I have to admit how thrilled I am with a weekend off.  In football season, a sports talk show host never really gets a weekend off, but I don’t have to go anywhere.  ASU has a bye this week and the Cards are on the road so I get to watch football on my butt all weekend. Taking the family to the D-backs game tonight.  As much as this team has driven us all up the wall this year, I’m going to miss baseball as it’s put up in storage for a few months.  I’m ready for spring training.

I hope Brandon Webb gets the win tomorrow.  No pitcher in MLB history has ever won 23 games and not won the Cy Young unless there was a pitcher who had more wins.  Since Webb will have the highest win total, I hope he gets the award.  There are a ton of voters who believe that wins are an over-rated stat because it depends on your offense and your bullpen.  Those are two things you could argue Webb doesn’t have, yet he still won 23 games.  Combine that with winning 23 games on a below .500 team, it should be a no-brainer.  With the idiots that are voting on the award, I wouldn’t be so sure.

Saturday, I coach Vienna’s soccer team.  I love doing it in the Spring.  I still enjoy it in the Fall but it’s a huge sacrifice because I have to record all the CFB games and watch them later.  I think that Alabama/Georgia game will be incredible.  If you watch it, focus on what Nick Saban does to stop Moreno as opposed to what the Sun Devils did.

I don’t know what I’m doing Sunday.  When you’re Catholic, you’ve got your choice of Mass times.  I can’t win because my bible beating friends say I just fit Jesus into my day at my leisure and my non-church friends think I’m a zealot because I only miss weekly Mass about once a decade.  My problem is when to go.  I don’t want to go Saturday night because I don’t want to miss Bama/UGa.  I don’t want to go Sunday night because I’ll miss the end of Skins/Cowboys.  I’ll probably go @ 9a and tape the beginning of Cards/Jets and listen to Wolf on 92.3 FM on my way home.

I’m intrigued by the Cards game because of the same reasons I was with Cards/Redskins.  AZ has better players and better coaches than NY, but that was true last week and it didn’t help.  Will they finally end the turnover/penalty problem?  There’s no way you’ll get me to pick this game.  Even Vegas set the line at 1 1/2 so they don’t know either.  We all know the Cards should win, I’m just not a believer in the Cards on the road yet.

If you saw my picks last week, you’ve basically been waiting for me to get to them this week.  I’m now 13-7 on the season after my impressive 5-0 showing.  Here’s a prediction for you:  I won’t go 5-0 this week.  Last week I was having a hard time narrowing it down to five games because I was so confident I was going to be right on so many of the games.  This week I didn’t find any game that jumped off the page to me.

Before I give you the picks answer this question:  which do you find more shocking 1) Vandy ranked or 2) that Duke is favored in a conference game?  DUKE is a 7 point favorite against Virginia.  WOW!  I’m going with Duke.

Cincy -3 1/2 v Cle

This is the only meaningless game in the NFL and it’s the only game I like so I’m going college with the other four picks.

Penn St -14 1/2 v Illinois

Dramatic step up in competition but the Lions are still at home and averaging over 35 points in the first half.  I can easily see Illinois holding them to a 17-7 first half and then I only need a few more points in the second half.

Louisville -3 1/2 v UConn

UConn’s a good team but I don’t think they’re ready for this.  If this was in Hartford, I wouldn’t touch it.

Nebraska -7 v Va Tech

I must be missing something here.  This game seems easy and it’s the easy ones you normally screw up.

Florida -22 1/2 v Ole Miss

Tough choice here.  I might regret this pick with Wake needing to cover 16 v an average Navy team.  I just don’t trust Wake to play well after the big win over FSU.  I’d take Wake to win but I don’t like spotting 16.  I like the Gators to cover because I think I’ll get some defensive or special teams TD’s to help out.  Look for Florida to get a pick 6.

Have a good weekend.