Week 4 Picks

A 3-4 start to the season on the picks. Time to get back to making picks and trying to turn around the record.

South Carolina -21.5 at Vanderbilt - The Gamecocks had a nice win against Georgia last week, even if it was only by inches. Vanderbilt had to fight to hold off a terrible Massachusetts team. Chance for Spurrier's team to flex their muscle and tune up their offense before getting to the tougher part of their schedule. South Carolina should have no trouble with the Commodores.

Marshall -9 at Akron - The Thundering Herd has an outside, outside chance of making it to one of the big bowls as one of the Other 5 Conferences representatives. To do that, they'll need to dominate everyone on an extremely weak schedule. The Zips were good against Howard in their opener, not so good against Penn State in their next game. Marshall will get up by double-digits in the first half and cruise to 4-0.

Oklahoma -7.5 at West Virginia - A couple years ago, the Sooners escaped Morgantown in a wild game, 50-49. Oklahoma's defense is looking absolutely nasty so far this year and their offense is burying people early in the game and then just easing to victory. West Virginia gave Alabama a game in their opener but I'm not sure the Crimson Tide defense is quite as good as it's been the last few years. The Mountaineers score some points, but too little late as Oklahoma puts in another claim to be one of the final four.

North Carolina +2.5 at East Carolina - For all the flak the Big Ten takes about being not very good, the ACC isn't much better. They do have the defending National Champion in Florida State, but the rest of the conference isn't great. East Carolina played South Carolina tough a couple weeks ago and upset Virgina Tech last week. This feels like a hangover game for the Pirates and the Tar Heels get by.

Texas A&M -34 at SMU - Going with all road teams this week and while the spread is large, the Aggies are rolling on offense and SMU is still trying to figure things out after head coach June Jones stepped down after two games this year. A&M needs the style points to stay in the discussion for the final four and beating SMU by less than five touchdowns won't help that. Aggies tempo wears out the Mustangs and they stay unbeaten.