Breaking down the WAC
Even though the Aggies aren’t playing this week, we decided, what with the election and all, we were going to be democratic and give every team a fair chance of being ridiculed again this week. God bless America.
San Jose State at New Mexico State
Those poor red-clad Aggies not only have no idea where or if they will be playing football in the coming years, but they have a pretty terrible football team this season.
San Jose State on the other hand, does not have a pretty terrible football team this season. While we would not go so far as to say the Spartans are the next BCS busters by any stretch of the imagination, they are 7-2 overall, 3-1 in the WAC and all of this just two years removed from being 1-12.
This should be a good tune-up game for SJSU, who will face BYU next weekend. Spoiler: We’re going to pick San Jose State then too.
McNeese State at UTSA
Last season, the Roadrunners lost on the road by a field goal and finished with a much lower record than the McNeese State Cowboys.
Nobody actually cares about that, or the game this weekend for that matter.
Still, we feel UTSA is a little better than they were last season and have even beaten some FBS teams. Besides, we’re WAC homers anyway, so we’ll pick the Roadrunners to win because they’re at home.
No. 20 Louisiana Tech at Texas State
Remember how last week the conversation on the messages boards was “Does Texas State have a chance at USU? No.” Well, the conversation is exactly the same this week. Let’s talk about something more interesting, like next week’s matchup between the Aggies and La. Tech.
If you had asked us at the beginning of the season if USU would pull a win out of Ruston, La., we would have said no. However, La. Tech only scored 28 points on New Mexico State two weeks ago and beat the worst team in college football by a meager two touchdowns. Remember what the Aggies did to NMSU? Ouch.
Bottom line is we are stoked for Nov. 17’s game. Oh, and we’re picking La. Tech to beat the Bobcats if you didn’t catch that already.
Idaho at Brigham Young
Wow, talk about a pick we didn’t want to make choosing between two teams we regularly choose against. On the one hand you have Idaho, a pretty crappy football team with job openings for the head coach and quarterback positions. On the other you have BYU, a team we’ve said countless terrible things about in editorials since the creation of this newspaper.
You know what would be a lot more interesting? A mascot mashup, video-game style. We should get a bunch of potato farmers to line up in potato sacks to play against a bunch of 40-something-year-old women and see which team would be better at football. Now that would be something we’d pay to see.
As for the real football game? We’ll call a scoreless tie
because BYU’s defense is too good to allow Idaho to score, but Riley Nelson is playing, so BYU’s offense won’t be able to score either.
Utah State vs. BYE
The bye week could not have come at a better time for USU, which has been playing a game for 10-straight weeks. It’ll be a good chance for the Aggies to rest up, heal up, study up and get psyched up for next week’s game against Louisiana Tech.
Unless something weird happens, that’ll be the WAC Championship game. Really it’ll be the showdown between the two WAC teams that are any good. Oh, and both of those teams are pretty dang good.
Utah at Washington
The Utes are 4-5, 2-4 in conference. The Huskies are 5-4 and 3-3.
We’re still surprised Utah hasn’t made much noise in the Pac-12, and all but one of us on staff feel sorry for our brothers to the South.
Washington fans got excited about victories over Cal and Wazzou, but need to remember it was, well, Cal and Wazzou.
In all honesty, this one could go either way. We’ll pick Utah, but only if that top-notch defense scores or if Reggie Dunn runs back another touchdown.
Have beef with our picks? Let us know online at www.usustatesman.com.