Ten (five) Questions I Can’t Wait to be Answered this Weekend

Another relatively light Saturday, with only three games involving two ranked teams. With the luster a little off Ohio State -v- Michigan, the weekend feels even lighter.

Here’s the weather forecast:

1.) Will Texas Tech continue their winning on the road? Texas Tech has played only four road games all season, and only one of those against a ranked team (Kansas ranked 23 at the time). TT is in Norman this evening to take on #5 Oklahoma.

Oklahoma boasts a slightly better offense than Tech but also a slightly worse defense. Points will come in bushels tonight so it’s safe to say whichever defense can make a stop in the second half will probably win the game. It will be interesting to see if Oklahoma can get pressure on TT QB Graham Harrell- no one has yet this season. Oklahoma comes in with 34 sacks so they at least have the potential to disrupt the Red Raider offense.

I still maintain the only way to slow down Texas Tech is to hit them hard, and sometimes a little late. You’ve got to disrupt the timing and make Graham Harrell and those receivers start to hear footsteps.

I’ve been mistakenly calling for Texas Tech to lose at several points this season. They’ve proved me wrong on several occasions. Well, call me stubborn, but I’m calling for them to lose this week. I like Oklahoma by a couple. Incidentally, if it comes down to field goals, they both have struggled this season with that (OU- 50%, TT- 53%).

2.) Will Michigan turn around their season with a win at Ohio State? Nope. I previewed this one last night. I like Ohio State by 10+.

3.) Will Michigan State pull off the upset at Penn State? I’d like to pick Michigan State here, but with PSU’s loss to Iowa, they’re going to be focused on the win. The game’s in Happy Valley and it’s probably JoePa’s last regular season game as Head Coach. I like the Nits by a few.

4.) Will Utah keep their BCS hopes alive against #14 BYU? They will. BYU will be a tough test, but I’ve had Utah as the non-BCS BCS participant all season and I’m sticking to it. I like the Utah defense to get it done in a very close game.

5.) Will Oregon State keep their Pac-10 championship hopes alive? Win @ Arizona tonight then against Oregon next week in the Civil War and the Beavers are Pac-10 champs. If you’re a Buckeye, you want OSU (the other one) to go down tonight. If Oregon State wins the Pac-10, that puts two Pac-10 teams into the BCS and likely leaves Ohio State out. That’s not the kind of BCS chaos I’m hoping for.

Arizona is coming off a loss to Oregon, but their four losses have been decided by an average of 6 1/2 points. U of A’s 59th ranked rush D is going to have to play lights out in order to avoid getting Jacquizzed. I like Arizona to win at home (not totally an upset- Arizona is favored by 3).

You’re welcome