I had a shaky week last week in going 8-9 against the line -- putting me 15 over for the season versus the number. The good was picking BYU to beat Air Force by 17. The bad was picking Stanford to beat Cal. And the ugly was picking Wisconsin to handle Northwestern. Here are this week's guesses:
Thanksgiving Night
Texas Longhorns at Texas A&M Aggies (8 p.m. ET, ESPN)
The Horns have won their past five easy; the tightest margin was 27 points. Colt McCoy and his receivers have really gotten in sync in the past month and Will Muschamp's D has been near flawless. Texas A&M has some firepower (only Oklahoma has kept them under 34 points in the Aggies' past five games), but this will be the most complete defense QB Jerrod Johnson has seen all season and I don't see the Aggies keeping up in the second half after a tight first half. A&M also is just 2-7 in its past nine home season finales. The pick is Texas 42, Texas A&M 24.
Friday
Illinois Fighting Illini at Cincinnati Bearcats (Noon ET, ABC)
Ron Zook's team is 1-4 away from home -- with the four losses by double digits. Expect the Bearcats' offense to stay hot against the country's 85th-ranked D in pass efficiency. Illinois also struggles protecting its passer (103rd), which isn't a good thing against UC, which is third in the nation in sacks. Worse still, Zook's teams are just 2-6 coming off bye weeks. The pick is Cincinnati 48, Illinois 17.
What does Bruce think about Bedlam? The Egg Bowl? FSU vs. Florida? Auburn vs. Alabama? For these picks and more -- including a great story about the fall of Florida State -- you must be an ESPN Insider.
Bruce Feldman | email
College FootballABOUT THIS BLOG
Bruce Feldman
Bruce Feldman is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He started at ESPN in 1994. He spent a good portion of two years in the South working on his book, "Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting."
His first book, "Cane Mutiny: How the Miami Hurricanes Overturned the Football Establishment," made it to No. 1 among sports titles in the fall of 2004.
Bruce can be reached via Twitter at @BFeldmanESPN. and his full ESPN.Com archives are located here.
