The Dirty Dozen and Bottom of the Barrel: Game On!

Yup, finally, after 4 weeks of mostly cupcake games or arguably exhibition games, the College Football season "kicks it up a notch"



A bunch of good, hopefully competitive games with possibly the best of them being Alabama vs. Ole Miss.

And when's the last time you could say Ole Miss was in a game with title implications?

Without further ado, we'll jump right into things: Oh, wait...we were 12-0 last week in our picks.

Wait, what? Yeah, 12-0 bitches...that makes us 47-5 on the season.

Tell 'em Sir Paul:



Okay, enough fun stuff time to get down to business and as Casey Kasem always said, "On With The Countdown"...

THE DIRTY DOZEN:

1) Florida State 4-0. Arrghh...we hate to put these guys here. Mostly because we want Jameis Winston to lose. And he almost did last week, but when NC State went up by 10 in the 3rd quarter, Winston and his teammates responded. (This Week: vs. Wake Forest, Our Pick: FSU 48, Wake 10)

2) Alabama 4-0. Okay, so maybe the odd couple will work. Saban and Kiffin BFF's, who knew? The Tide is good, though not as good as past teams. But this year, it still may be enough--if they can survive the SEC West gauntlet. (This Week: at Ole Miss, Our Pick: Alabama 24, Ole Miss 23)

3) Oklahoma 4-0. Yes, Oklahoma. They are probably gonna run the table guys. Deal with it. Unless they go bonehead, this will be one of your 4 Playoff teams. And they should be, they are pretty good. (This Week: at TCU. Our Pick: Oklahoma 31, TCU 23)

4) Oregon 4-0. Sorry Ducks, you fall after barely beating Washington St. Yes, we know it was in god-forsaken Pullman, but still. The Mike Leach's aren't that good. If you want to be a title contender, you need to win more convincingly. Deal with it. (This Week: vs. Arizona, Our Pick: Oregon 41, Arizona 33)

5) Auburn 4-0. Right, they beat La. Tech. So what...They struggled early and pulled away late from a team they shouldn't struggle with. But we don't blame them for being uninterested. It gets real for them this week. Les Miles real. (This Week: vs. LSU, Our Pick: Auburn 43, LSU 27)

6) UCLA 4-0. The Bruins finally looked like the team everyone thought they'd be last week at Arizona State. Brett Hundley stepped it up and UCLA just flat ran away from the Sun Devils. Big win. (This Week: vs. Utah, Our Pick: UCLA 37, Utah 21)

7) Texas A&M 5-0. Barely. Not barley. Oh boy, Kenny Hill is the real deal. He rescued the Aggies who nearly lost to Arkansas. In College Station. It wouldn't have shocked us, just surprised us. But that's only the 1st test. (This Week: at Miss. St., Our Pick: UPSET--Miss St. 27, Aggies 23)

8) Notre Dame 4-0. Yes, they get to be #8. For now. But honestly folks, outside a game vs. FSU, there's nothing on the schedule that will trip these guys up. But we could be wrong. (This Week: vs. Stanford, Our Pick: Irish 31, Trees 21)

9) Baylor 4-0. This is a flawed team. You may not have seen it yet. But we don't believe the defense is strong enough to get these guys to the playoff. We could be wrong, but we are pretty confident in this despite Bryce Petty being pretty awesome. (This Week: at Texas, Our Pick: Baylor 43, Texas 21)

10) Ole Miss 4-0. That's right peeps. Ole Miss stays in the #10 slot this week. And their 1st shot at glory in a long, long time. This is a good team, but they've not played anyone but cupcakes. That is about to change in a big way. They'll keep it close on energy alone. (This Week: see #2)

11) Miss. St 4-0. Two Mississippi teams in the Dozen. This may never happen again in our long and proud future. But it's happening this week. Beating LSU in Death Valley..at night. And doing it convincingly...almost. That's big. This week is arguably bigger (This Week: see #7)

12) Georgia 3-1. If you have Todd Gurley, you have a chance to be great every week. The Bulldogs haven't been, but Gurley has been enough to beat just about everyone. We think the defense will get better, but they need to find a quarterback who can throw the ball further than me. (This Week: vs. Vanderbilt, Our Pick: Gurley Men 43, Vandy 17)

THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL:



5) Idaho 0-4. Oh, ye poor Vandal fan. Sure, you've been close in most of your games, but you were manhandled by South Alabama a below average Sun Belt team. But hey, winter is coming. So there is that. (This Week: at Texas St, Our Pick: Texas St. 30, Idaho 20)

4) Troy State 0-5. Hey, smile Trojan man, you nearly beat La. Monroe. That has to be a bright spot...right? Coming off the Georgia massacre, it has to be encouraging. (This Week: at New Mexico St., Our Pick: NM State 33, Troy 28)

3)UMass 0-5. MAC Action...catch the fever! We will hand it to the Minute men. They dropped 42 on Bowling Green last week. But they gave up 47, so yeah, that's another one in the loss column. Tide's have to turn for these guys at some point, maybe this will be their week. (This Week: at Miami, OH, Our Pick: UMass 31, Miami--Oh)

2) Miami, OH 0-5. Yes, we've moved them out of the bottom of the bottom of the barrel...for now. With one of the worst rushing attacks in all of College Football (ranked 102nd), the Redhawks, well, they struggle at times. 2 straight seasons without a win will do that. (This Week: See #3)

1) SMU 0-4. Yes...SMU. They've earned the worst of the worst moniker for one reason. 12 points in 4 games. That's 3 points a game and that is pretty damn bad. Statistically, they are at the bottom of pretty much every list. But then again, that's why they are the worst team in College Football too. (This Week: at East Carolina (yikes!), Our Pick: ECU 70, SMU 3)

Special thanks to the folks at Delta this week because as we finish this weeks column, we're about 30,000 feet over America's heartland headed to Denver for a little R and R and a trip to the Great American Beer Festival.

Cheers y'all....