Welcome to the Skull Session.
No more sleeps.
Fast. Passion. Toughness.
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 3, 2023
For The Brotherhood.
Season 2023, Vol. 9 starts Saturday.pic.twitter.com/U7lEwC2h9L
Let's have a good GAMEDAY, shall we?
SAME OLD, SAME OLD. Like how Ohio State-Penn State reminds me of the "Lion Tastes Good" scene from "The Other Guys," Ohio State-Rutgers brings to mind the "'Tis But a Scratch" scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
Ohio State is King Arthur. Rutgers is the Black Scarlet Knight.
That's relatively straightforward.
When Ohio State and Rutgers kick off in Piscataway, New Jersey, at noon on Saturday, the battle between the Big Ten East programs will look similar to the duel between King Arthur and the Black Knight.
Ohio State has respect for Rutgers, who has a 6-2 record – its losses to No. 3 Michigan at home and Wisconsin on the road – a dual-threat quarterback in Gavin Wimsatt and the No. 13 scoring defense and No. 9 total defense in the FBS at 276.8 yards and 13.8 points allowed per game. Those factors will let the Scarlet Knights stand tall vs. the Buckeyes, but when push comes to shove, Ohio State will do what it often does vs. Rutgers: Dismantle.
The Buckeyes have Marvin Harrison Jr.
The Scarlet Knights lose an arm.
The Buckeyes have TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka and Cade Stover.
The Scarlet Knights lose an arm.
The Buckeyes have the No. 4 total defense and No. 2 scoring defense in the FBS at 260 yards and 10 points allowed per game.
The Scarlet Knights lose a leg.
The Buckeyes have Ryan Day, who is 53-6 as Ohio State's head coach, including a 19-1 record in road games and a 36-2 record vs. Big Ten opponents.
The Scarlet Knights lose a leg.
And with that, Rutgers will be out for the count.
Prediction: Ohio State 34 - Rutgers 10
THE MENU. The Week 10 slate in college football has lots of matchups to love: No. 1 Ohio State at Rutgers (CBS, Noon), No. 23 Kansas State at No. 7 Texas (Noon, FOX), No. 12 Missouri at No. 2 Georgia (3:30 p.m., CBS) and No. 14 LSU at No. 8 Alabama (7:45 p.m., CBS), to name a few.
Here is a look at the complete schedule for Saturday:
| Matchup | Time (ET) | TV/Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| 23 Kansas State at 7 Texas | 12:00pm | FOX |
| Texas A&M at 10 Ole Miss | 12:00pm | ESPN |
| Wisconsin at Indiana | 12:00pm | BTN |
| UConn at 17 Tennessee | 12:00pm | SECN |
| Arkansas at Florida | 12:00pm | ESPN2 |
| Campbell at North Carolina | 12:00pm | ACCN |
| Jacksonville State at South Carolina | 12:00pm | ESPNU |
| Nebraska at Michigan State | 12:00pm | FS1 |
| 15 Notre Dame at Clemson | 12:00pm | ABC |
| 1 Ohio State at Rutgers | 12:00pm | CBS/Paramount+ |
| Kennesaw State at Sam Houston | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Arizona State at 18 Utah | 2:00pm | P12N |
| Georgia Tech at Virginia | 2:00pm | The CW |
| Navy at Temple | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Army vs 25 Air Force (in Denver, CO) | 2:30pm | CBSSN |
| Florida Atlantic at UAB | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| USF at Memphis | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Louisiana at Arkansas State | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| UTSA at North Texas | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Coastal Carolina at Old Dominion | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| James Madison at Georgia State | 3:30pm | ESPN2 |
| 4 Florida State at Pitt | 3:30pm | ESPN |
| 24 Tulane at East Carolina | 3:30pm | ESPNU |
| UCF at Cincinnati | 3:30pm | FS1 |
| 9 Oklahoma at 22 Oklahoma State | 3:30pm | ABC |
| Houston at Baylor | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Virginia Tech at 13 Louisville | 3:30pm | ACCN |
| 11 Penn State at Maryland | 3:30pm | FOX |
| 12 Missouri at 2 Georgia | 3:30pm | CBS/Paramount+ |
| Merrimack at UMass | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Iowa vs Northwestern (in Chicago, IL) | 3:30pm | Peacock |
| Illinois at Minnesota | 3:30pm | BTN |
| Auburn at Vanderbilt | 4:00pm | SECN |
| Charlotte at Tulsa | 4:00pm | ESPN+ |
| ULM at Southern Miss | 4:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Hawaii at Nevada | 4:00pm | Spectrum PPV |
| Georgia Southern at Texas State | 5:00pm | ESPN+ |
| California at 6 Oregon | 5:30pm | P12N |
| Middle Tennessee at New Mexico State | 6:00pm | ESPN+ |
| UNLV at New Mexico | 6:00pm | SSSEN/MWN |
| Marshall at Appalachian State | 6:00pm | NFLN |
| Louisiana Tech at Liberty | 6:00pm | CBSSN |
| BYU at West Virginia | 7:00pm | FOX |
| 21 Kansas at Iowa State | 7:00pm | ESPN |
| Utah State at San Diego State | 7:00pm | FS1 |
| Kentucky at Mississippi State | 7:30pm | SECN |
| Purdue at 3 Michigan | 7:30pm | NBC/Peacock |
| 5 Washington at 20 USC | 7:30pm | ABC |
| SMU at Rice | 7:30pm | ESPNU |
| 14 LSU at 8 Alabama | 7:45pm | CBS/Paramount+ |
| Miami (FL) at NC State | 8:00pm | ACCN |
| WKU at UTEP | 9:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Stanford at Washington State | 9:00pm | P12N |
| 16 Oregon State at Colorado | 10:00pm | ESPN |
| Boise State at Fresno State | 10:00pm | CBSSN |
| 19 UCLA at Arizona | 10:30pm | FS1 |
MY PICKS. Another GAMEDAY, another round of MY PICKS.
