Week 11 Football Picks/13-14

"Spent 10% of my time this morning on actual work and the other 90% on how I can get Ohio State into the national championship game. #priorities" -Gabby Kraynik-



Hello again everyone.  I just decided to use that quote above on the spur of the moment as Stanford threatens to go up 21-0 on Oregon right before halftime.  Baylor is up 31-12 on Oklahoma at the moment as the 3rd quarter nears a close in Waco, but the Cardinal is doing their part to make Gabby's dream come true.  Well, my laziness in recruiting celebrity experts recently has resulted in a smaller number of score prognosticators, but the experts that have signed on over the past couple of weeks have gone undefeated.  Last week's group went 9-0 as the Bobcats beat the Vandals 37-21, while the Longhorns defeated the Jayhawks 35-13.  Maegan Martin had the close pick on the Texas State game as she called it 35-20 in the Cats' favor, while Jim Sweatervest had that honor in the Horns' game, picking UT to win 35-7.  Also of note, our resident expert Alyssa had the Longhorns winning 35-17 (don't ask me how she does it)...  'Coach's Hall of Fame' (the reward for a perfect score) is still empty, but several people have knocked on the door this year.  I picked the exact score for Kansas last week (so mine and Alyssa's scores PUT TOGETHER would have been right - :P), and Joey picked the exact score for Louisiana-Lafayette, but we'll keep trying to get the scores for BOTH TEAMS in the same game correct...  The Bobcats became bowl-eligible last week with their sixth win of the season, so we'll give them the week off, but the Longhorns will be in action on Saturday as they travel to Morgantown to take on the Mountaineers of West Virginia.  Without any further ado, I give you our celebrity experts...


Celebrity Experts (Last weekend 9-0/Overall record of 87-61 on Bobcats and Longhorns games)

Saturday, November 9th - Texas Longhorns (6-2) @ West Virginia Mountaineers (4-5)

Texas  35-14     Tyler \m/ - @tylerhscott
Texas  34-21     William Anastassiou - @WAnastassiou
Texas  34-17     Andrew Garza - @andrew_garza10
Texas  34-21     J.B. Texas-Ex - @JBTexasEx
Texas  24-17     Marian - @TexasSportsGirl
Texas  27-21     Desperado - @orlandobrrr
Texas  33-20     Russell - @atxpkrgolf
Texas  27-7      Joe Garcia - @PatchesGarcia


Last night I solicited picks on Twitter from 15 people who had given me scores earlier in the season (in the hopes of getting 10 if I could), and these 8 fine people answered the call (or the 'tweet,' if you will)...  I hope that our experts go undefeated for the third week in a row...  ;)  Now for the man from Las Vegas who always has a big steak on his plate, coming live to you from the Palace Station Sportsbook, here's Joey...

Joey's Parlay Card (Last weekend 3-0/Overall record of 12-6 on Aggies, Bobcats, and Longhorns games)

Wow, how the week flies by when you're having fun in Las Vegas.  College and pro basketball has started, but I'll stick to my specialty, college football.  My alma mater gets a special game against Boston College in Las Cruces.  I don't think it will help much that the Aggies are last in every statistical category.  B.C. rolls 49-7.  Texas makes their first trip to Morgantown where they take on West Virginia.  The Mountaineers had a lead into the 4th quarter against Texas Tech but came up short.  The same thing happens this week as the Longhorns eeek out a late 21-19 victory. Finally, the Bobcats are on a roll, the offense is really starting to gel, and the defense looks really good.  Three straight wins and a 6-3 record gets them a well-deserved week off.  Til next week, may all your parlay cards cash...


Ha ha.  After I got home from work today, I heard some of the "talking heads" on ESPN stating that Baylor would not beat Oklahoma tonight because the Bears have only beat the Sooners once in their history.  Right now it's Baylor 41  Oklahoma 12 with 9:03 remaining - nice logic...  :)  At the time I wanted to ask how that train of thought worked out for the Sooners against the Longhorns earlier this season...  ANYWAY, here's the photo that I have to post again to introduce our favorite Texans' fan...  Here's Alyssa...

