Nick’s Picks took it on the chin this weekend much like the much maligned Toledo pass defense did against Missouri going 7-5 and falling to 18-6 on the season. Kudos to NIU & Central Michigan for their Big Ten road wins and a special shout out to the effort UMass did in their 41-38 home loss to Colorado.

Nick’s MAC Power Poll – Week #2
1. NIU
2. Central
3. Ball State
4. Akron
5. Toledo
6. BG
7. Ohio
8. UMass
9. Kent State
10. Buffalo
11. Western
12. Miami
13. Eastern


Nick’s Picks Recap


Nick’s Pick: Toledo 37 – Missouri 34
Actual Score: Missouri 49 – Toledo 24
Pregame Comment: The Rockets played very well at Missouri losing the 1st installment of the Gary Pinkel Bowl and now get them at home in the Glass Bowl…the Rockets have had some very impressive non-conference wins at home over the past twenty years and I see them adding one more here.
Post Game Comment: I attended this game and was thoroughly flabbergasted by the lack of effort on defense and extremely poor coaching and preparation…case and point, two time after called time outs Toledo had a delay of game penalty then assessed and once after a time out they were flagged for having twelve men on the field; just a purely putrid effort by Toledo and the coaching staff.

Nick’s Pick: Army 31 – Buffalo 27
Actual Score: Army 47 – Buffalo 39
Pregame Comment: A game the Bulls should win but they showed very little last week in their come-from-behind victory against Duquesne. I look for an Army win in a very tight contest.
Post Game Comment: Went as expected with a little higher scoring.

Nick’s Pick: Penn State 26 – Akron 13
Actual Score: Penn State 21 – Akron 3
Pregame Comment: Akron is coming into this game beaming with confidence and clearly is the MAC’s most improved team over the past two years. Penn State won at a last second FG over a good Central Florida team last week. This game could be closer than expected.
Post Game Comment: Went as expected.

Nick’s Pick: Purdue 30 – Central Michigan 28
Actual Score: Central 38 – Purdue 17
Pregame Comment: This is a game the Chips can win if they don’t turn it over; Purdue struggled to beat Western last week.
Post Game Comment: Nice win Chips…I really had a gut feeling you would win but felt I was already picking too many MAC winners this week…I should have believed in you and tossed the Toledo pick to the dogs.

Nick’s Pick: Kent State 20 – South Alabama 17
Actual Score: South Alabama 23 – Kent State 13
Pregame Comment: These teams have split their first two games in the series with KSU winning 33-25 in 2011 and USA winning 38-21 last season. Kent State’s defense looked very good last week and this is the first game of the season for the Jags. I like KSU at home in a close contest.
Post Game Comment: Another embarrassing non-conference loss.

Nick’s Pick: Colorado 36 – UMass 14
Actual Score: Colorado 41 – UMass 38
Pregame Comment: What MAC school would not want to open up at home with games against Boston College and then Colorado? Sadly for UMass, they are not where they need to be to win games like this yet.
Post Game Comment: Minutemen led 31-20 at one point in the game…what a difference the new coaching staff (or old coaching staff if you go back more than a decade) has done in a quick time period.

Nick’s Pick: Kentucky 27 – Ohio 16
Actual Score: Kentucky 20 – Ohio 3
Pregame Comment: A game the Bobcats have a change to win…but the new and improved Wildcats will be too much for Ohio.
Post Game Comment: West as expected.

Nick’s Pick: NIU 33 – Northwestern 31
Actual Score: NIU 23 – Northwestern 15
Pregame Comment: This should be a terrific game that goes down to the wire…clearly a game the Huskies can and should win against a good but not great Big Ten team.
Post Game Comment: The final score does not show the real thumping the Huskies put on the “mild-cats.”

Nick’s Pick: BGSU 56 – VMI 17
Actual Score: BGSU 48 – VMI 7
Pregame Comment: This is the kind of game the Falcons needed after their drubbing at WKU…the Keydets lost at Bucknell 42-38 last week.
Post Game Comment: West as expected.

