Even though I’m now just posting last weekend’s prognosticatory results and this week’s predictions, some loud braggert has already tried to put me down.

(He didn’t claim his school is #1 in the state, because he and I share the same fealty. Which didn’t prevent his seriously derogatory comments about my picks before he even knew what they are.)

Which minor brouhaha I feel comfortable mentioning, since I continue trending upward.

A quick look back at last week. Oregon, in nifty throwback unis, won. ✔︎ The Seminoles to vanquish TD Jesus in Tallahassee. ✔︎ The Cats to come up short in Red Stick. ✔︎ U of L to run over the Wolfpack. ✔︎

And, the veritable coup de grace, the Mountaineers to batter Baylor’s Bears in front of a throng of fire-starting homies. (Coming Soon: Dana Holgorsen shilling for Kingsford Charcoal.) ✔︎

My first perfect weekend of picks, putting me at 25-15 on the year, has me itching to get to this week’s slate of games.

Ole Miss @ LSU. I’m oft accused — wrongly I might interject — of choosing gimmes to weigh in on. It’s hogwash. Yet, to avoid such unwarranted braying, I’m starting with the premier college pigskin rumble of the week. Which also has a short spread in a general slate of encounters, where few of such are to be found. It’s difficult to tell just how much Les Miles’ Tigers have improved. Ws over the faltering Gators, coached by future former Florida coach Will Muschamp, and not-ready-for-prime-time UK on a Saturday night along the bayou, could be, might be, probably are false positives. Then again, Miles knows it’s not conducive to his health and personal well being to disappoint a stadium full of likkered up Cajuns after dark on the day after payday. Ole Miss is undefeated, but that W over the Aggies isn’t quite as dazzling today as it was two weeks ago. And, Baton Rouge has been compared to a lot of places, but The Grove is not one of them. The Johnny Rebs won’t have all those cocktail dressed Chi Os as inspiration. All of which makes this affair most intriguing. A proverbial toss up. I have flipped a coin. Literally. Heads. LSU.

Minnesota @ Illinois. The tale is told that a U of M rugby captain named John Adams heard some Sioux braves shout “ski-yoo” after winning a canoe race. In 1894. According to those expert in both the Dakota and Lakota dialects of Sioux lingo, Adams misinterpreted it as some sort of exhortation denoting victory. Despite the bad translation, the expanded phrase Ski-U-Mah has been part of Golden Gopher tradition for over a century. Now, that’s tradition. And, if you’ve seen Jerry Kill’s team play, that phrase is written on the helmet stripe.¹ More important, said Gophers stand a surprising 6-1, their only L to TCU, and a squad that, for some unfathomable reason, I’ve started rooting for. Meanwhile, the Fighting Illini remain mired in mediocrity. They stand 3-4, including an L to the woeful Boilermakers of Purdue. This one’s in either Champaign or Urbana — whichever burg is the venue of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium. Home field shall not help the orange-clad homies scalp the Goooooophers, who shall stand 4-0 in the league when the horn sounds.

Virginia @ North Carolina. I have a theory about Tar Heel football. It is that the team has rarely been of consequence because of the nature of the school’s wimpy blue coloring. So deep and long standing is this impediment, that even donning black unis hasn’t turned the tide. Carolina did happen to upend the Ramblin’ Wreck last weekend at home, and was more than an idle threat in a 43-50 L during a visit to South Bend. The Wahoos have been a bit of a surprise, standing as they are tied for the lead in their ACC division. Along with rising power Duke, to whom UVa lost last weekend. Frankly, Scarlett, I could give a damn about this game, except that it’s between teams in my team’s conference. And a W by Virginia would, in some peripheral manner, enhance the stature of my team, which lost inexplicably to the Cavaliers. As will Carolina. Explicably.

Old Dominion @ Western Kentucky. These two newcomers to “big time” football are both finding life troublesome in C-USA. The visiting Monarchs are 1-3 in the league; the homestanding Hilltoppers, ofer 3. The latter have displayed a more than annoying penchant for coughing up leads, big leads at that. The W over the Middies now seems an anomaly after consecutive come from ahead Ls to UAB and Schnellenberger U. But, this battle in in Bowling Green, and Jeff Brohm’s team is a double digit fave. Guess Vegas figures that Ol’ Virginny royalty doesn’t like to travel far from the throne room. Who am I to disagree? Toppers!

Mississippi State @ Kentucky. There was a time, and it was not that long ago really, when UK’s game with Cowbell State, despite any Wildcat woes otherwise, was considered one of the winnable SEC tussles of the season. With the Cats on the uptick, despite last Saturday’s meltdown, one might think hope would spring even more. But, as we have learned emphatically, the Bulldogs are another matter entirely this season. And — whodathunkit in August? — arrive in Lexington as The. Number. One. Team. In. The. Country. Undefeated. Conqueror of Top Ten teams three consecutive weeks. And, rested after a bye. While the Cats are still trying to triage their Tiger wounds. Though I doubt the visitors will be looking past Kentucky to next week’s foe Arkansas, which hasn’t won a league game since Bill Clinton was but a lad in Hope, and didn’t realize a cigar could be a sex toy. But I do think the Cowbells may be taking this one for granted. It’s nature’s way. I view this one as a close encounter of the third kind. (Whatever that means?) But a W by #1 anyway.

— Seedy K