Last week, I collected a 2-1 record ATS.
The wins? Kansas (+10) vs. Oklahoma and Louisville (-4) vs. Duke, as the Jayhawks defeated the Sooners, 38-33, in Lawrence, Kansas, and the Cardinals beat the Blue Devils, 23-0, in Louisville. The loss? Utah (+6.5) vs. Oregon, as the Ducks demolished the Utes, 35-6, in Salt Lake City.
2023 RECORD: 15-9
That's pretty good!
Here are three matchups and spreads I have placed Eleven Warriors Bucks (Monopoly Money) on this weekend:
- No. 15 Notre Dame (-3) at Clemson: Notre Dame’s 35-14 beatdown of Clemson in South Bend, Indiana, last season started the Tigers’ current spiral. Clemson was 8-0 going into that game. It is 7-7 since. Dabo Swinney's team is still talented – enough to take No. 4 Florida State to overtime in 2023 – but I don't believe Clemson can stop what Marcus Freeman and Sam Hartman are cooking. Down with Dabo. I'll take the Irish.
- No. 9 Oklahoma at No. 22 Oklahoma State (+6): In the final season of Bedlam (for now) – a rivalry that has been incredibly one-sided, with the Sooners leading the all-time series 91-19-7 – I'll pick the Cowboys to cover the spread, and perhaps shock the world with an upset. As OU has regressed the past two weeks, Mike Gundy’s team has surged behind sensational running back Ollie Gordon II (195.6 YPG the past five weeks). Can the Cowboys deliver the Sooners a going-away present before they leave for the SEC?
- No. 5 Washington (-3) at No. 20 USC: I can't explain Washington’s performances the past two weeks vs. Arizona State and Stanford, but I can explain the performances for USC vs. Notre Dame, Utah and Cal: Alex Grinch as defensive coordinator. The Trojans have the No. 94 defense in the country (5.9 YPP). And they will face Michael Penix Jr., Rome Odunze and the rest of the nation’s second-ranked offense (8.0 YPP) when they host the Huskies on Saturday. I'll fade Grinch here. Give me UW.
BACK TO THE BUCKEYES. Former Rutgers football standouts Brian Leonard and Ray Rice believe the Scarlet Knights can upset the Buckeyes on Saturday. From Brian Fonseca, Steve Politi and Pat Lanni of NJ.com:
Rutgers has never come close to upsetting Ohio State, losing their first nine meetings by an average margin of 53-11, conceding at least 49 points in every one of those games. But the Scarlet Knights were underdogs to No. 3 Louisville in 2006, too.
“There’s always a chance. That’s why you play the game. There’s always a chance,” Leonard said. “Anything can happen. A lot of things have to go our way. Got to make some big plays, some plays on special teams, force some turnovers, and there’s a chance.
“These guys are fighters, too. Coach Schiano’s teams, they never give up, they always fight to the end, and I bet you that scares a team like Ohio State. A game that statistically, they probably win, but we have a team like Rutgers with hard-nosed football players, a bunch of maybe not the highest-recruited guys, but they are hard-ass workers. You never know. Upsets happen.”
...
Rice insists “anything could happen at home,” and he sees a parallel to the Louisville upset — “in a sense where I think that only we knew how good we were.”
“I think the rest of the world had already counted us out,” Rice said. “Everybody was talking about how good Louisville was. You keep hearing that, and eventually, it’s just like: Are you forgetting about us? I heard it. I’m sure other guys on the team heard it. ... We had home-field advantage and once we started doing what we had to do and the game settled down — we gave them too much respect early — you could see the look in their eyes that they knew they were in trouble.”
The key to an upset, he said, is to not get caught up in the numbers: their record, their ranking, the stats, the history.
“You can look at everything, and you could find yourself getting lost in that,” Rice said. “You just got to have tunnelvision. They’re just another team that is on your schedule. You have to play them. You don’t want to go into the game defeated, right? If you give that team too much credit for them just showing up, then you already defeated yourself.
“Why play the game from behind when they’re just an opponent? And anything can happen on any day. I think Ohio State’s got to come in and play their best football game, because I know it’s going to be loud on Saturday. If our fans get involved and we get some stops early and score, we got a chance.”
As someone who will observe the game on Saturday and not perform in it, I will get caught up in the records, the rankings, the stats, the history.
Ohio State is the No. 1 team in the nation in 2023. In the past nine matchups between the Buckeyes and Scarlet Knights, Ohio State was ranked as one of the best teams in the nation each season. Here is how those matchups ended:
- 2014: Ohio State 56 - Rutgers 17
- 2015: Ohio State 49 - Rutgers 7
- 2016: Ohio State 58 - Rutgers 0
- 2017: Ohio State 56 - Rutgers 0
- 2018: Ohio State 52 - Rutgers 3
- 2019: Ohio State 56 - Rutgers 21
- 2020: Ohio State 49 - Rutgers 27
- 2021: Ohio State 52 - Rutgers 13
- 2022: Ohio State 49 - Rutgers 10
Average score: Ohio State 53 - Rutgers 11
Rutgers... Ant. Ohio State... Boot.
I have more respect for Rutgers this season than ever. Still, Ohio State clears. There will be no upset on Saturday. Not even close.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Are You Ready" - AC/DC.
CUT TO THE CHASE. NASA spacecraft discovers tiny moon around asteroid during close flyby... How daylight saving time can seriously affect your health... Stellar women’s field takes aim at New York City Marathon record on Sunday... California man who squatted at Yosemite National Park vacation home gets 5 years in prison... Are eggs good for you?
