games)

I missed badly last weekend on my alma mater's loss (picking the Cats to win by 11), but I picked the Horns to win 35-24 (pretty close)...  Now for Saturday's appetizer...  I have only seen the Sooners in limited action this year, but I know that they won at South Bend, and then the Irish turned around and beat an Arizona State team that has been playing pretty well to this point.  Vegas has Texas listed as a 14-point underdog in this one, and I'm guessing that the line isn't bigger due to the 2 extra days of rest that the Horns have had coming off of last Thursday night's meeting with the Cyclones.  I'm rooting for the Longhorns, and I think that they could win the game if the defense shows up and Jonathan Gray and/or Malcolm Brown go off.  What's on paper tells me to pick Oklahoma, but I have to go with a closer score than most people who are picking the Sooners.  I'm going with 43-34 Oklahoma (this game never seems to have a "normal" final score).  

Saturday's main course has the Warhawks coming to San Marcos with a 2-4 mark, but 2 of those losses are to the Sooners and Baylor (34-0 and 70-7, respectively)...  I'm just seeing that this game is being televised on the Longhorn Network by the way, so if you're not in the stadium with me, there you go...  ;)  I am expecting a competitive game, but after the way that the Bobcats looked in Lafayette last Saturday, there is no way that I envision them coming out flat again.  I am going with Texas State 34-26 over the Warhawks.

I'm 12-4 on my NFL best bets over the last 3 weeks, but overall I was a very vanilla 5-5 last week.  You'll find a lot of college totals and a half-dozen NFL games in this week's lineup below...

Coach's Ten Best Bets of the Week (Last weekend 5-5/Overall record of 30-29-1)

Utah State (+7) vs. Boise State - Come through for me again Aggies...

Texas A&M/Mississippi (Under 75) - That's a lot of points...

Baylor/Kansas State (Under 74) - Using the same "logic" as above...

Oregon/Washington (Under 76 1/2) - I will be yelling for NCAA defenses all day Saturday...

Lions/Browns (Under 45 1/2) - And early Sunday...

Saints/Patriots (Over 50) - Go offense!...

Packers (-3) @ Ravens - If I'm wrong here, I miss on several preseason hypotheses...

Texans (-7) vs. Rams - Alyssa smiles in the blog again after this one at Reliant...

Steelers (+2 1/2) @ Jets - Good guys coming off the bye week, and IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!...

Cowboys (-5) vs. Redskins - I'll take 500 yards passing ANY DAY/'D' shows up to help this time...

Thanks again for stopping by (50,000 times)...  ;)  Enjoy your football weekend and I'll see ya again on Monday...