Nick’s Pick: Miami 34 – Eastern Kentucky 26
Actual Score: EKU 17 – Miami 10
Pregame Comment: The losing streak should end this weekend for the RedHawks against an EKU team that is no pushover.
Post Game Comment: And the losses continue…I really thought Miami had this game in the bag…now looking at their schedule is there any game they can win this year?

Nick’s Pick: Ball State 24 – Iowa 23
Actual Score: Iowa 17 – Ball State 13
Pregame Comment: A very intriguing match up with an underrated Cardinal team and a Hawkeye team that was very lucky to beat Northern Iowa last week. Ball State used a heavy running attack to beat Colgate last week, look for them to open it up more this weekend.
Post Game Comment: Giving up two late TDs denied the MAC a third victory against this over-rated gas bag of a conference.

Nick’s Pick: Florida 52 – Eastern Michigan 7
Actual Score: Florida 65 – Eastern 0
Pregame Comment: The Eagles struggled to beat Morgan State last week; they are in over their heads this weekend at The Swamp.
Post Game Comment: It was the butt-thumping that was expected.

Toledo loses to#20 Mizzou(current AP ranking), a team that was 1 game away from the national title game last season.Rockets have a RB that goes for 148 yds in 10 carries along with 3 TDs against the SEC school. Akron scores 3 points and rushes for about 79yds against an unranked Penn State team. Starting QB's on both UT and Akron have similar stats. Yet Akron is ranked ahead of UT. Makes no sense at all.

I watched the first 3 quarters of both games and I though Akron played better than Toledo, vs similar opponents. Akron lost by fewer points on the road that Toledo lost by at home.

(09-07-2014 11:19 PM)DICK Wrote:  I watched the first 3 quarters of both games and I though Akron played better than Toledo, vs similar opponents. Akron lost by fewer points on the road that Toledo lost by at home.

Penn State and #20 Mizzou aren't similar and nor are their Conferences.

Yeah, but Mizzou doesn't have Christian Hackenberg and Akron didn't play at home...

(09-07-2014 05:45 PM)Nick in Cleveland Wrote:  Giving up two late TDs denied the MAC a third victory against this over-rated gas bag of a conference.

Seriously? That comment comes from a MAC fan?

Geesh, we've had teams lose to Army, WKU, USA and now EKU!

I hardly think the MAC can brag at all.

Midwest football his horrible this year, ND, NIU, CMU and Wisc are the only exceptions.

Tough picking games.

I'm in Vegas and had a rough Saturday betting the MAC. Remember it is against the spread, etc.

I lost on Purdue, took the under in EMU/FL, etc.

The over/under on EMU/Fl - think it was 57.5. Who would have thought 65 - 0?

EMU fans were 'predicting' 50 to 0. Such optimists on the EMU board. Lol.

Yes, the B1G is awful (for a power conference) and the MAC is weak except for a few cream of the crop teams.

(09-08-2014 07:53 AM)HuskieJWN Wrote:  Yeah, but Mizzou doesn't have Christian Hackenberg and Akron didn't play at home...

Mauk was the QB on the SEC's All Freshman team last season. They're
rated the #4 QB unit in the SEC by Steele's. Penn State was rated the Big Ten's #4 QB unit behind OSU, Indiana, and Michigan. I rest my case.

Someday I'd like for our conference fans to argue about the best win of the day instead of the best loss.

(09-08-2014 10:13 AM)niusfactuary Wrote:  Someday I'd like for our conference fans to argue about the best win of the day instead of the best loss.

Nothing to argue about there.

Akron beat us to end last season... I have no problem sitting at 5th. If we win this week though. Or are 3-2 after 5 weeks I will probably scoot Toledo ahead of Akron. Ball State and CMU are tough MAC games to open with.

(09-08-2014 10:07 AM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(09-08-2014 07:53 AM)HuskieJWN Wrote:  Yeah, but Mizzou doesn't have Christian Hackenberg and Akron didn't play at home...