  

Alyssa's Corner (Last weekend 2-1/Overall record of 12-13 on Texans, Bobcats, and Longhorns games)

It's that time of the week again!  Alyssa's Corner!  Well blog readers...I'm sure you guessed that I'm a bit bummed out that my Texans lost this past Sunday.  It was a good game though and Case did a good job as quarterback!  Now for our kicker...I hate to say this, but I am loyal to him.  He went to my high school!  At the game this past weekend, my mom, boyfriend, and I had suite tickets.  It was so awesome, free food and awesome seats!  This past weekend was the big weekend where my boyfriend met my mom...let's just say he passed the mom test with flying colors.  I loved going back to Houston for a long weekend; I've missed those city lights.  Now for my predictions...

Texans vs. Cardinals:  24-21 Texans
Longhorns vs. Mountaineers:  31-21 Longhorns


Well, Alyssa didn't send along any photos of food this week, so it's time to put the precious photo of her beloved Belle up here again and see if I can't improve upon my 5-5 record on my '10 Best Bets' for last week.  Maybe Belle is just a Bobcats and Longhorns feline, as I did go 2-0 on that pair of games...  Well, it's my turn, so here's our mascot, the "Belle Cow" if you will (bell cow..., get it? - I'm SO CLEVER)...  ;)

Coach (Last weekend 2-0/Overall record of 11-6 on Bobcats and Longhorns games)

So, last weekend I told you ALL ABOUT the weather forecast in Moscow, Idaho (before proceeding to tell you about how I took the 'Under 50' on the game, and giving you my score prediction).  Little did I know that the Idaho Vandals play in A DOME - yeah...  In a completely unrelated story, I fired all of my statisticians...  ;)  Okay, now onto this week's Longhorns/Mountaineers matchup.  The following is a quote from Marian, who submitted her score prediction in the experts' section above via Twitter:  "Going to be a tough game and if UT isn't careful they could lose..."  I think that West Virginia is one of the toughest teams in the country to peg this year.  What I'll never forget about this season was how they lost 37-0 at Maryland, and then followed that up the next week with a 30-21 win at home against then undefeated and 11th-ranked Oklahoma State.  What makes this game scary is that it's in Morgantown, and you know that it's going to cool outside because it's a night game (7:00 p.m. EST kickoff).  I'm going with the Longhorns, but I'm not expecting a blowout by any means...  I'm picking Texas 27-23.


"So Coach, you haven't done as well on your college picks against the spread this season as you have on the NFL, and I see that you have EIGHT NFL bets listed this weekend" - no coincidence my friends...  ;)


Coach's Ten Best Bets of the Week (Last weekend 5-5/Overall record of 49-50-1)

LSU/Alabama (Under 55) - Defense usually tends to be the theme in this matchup...
Utah State (-13 1/2) @ UNLV - Utah State = My old reliable...
Colts (-9 1/2) vs. Rams - Indy back at home facing a struggling Rams squad...
49ers (-6) vs. Panthers - Fresh Frisco off the bye week should cover a T.D...
Lions/Bears (Under 52 1/2) - C'mon weather, help a brother out...
Seahawks (-6) @ Falcons - Seattle should show up in the first quarter this week...
Eagles (+1 1/2) @ Packers - Pack didn't seem to have much confidence in Wallace Monday...
Giants (-7) vs. Raiders - Rested Giants/Crushed, warm weather, long journey Raiders...
Texans/Cardinals (Over 41) - Expecting a lot of passing in this one...
Cowboys (+7) @ Saints - Dallas has lost by more than 7 (San Diego - 9) only once this year...


And that's it folks.  I hate to jinx it, but I actually feel good about my best bets this week - we'll see...  Have a great football weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!