Tucker’s Pick ‘Em 2018: Week 3 college football picks and previews
Record last week 12-5
Record this season: 26-7
All times Eastern
Associated Press rankings
This week’s schedule is similar to Week 2 from the past few seasons: BORING. Auburn hosts LSU, Vanderbilt visits Notre Dame, and well, that’s about it. Hurricane Florence has affected the schedule even more, causing games like UCF-North Carolina and West Virginia-NC State to be canceled.
Boston College (2-0, 0-0 ACC) @ Wake Forest (2-0, 0-0 ACC)
Thursday, September 13 at 5:30 p.m. ESPN
Hurricane Florence didn’t cancel this game, but it did move it up two hours.
Tickets are going for as cheap as $2:
Boston College 28, Wake Forest 13
Georgia State (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) @ Memphis (1-1, 0-1 AAC)
Friday, September 14 at 7 p.m. ESPN
Memphis’ 66-14 win over Mercer in Week 1 was eye-opening.
The Tigers followed that up with a 22-21 loss to Navy in a game the Midshipmen trailed 21-9 after three quarters.
Memphis will get back on track Friday and move to 15-0 in non-Saturday regular season games since 2014:
Memphis 38, Georgia State 14
Middle Tennessee (1-1, 0-0 C-USA) @ No. 3 Georgia (2-0, 1-0 SEC)
Saturday, September 15 at 12 p.m. ESPNEWS
It was supposed to be a night game, but Hurricane Florence changed that.
Georgia 49, Middle Tennessee 9
No. 5 Oklahoma (2-0, 0-0 Big 12) @ Iowa State (0-1, 0-0 Big 12)
Saturday, September 15 at 12 p.m. ABC
Oklahoma lost running back Rodney Anderson for the season but should be just fine against the Cyclones.
The Sooners’ .915 series winning percentage (74-6-2) against Iowa State is the best by one Football Bowl Subdivision team vs. another:
Oklahoma 37, Iowa State 13
Georgia Southern (2-0, 0-0 Sun Belt) @ No. 2 Clemson (2-0, 0-0 ACC)
Saturday, September 15 at 12 p.m. ESPNU
The reason Clemson almost lost to Texas A&M is because the Tigers were extra focused on their next two opponents–Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech–both of whom run option offenses.
Just kidding! But surely they’ve been spent a lot of time on it. The Tigers’ season-opening opponent, Furman, also runs the option. Clemson won that one 48-7.
They might not even play this game, but give me the Tigers in a blowout if they do:
Clemson 49, Georgia Southern 10
Georgia Tech (1-1, 0-0 ACC) @ Pittsburgh (1-1, 0-0 ACC)
Saturday, September 15 at 12:30 p.m. ACC NETWORK
Both of these teams would like to forget about last weekend.
Tech blew a 10-point fourth quarter lead to lose by 11.
Pitt had more more than twice as many penalties as it did points:
Georgia Tech 30, Pittsburgh 20
Vanderbilt (2-0, 0-0 SEC) @ No. 8 Notre Dame (2-0)
Saturday, September 15 at 2:30 p.m. NBC
I picked Texas A&M to beat Clemson last week. It didn’t happen, but it almost did.
Can Vandy pull off an upset in South Bend?
Notre Dame 28, Vanderbilt 21
Mercer (1-1, 0-0 SoCon) @ Samford (1-1, 0-0 SoCon)
Saturday, September 15 at 3 p.m. ESPN+
The Bears bounced back from their season-opening loss at Memphis with a big win over Jacksonville in their 2018 home opener.
Now they head west to Birmingham to face Samford.
The Bulldogs almost won at Florida State last week:
Samford 33, Mercer 21
No. 12 LSU (2-0, 0-0 SEC) @ No. 7 Auburn (2-0, 0-0 SEC)
Saturday, September 15 at 3:30 p.m. CBS
Auburn has won 13 straight games at Jordan-Hare Stadium–the fourth-longest active home win streak in the country.
The streak started with an 18-13 win over LSU in 2016:
Auburn 29, LSU 16
No. 17 Boise State (2-0, 0-0 Big 12) @ No. 24 Oklahoma State (2-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Saturday, September 15 at 3:30 p.m. ESPN
Boise State very well could be this year’s UCF.
The Broncos became a household name back in 2007 when they beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
Buckle up:
Boise State 35, Oklahoma State 33
Duke (2-0, 0-0 ACC) @ Baylor (2-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Saturday, September 15 at 3:30 p.m. FS1
The Blue Devils beat Northwestern 21-7 last week, but they lost quarterback Daniel Jones in the process.
Jones, who had made 27 straight starts, had surgery to repair a broken clavicle. Junior Quentin Harris will replace him indefinitely.
Harris will make a few plays with his legs, and the defense will do enough for another road win:
Duke 24, Baylor 21
Fort Valley State (0-2, 0-0 SIAC) vs. Miles (0-2, 0-0 SIAC)
Saturday, September 15 at 6 p.m.
The distance between Fort Valley State and Mercer’s games this week is less than the distance between their two campuses.
FVSU and Miles will meet in the Prince Hall Americanism Football Classic at Sloan-Alumni Stadium in Fairfield, less than 15 miles from Samford’s Seibert Stadium in Homewood:
Fort Valley State 28, Miles 21
No. 1 Alabama (2-0, 0-0 SEC) @ Ole Miss (2-0, 0-0 SEC)
Saturday, September 15 at 7 p.m. ESPN
Ole Miss gave up 629 yards of offense in a 76-41 win last week over Southern Illinois.
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS!
Bama relied on its running game to beat the Rebels 66-3 last season. Expect more of the same here.
Ole Miss will score some garbage time points to make it look closer than it really is:
Alabama 49, Ole Miss 24
No. 4 Ohio State (2-0, 0-0 Big Ten) vs. No. 15 TCU (2-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Saturday, September 15 at 8 p.m. ABC
This game will be played at the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium instead of TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Money talks (both teams got $5 million to move the game to Jerry World), but “neutral site” games are just meh.
ESPN’s College GameDay will broadcast from the TCU campus, and the game will be played nearly 20 miles away:
Ohio State 33, TCU 17
No. 22 USC (1-1, 0-1 Pac-12) @ Texas (1-1, 0-0 Big 12)
Saturday, September 15 at 8 p.m. FOX
Both teams are average at best, but the networks are promoting it like it’s the national championship game.
At least they’re not playing at Jerry World:
Texas 21, USC 10
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