Mauk was the QB on the SEC's All Freshman team last season. They're
rated the #4 QB unit in the SEC by Steele's. Penn State was rated the Big Ten's #4 QB unit behind OSU, Indiana, and Michigan. I rest my case.

If you think Mauk is better than Hackenberg, you're an idiot.

You know how many people say Hackenberg is a #1 draft pick when he is eligible. Maty Mauk is nowhere as good as Hackenberg.

Also name a good QB in the SEC. It also says "unit" which includes backups and depth.

Im happy we scored 24 vs. an SEC defense though. Could have been more if we dont fumble an int 10 yards from the endzone and get a fg blocked. Thats football though

(09-08-2014 09:54 AM)emu steve Wrote:  Yes, the B1G is awful (for a power conference) and the MAC is weak except for a few cream of the crop teams.

While the B10 is bad so far this year and the the MAC looks like a good FCS(Missouri Valley Football) Conference this year, don't forget that they are lots of other programs in P5 & Go5 Conferences that are playing like crap also:

AAC
SMU lost to Baylor 0-45 and UNT 6-43! June Jones is already out
UCONN lost to BYU 10-35 and beat FCS Stony Brook 19-16!
Temple after pummelling Vandy lost to Navy 24-31
USF barely survived their opened with FCS Western Carolina (36-31) and lost to Maryland at home 17-24
Houston lost their home opener to UTSA (2nd year in Go5) 7-27
UCF (top ranked AAC team) lost to PSU last week 24-26

Bad opening for AAC

Now the ACC
WFU lost their opener to La Monroe 10-17
Syracuse needed OT to beat FCS Villanova 27-26
NCST survived their opened with Georgia Southern(1st yr in Sunbelt) 24-23
and had trouble with Old Dominion(1st yr in CUSA) 46-34
Clemson got ripped by Georgia 21-45 last week
Defending National Champion FSU survived unranked OK St 37-31
#21 NC needed an End Zone INT to beat SDST at home 31-27 and allowed FCS Liberty to score 29 on them. Do they deserve a ranking, Hell No!

Underwhelming for a power conference that has played 14 games vs FCS and teams in their 1st year of Go5 play.

B12 is better than the ACC or B1- but still had hiccups

Iowa State got Waxed by FCS NDST at home 14-34
Texas Tech survived their opener vs FCS Central Arky 42-35 and survived UTEP 30-26.
Kansas Survived their opener with FCS SEMO 34-28
Texas got their butts kicked by BYU 7-41

The 12 PAC (regarded by many as the #2 football conference) had Spllage

WSU lost their home opener to Rutgers 38-41 and to Nevada 13-24

Colorado lost by 2 TD's to Colorado State 17-31 and survived lowly UMASS 41-38

#11 ranked (REALLY) UCLA survived lowly UVA 28-20 and Memphis(historically Bad) 42-35 Do they deserve #11 ranking, Hell No.

Washington barely survived lowly Hawaii 17-16 and instate FCS EWU 59-52

Arizona survived their home opener with UTSA(Sunbelt) 26-23 a game in which UTSA lead much of.

Oregon State was able to beat lowly Hawaii by only a TD (38-30)

Not what you would call impressive

Now the MWC

UT ST got shellacked by TN 7-38!
Boise stayed close with MS for 3 quarters before losing 13-35
UNLV got creamed by AZ 13-58 and beat FCS Northern Colorado 13-12!
While Nevada beat 12 PAC WSU they had trouble with FCS Southern Utah 28-19
Wyoming survived FCS Montana 17-12
Fresno got hammered by USC 13-52 & Utah 27-59
NM lost to AZ St by 35 (23-58) and lost to UTEP (24-30)

Some teams playing better than expected (Hawaii, Nevada, CSU) and others playing like Turd Blossoms (Fresno, UT ST, UNLV, New Mexico)

It's only 2 games people, relax and have a cold ; we've got 12 weeks to go!

SEC''s only loss so far is Vandy getting embarassed by Temple (7-3&) WVA gave ranked AL a game losing (28-38) Wisky/LSU was a top 5 game so far this year.