Bru's Clues: Week 3 College Football Picks

Week two was humbling, bringing the Bru’s Clues College Football Picks overall record to 5-4. UCF started the week off right, but then Florida and their self-mutilating offense turned the tide the wrong way. Brent Pease’s Gator offense is exactly like Jimmy Kimmel’s now famous fake twerker.

Like the girl in the video, at first glance, there’s a lot to like about the Florida offense. It’s run by an athletic quarterback, Jeff Driskel, with a big, strong running back, Matt Jones, and a veteran offensive line. Then the game/dance starts and you’re thinking that it’s not all that bad. The offense moves the ball down the field. The chick actually can shake it.

Then they decide to take it up a notch. Florida gets into the red zone. The dancer twerks upside down.

And that’s where it all goes horribly wrong. Jeff Driskel craps his see-through white football pants, while Miss Twerk catches her pants on fire.

Driskel and the Gators now have a week to clean their trousers and get ready for a rivalry showdown with Tennessee.

Let’s get to this week’s games.

UCF – Penn State

UCF and George O’Leary face Bill O’Brien and Penn State. It’s going to be O’wesome. This will be the Knights first true test of the 2013 season after outscoring Akron and FIU, 76-7. Penn State is also 2-0 after a blowout win against Eastern Michigan and a season-opening test against Syracuse.

UCF should have the edge at the most important position on the field. The Nittany Lions are riding the arm of true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg. Crazy stat time: He’s only the second freshman quarterback to start an opener at Penn State since 1910. On the other side, Blake Bortles has been stellar in the first two games against inferior competition, completing nearly 70% of his passes with four touchdowns and no interceptions.

The Knights defense will face its toughest challenge of the season, especially on the back end. Hackenberg will be looking for the reigning Big 10 Receiver of the Year, Allen Robinson, early and often. The freshman QB has 9 passes of 20 yards or more and 5 of those have gone to Robinson.

As you would expect from a freshman, Hackenberg has been prone to mistakes. He’s tossed three interceptions and been sacked six times. On the road, UCF is going to need to come up with those type of momentum-changing plays. Throughout the first two games of the season, UCF has been lacking in that department. Defensive end Deion Green has two of the team’s three sacks and linebacker Troy Gray has the team’s only interception.

Pick: Hackenberg makes mistakes, while Bortles doesn't. Give me UCF and the 4.5 points.  UCF 27 – Penn State 24

Nevada – Florida State

JameIs good as advertised, but what’s with the pantyhose on the head. The debut of Famous Jameis could not have gone better for Florida State. The budding star completed 25 of 27 passes and accounted for five touchdowns, four passing and one rushing, in the team’s blowout win over Pittsburgh.

Winston has now had a week off to prepare for his home debut against Nevada. The Wolf Pack defense was picked apart by UCLA two weeks ago, but did look less like Swiss cheese a week ago against UC Davis.

Nevada has a dual-threat quarterback of their own in Cody Fajardo that could present the FSU defense some problems. He passed and ran for more than 100 yards in the loss to UCLA, then accounted for 3 total touchdowns in the win over UC Davis.

Pick: FSU had some trouble recently in games after bye weeks. I think the Noles win easily, but don't cover the 31.5 point spread. FSU 41 – Nevada 14

Ole Miss – Texas

With Miami and Florida getting the weekend off, I wanted to throw this game in here. The hot seat in Austin has never been hotter under Mack Brown. Texas was embarrassed by BYU, giving up more than 500 yards rushing, resulting in the firing of defensive coordinator Manny Diaz.

Rebels quarterback Bo Morris is not as athletic as BYU’s Taysom Hill, but Ole Miss uses a lot of the same read-option runs like the Cougars. Unless new Texas defensive coordinator Greg Robinson is a miracle worker, then I expect a big day from the Ole Miss offense.

Pick: The 25^th ranked Rebels are getting 4.5 points against a team that can't be entering Saturday's game with much confidence. Yes, please! Ole Miss 35 – Texas 31

Alabama – Texas A&M

In college we used to throw out the acronym “LTD” whenever we were at a party or out at the bars livin’ the dream.

This summer, Johnny Manziel was livin’ the dream: playing golf at Pebble Beach, partying at the rival University of Texas and watching NBA games courtside.

The party truly started in Tuscaloosa on November 10^th of last year when Manziel shocked the college football world by upsetting the top-ranked Tide 29-24. Since then, Nick Saban and Alabama have been waiting for their shot at revenge. They'll get it this Saturday in College Station.

The Tide handled Virginia Tech in their opener, but not without some issues. The offensive line didn’t open up many holes for T.J. Yeldon and the rest of the Bama running back stable. Plus, A.J. McCarron only passed for 110 yards.

Nick Saban had an extra week to straighten things out and Texas A&M doesn’t look too stout on defense. The Aggies made Sam Houston State running back Timothy Flanders look like Barry Sanders.

This game is going to come down to whether or not Alabama can slow down Johnny Football. They couldn’t do it last year and they lost. If they can’t do it this year it’s going to be deja vu. Manziel looks every bit as electric and maybe even more accurate than he was in 2012.

Pick: I have to take Manziel at home with the 7.5 points. Alabama 27 – Texas A&M 24

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