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By: Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog<\/strong> For the first time this season,\u00a0 I did not have a winning week.\u00a0 It was bound to happen at some point and lucky week number seven was it.\u00a0 It started with a weird game in East Lansing with Michigan and Michigan St.\u00a0 Of course there was the pre-game antics as Devin Bush Jr. broke up Michigan St.’s 10 yard fight impression.\u00a0 Then there was a weather delay and the game itself was weird.\u00a0 Michigan St. refused to run the ball in a tight 7-7 game that ended up getting away from them as their passing attack never really materialized.\u00a0 What a shock.\u00a0 I was just flat out wrong with NC State vs. Clemson.\u00a0 I thought the Wolfpack could put up a fight against a Clemson team that I have not been impressed with it.\u00a0 Boy did the Tigers show me.\u00a0 The Mississippi St. vs. LSU game went pretty much how I expected,\u00a0 short on offensive creativity and long on defense.\u00a0 Enough about the past other than for me to tell you that after last week’s 1-2,\u00a0 I am 12-6 vs. the spread and straight up for the season.\u00a0 Let’s see if week 8 is great.\u00a0 Oh for any of you newbies wondering,\u00a0 I don’t pick Florida and Miami games because I will totally lack the ability to be objective.<\/p>\n #18 Iowa @ #17 Penn St.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I have not been impressed with Penn St. this season.\u00a0 The masses were heaping praise on them and I was definitely not on that train.\u00a0 I looked like a clown when they took Ohio St. to the wire but then in the space of two weeks,\u00a0 things have shaped up and out to mirror my thoughts.\u00a0 First,\u00a0 the Nittany Lions went down to an average Michigan St. squad then last week,\u00a0 Ohio St. got a serious buzz cut from the Boilermakers.\u00a0 With that said,\u00a0 all my intentions to back Iowa point spread wise in this game evaporated when I saw the line.\u00a0 Yes,\u00a0 Penn St. is not as impressive as people would like you to believe but at home,\u00a0 versus this Iowa squad,\u00a0 I think they are better than a touchdown.\u00a0 Penn St. has their problems defensively.\u00a0 They don’t get a pass rush and they don’t cover all that well but Iowa lacks the ability to really exploit it.\u00a0 On the flip side,\u00a0 Penn St. can do damage with their offense and the multiplicity of Trace McSorley.\u00a0 Add to that the running of Miles Sanders and a decent WR group and I think Iowa will be overwhelmed.<\/p>\n The Hawkeyes got avalanched by Wisconsin earlier this year on the road.\u00a0 I have seen improvement since then but their weakness defensively will be exploited by what it is that Penn St. does.\u00a0 Iowa pitching the shut out vs. Maryland last week probably contributed to this line staying under seven and for that be thankful.\u00a0 I think they may come in a little too big headed.\u00a0 Iowa’s methodical approach to moving the ball down the field will net them some points in this game but not nearly enough to keep pace with Penn St.’s big plays.\u00a0 Take Penn St. 31-21.<\/p>\n #14 Washington St. @ #24 Stanford<\/strong><\/p>\n This is definitely not one of your best Stanford squads in the David Shaw era and that might lead people to a mistake in this game. I have observed this odd phenomenon for this 2018 brand of the Stanford Cardinal.\u00a0 They struggle with teams that want to be physical and do quite well against those that are finesse. The Cardinal had nothing for Notre Dame and Utah but was quite fine against Arizona St. and Oregon.\u00a0 Washington St. is more Oregon than they are Notre Dame.\u00a0 Mike Leach’s throw the ball around offense and like-minded defense,\u00a0 plays into the hands of Stanford.\u00a0 Now the Cardinal can finally crank up their run game and play action fake.\u00a0 That is when they are at their best.\u00a0 Defensively they can get rough and tough with the Hollywoodish attack of the Cougars and find some success.<\/p>\n Washington St. wants to kick themselves for the loss earlier this year to USC.\u00a0 Were it not for that,\u00a0 they would be undefeated.\u00a0 This week they face a team more like USC in Stanford and I expect some struggles.\u00a0 The only other team to duke it out with the Cougars this year was Utah,\u00a0 who is also physical.\u00a0 The Cougars had that game at home,\u00a0 this contest is on the road.\u00a0 Leach and friends have gotten the best of Stanford in the last couple of meetings.\u00a0 It is just inconceivable to me for a David Shaw coached team to lose three in a row to Mike Leach.\u00a0 Take Stanford 38-31<\/p>\n #6 Texas @ Oklahoma St.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I might be getting totally trapped but I will trust me eyes here.\u00a0 I am not 100% sold on the Texas Longhorns.\u00a0 I think they are getting an extra pump for beating an Oklahoma team that went brain dead defensively in their game.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 I watched Oklahoma St. on film and they aren’t Mike Gundy’s best creation.\u00a0 The Cowboys lack an identity on offense,\u00a0 seem prone to mistakes in all phases of the game and lack confidence.\u00a0 How that equates into them being minor underdogs to this Texas team is beyond me.\u00a0 Again,\u00a0 I’m going to trust my eyes.\u00a0 Oklahoma St. has been unworthy in every game they have played this year vs. a worthy opponent. Texas Tech and Iowa St. put up 41 and 48 points on the Cowboys in home losses.\u00a0 Last week Kansas St. bitch slapped them 31-12 on the road.\u00a0 I see no reason why their cheeks won’t be red again this week.<\/p>\n A look ahead to West Virginia for Texas is the only thing that should make your hand shake if you are a Longhorn backer but outside of that,\u00a0 Texas is quite a bit better than 3.5 points over Oklahoma St.\u00a0 The Longhorns can play defense in much the same fashion that Kansas St. did vs. Oklahoma St. last week and they certainly have the weapons on offense to matriculate down the field against this pillow soft Cowboys defense. Unless Tom Herman’s club shows up without their jockstraps on,\u00a0 this should be all Texas.\u00a0 Oddsmakers have accounted for the West Virginia look ahead with the small line.\u00a0 I think Texas handles their business 34-21.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds For the first time this season,\u00a0 I did<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[829,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-football","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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