First off, I can’t decide which stat about the Pitt-Temple matchup is harder to believe: (1) that Pitt ran the ball 41 times (for 253 yards) but only attempted 22 passes (completing 10 for 147 yards), or (2) that 22,934 fans actually attended a Temple game. BS. That many people haven’t seen Temple play in Philadelphia over the past five seasons combined.

Jeez. Given our stunningly improved ground attack with Brandon Miree back, I don’t know which way to lean on this week’s Pitt-Miami pick. The early line favors the Hurricanes by 3.5. I might actually be leaning towards the Panthers.

Say, can somebody explain to me how this game will influence who the Big East sends to the BCS? If Miami wins, I understand that Miami will go. But what if Miami loses?

Just asking. I’m sure that some professional sportswriter will explain this to me in some fish-wrap in a day or so anyways. I’m just impatient.

Hail to Miami not representing the Big East in the BCS.

I’m not going to pretend that I actually watched the Pitt-Temple game, since it wasn’t available in Central Pennsylvania, and I was obviously watching Ohio State-Michigan anyways (painful… just painful…). So I’ll either let Chas wrap that one up or wrap it up myself later.

As for my picks against the spread, I went 3-1 on the week. This improved my season record to 23-23-1 (0.500, baby).

Of course, this also means that Chas went 1-3 on his bizarro picks, decreasing his season record to God knows what.

As far as my specific picks, I thought that Michigan would prevail over my Buckeyes because of John Navarre and his short passing game. I never foresaw Chris Perry’s absolute domination of what had been the best run defense in the nation. That made this loss particularly painful.

Temple always plays Pitt tough, so that pick was money in the bank. And until the oddsmakers start taking the Mountaineers seriously, I’ll continue to pick Rodriguez and company against the spread.

My only foul-up was Penn State-Michigan State. Jeez. This is the hardest-to-figure-out Nittany Lion squad ever. They have gone back and forth between quasi-sucking and full blown black hole sucking on a near weekly basis. Tough against Ohio State and Wisconsin. Keystone Kops against Northwestern. Look impressive at home against admitted Big Ten whipping boy Indiana. And against Michigan State, the Lions couldn’t stop PA native Jeff Smoker and a simple passing scheme to save their miserable, drunk-driving lives. If I had only stuck by my own rule of always picking against Penn State this season, I would now be 25-21-1.

At least Penn State was able to close out their season in true Nittany Lion fashion… with an arrest. I wonder what Maurice Humphrey was so mad about Sunday morning? Perhaps a fellow student wanted to discuss what happened out in East Lansing?

See ya next fall, Lions. We Pitt fans have a bowl game to worry about.

Hail to Pitt.