Picks of the Week: No. 5

The 'Eer knew there was a reason he avoided picking ACC games last year. Now he's staving off this schizophrenic conference until it becomes more stable. Let's see what we can find around the rest of the nation for this week's picks. Dude, I need a good week.

Ohio State (-18.0) over Indiana
The Hooisers should have won at Michigan last week. That was more an aberration and Ohio State will remind everyone of that this week. The Buckeyes have pitched consecutive shutouts. I'm not predicting three in a row, but Terrelle Pryor and the OSU offense will score plenty to keep the Buckeyes on top in the Big Ten.
Pick: Ohio State 34, Indiana 10

Cincinnati (-29.0) over Miami, Ohio
This pick scares me a bit because of the 29 points. But the Redhawks won't be able to stop the Tony Pike-Mardy Gilyard tandem in Oxford. So far this year Miami has been outscored on average 41-11 and the Bearcats are the best team it has faced all season (sorry Boise State fans).
Pick: Cincinnati 55, Miami 7

Penn State (-7.0) over Illinois
Did you watch the Illini last week? Inept is a kind evaluation. Penn State didn't look much better in its home loss to Iowa, but JoPa will ... wait a minute ... Tom Bradley will have the Nittany Lions back on track in Champaign.
Pick: Penn State 30, Illinois 17

Washington State (+33.5) over Oregon
The Ducks are on a roll, but following last week's dominating performance against Cal it's time for Oregon to struggle a bit. Wazzu won't pull out the upset, but they'll keep it closer than expected. Why? Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli will turn the ball over enough to thwart at least two Ducks' scoring drives.
Pick: Oregon 38, Washington State 9

Upset of the Week
LSU (+3.0) over Georgia
This one just seems odd. The Tigers are ranked fourth in the nation and are undefeated. Georgia is ranked, but have given up a ton of points and didn't look too impressive in its loss at Oklahoma State. SEC types will tell you how difficult it is to win on the road in the conference ... blah, blah, blah. Mark Richt is about as good at coaching big games as Bob Stoops. LSU may need a little luck like last week, but they'll pull the upset (if you can call it that).
Pick: LSU 33, Georgia 32

Last Week: 2-3
Season Record: 10-10

MAC making history

With today's hiring of Mike Haywood at Miami of Ohio there are now six African American head coaches out of 119 NCAA Division I-FCS schools. Amazingly three of them are now employed in the Mid-American Conference. The other two are Turner Gill at Buffalo and the recently hired Ron English at Eastern Michigan.

So let's do the math.

That's three out of 13 head coaches in the MAC, or 23.1 percent. That's three out of 106 coaches outside of the MAC, or 2.8 percent. It's better than yesterday.

Let's be honest here. Haywood is getting a pretty sweet gig. Miami of Ohio has produced some of the greatest coaches in college football history. Any of these names ring a bell? Red Blaik, Sid Gillman, Ara Parseghian, Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. Thought you might have heard of them.

Haywood's reputation took a minor hit this season also, after Charlie Weis took over play calling duties the final three weeks of the season at Notre Dame. But the Irish offense didn't do any better with Weis, so Haywood was somewhat redeemed.

The former Lou Holtz player at Notre Dame interviewed for the Washington job earlier this winter, but Miami is a better fit and better place to begin his head coaching career. There is a lot of work to do, though.

Shane Montgomery, who took over for another successful Miami coach, Terry Hoeppner, isn't returning in 2009 after leading the RedHawks two 2-10 seasons in three years. But Miami is a program where a young coach can win and build an even stronger resume for the next move.

Right now, it looks like a good move by Miami.

Quick notes

I'm about to head out to watch games with some friends, but a couple quick notes from the early games and events:

- A good start to today's action with Georgia Tech playing an unbelievable second half and knocking off Georgia in Athens, 45-42. Georgia just could not stop the option. If UGA continues to be an undisciplined defense incapable of playing its assignments, then this matchup with Tech is going to be a nightmare. While UGA jumped out to an early lead, Tech just kept grinding. Great win for Tech.

- Incredible finish in the Kansas-Mizzou game as the Jayhawks score with 27 seconds left and then Mizzou's 54-yard field goal attempt misses at the buzzer. Mizzou still goes to the Big 12 title game.

- Coaches continue to drop. Sylvester Croom resigned at Mississippi State although I'm sure the writing was on the wall after Friday's blowout loss to rival Ole Miss. MSU will be looking for a quick turnaround. Should be interesting to see if they'll come up with the money for a big name. Shane Montgomery resigned at Miami, Oh. after the Red Hawks got thumped by rival Ohio U yesterday. Montgomery was always a bit of a reach for that job and went 17-31 in four years. That's a good job, though and should draw interest from some talented assistants.