The Morning Rush

The Morning Rush

The Morning Rush wakes you up on 97.5 WCOS every weekday morning. Drive to work while you listen to Jonathon Rush and Kelly Nash.Full Bio

 

Beat My CFB Picks For This Week & Win A Prize

Friday Mornings Around 9:15 I jump on our sister station Fox Sports Radio to pick this weeks biggest games with local sports legend Teddy Heffner We have to pick against the spread. Those are the point spreads Teddy found earlier in the week so the current spread is irrelevant for our contest. Now if you'd like to pick your 7 and see if you do better than me, you could win a Mathias Sandwich Tailgate Special. You just text your picks to 803-315 3292 to be entered. You don't need to explain your picks like I do below.

This weeks games

Texas A&M -2.5 at USC 7:30 on ABC

I did a deep dive on this game in a blog post here. Bottom line I take the Gamecocks!

Louisville +10.5 at Clemson 7:30 ESPN

So all of South Carolina will be huddled around their TV's Saturday night. Some on ABC for the Gamecocks and others on ESPN for this game. Another ACC opponent that Clemson is a double digit favorite over. Louisville is the best opponent Clemson has faced in conference. But as good as the Cardinals have been the Tigers are better at everything!

Clemson Louisville

Offense 5th 15th

Defense 53rd 62nd

YPR 9th 27th

TFL 18th 37th

Just about any offense or defense stat you look at the Tigers are better. But remember outside of Georgia Clemson has played bottom feeders. Louisville has gone up against ranked teams Miami, Notre Dame and SMU. This team also seems to play to the level of their competition. The lost by a TD to all three of those ranked teams and also barely beat Virginia and Boston College. So I will take Louisville and the points.

Ohio State -3.5 at Penn State Noon on Fox

Donald Trump's campaign has backed out of him appearing at this game but the bigger news is that Urban Meyer the famed Ohio State coach announced Wednesday he's taking Penn. Coach says he doubts either team will win by more than a field goal so Penn and the points is the way to go. This game is massivly important for both top 5 teams. If Ohio State loses many believe that ends their shot at the Big 10 Championship and more importantly any hope of getting into the playoff. If that entire scenario played out some believe Ryan Day and his incredible record (56-8) currently may be out as 3 of those loses are to Michigan and the other 5 have prevented him winning a natty. The closest was his first year of 2019 losing to Clemson. On the other side Penn State fans might not have as high of a bar the Ohio State fans but it's a historic program that hasn't won the national title since 1986. It's been 10 years since James Franklin became coach. In year 4 he promised to take them from a great team to an elite team. No such eliteness has arrived. Since that promise in 2018 they have averaged 3 losses per year and not appeared in the Big 10 championship game. Their best finish was 2019 coming in 2nd in the Big 10 East. In 10 games against Ohio State he's lost 9. The only win coming back in 2016. It's been Ohio State and Michigan at the top for a while and Penn State with a great 10 win season going to a bowl. This year they're undefeated. They could lose this game and probably get into the expanded playoffs. But every fan is demanding he deliver on that elite promise. "We're at home and undefeated and still 3.5 point underdogs?" cried one fan. I'm taking Franklin and the Nittany Lions to get the monkey off their back with a win this year. Or at least cover like Urban said.

Ole Miss -7 at Arkansas Noon on ESPN

Ole Miss should be able to score in bunches here. A lot of folks focusing on Tre Harris and his injury. He is an amazing talent but I'll remind you that last week without him Ole Miss hung 26 on Oklahoma who is ranked 40th in D. Arkansas is 54th. The problem may be that Arkansas is very good on Offense! Of course Ole Miss is too, currently ranked 2nd in the nation but the hogs aren't too far behind them at #7. Now Ole Miss is a few yards outside of a top 10 D themselves coming in at 11th. So my question is can Arkansas score and maintain time of possession? If so this game could be really interesting. My guess is they will have limited success. I'm looking at something like 33-24 Rebels.

Vandy +7 at Auburn 12:45 SEC Network

My friend who is a life long Auburn fan posted 2 weeks ago. "I'm done with Auburn football"! That was when they blew their 4th quarter lead on the raod at Mizzou and lost in OT. Last week he posted "Never doubt the Tigers" after they shut out Kentucky in the 2nd half to win 24-10. Vandy has been playing their best ball in forever didn't really threaten Texas but kept it respectable with a late score to lose 27-24. Vandy enters this game with not only a better record, but a winning record! 5-3 Commodores vs 3-5 Auburn. I'm a little surprised at the spread on this. It seems to me that wins over Kentucky and Alabama have proven this team is for real. You can't judge this team by previous Vandy teams. They only lost by 3 to both Texas and Mizzou. I'm taking the Dores to cover.

Duke +20 at Miami Noon on ABC

Miami in my opinion is the best team in the ACC currently. Their QB Cam Ward is listed 3rd currently on the Heisman odds list at +300. Cade Klubnik is at +1500. Miami has the #1 scoring offense and a lot of that has to do with Cam and the receivers combining to be the #2 passing unit in the country averaging 367 YPG. Duke forced 6 turnovers last week and because of that came within 1 point of upsetting SMU. I doubt they will get 6 turnovers this week and also doubt they will be close in scoring. Duke is averaging mid 20's per game this year. Before playing lowly FL State last week, Miami had given up 45, 38 & 34 points in their last 3 games. Their D isn't great and Duke has lost 2 games by a combined 11 points. The idea that they would be blown out by double that doesn't seem possible. I'm taking Duke to cover.

VA Tech -4 at Syracuse Noon on the CW

I accidently tuned into a minute of a CW broadcast of an ACC game and it legit felt like a high school game from the 90's. The production value is amazingly behind the times. If memory serves it was a VA Tech game vs Marshall. So welcome back Hokie fans! More potential bad news for the Hokies as of this writing 2 key components are listed as questionable for the contest. O lineman Xavier Chaplin and Running Back Bhayshul Tuten both were injured last week in the 2nd half in the win over GA Tech. But on the bright side you're playing Syracuse who lost their lost game to Pitt, 41-13. Now in that loss Cuse QB Kyle McCord threw 5 INT's, 3 of which were pick 6's! He probably won't repeat that. On a team that has featured Donovan McNabb and Eric Dungey, McCord is the first QB in their history to throw for 300 yards or more in 7 games in a season. They can't run the ball (127th in the country) but they can usually throw it. Both teams are 5-2. My pal Teddy says go with home dogs so I will.

Tiebreaker: Total yards for Clemson and SC.

Louisville gives up an average of 359 per game. A&M averages 338. Clemson has averaged 400 YPG but this is the best ACC D they have faced. I'll put them at 370. Carolina averages 346 YPG but Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Alabama have been better Defenses statistically than A&M. We had 375 against Bama and were in super conservative mode the entire Oklahoma game still had 260. I think they will have some tricks up their sleeve and will go for 370 as well. Grand total then is 740.

Penn State v Ohio State

COLUMBUS, OHIO - OCTOBER 21: Kaden Saunders #7 of the Penn State Nittany Lions makes a touchdown catch during the fourth quarter of a game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium on October 21, 2023 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images)Photo: Ben Jackson / Getty Images Sport / Getty Images


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