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Our Mike Marteny lays out the confidence points in ESPN College Pick Em for week 5 of the 2021 season.
There are some big prizes on the line in the revamped ESPN College Pick Em game this season. $13,200 across their three entry modes. So we here at Rotoballer will try and help you win some money, because that's what we do. I have created a group for you Rotoballer readers out there. Once based on the confidence game mode, where you pick the winner of each of the ten games they pick and then assign a point value from 1-10 based on how confident you are on each pick. You can play along with me and other Rotoballer readers here. The other group has ten games that you have to pick the winner of against the spread. You can play along with that group here. They are free to enter, so come on and match wits with the rest of the readers of Rotoballer!
We only had two people in the group this week break 40 points with left handed freshman and keepingthelittlehumansalive both netting 41 points. We all went heavy on USC and it hurt the scores as a whole. With another nice week, left handed freshman takes over the group lead with 151 points, good for a five-point lead over keepingthelittlehumansalive. I am tied with miamidolphins567 for third place with 143 points.
Bamarick is just one point behind us, rounding out the top five. lbockenek is one point behind Rick with 2pretty4orange! just one behind her. BKNoleGirl hangs onto eighth place, two behind lbockenek. Kev Shep and kdstacks85 round out the top 10 with a little bit of separation between them and eighth place.
This article will follow be for the confidence game mode. You can also read my against the spread picks here every week for every game so you know how I'm leaning for that version of the game. Each week, I will recap who's dominating the group before I get into the picks. If you're going to beat everyone, all of the readers will know about it!
Let's get to the countdown! I will count them up from least confident (1) to most (10). You know, for dramatic effect. If I do change my pick or points at sometime during the week, I will try to update the article or post it on Twitter. Otherwise, you know all of my picks each week. Good luck out there, and I hope one or more of us take home some of that free money from ESPN! This is a really tough week. Good luck out there!
(1) Cincinnati over Notre Dame:
I don't really want any part of this one. Desmond Ridder is not Graham Mertz. He wont gift-wrap the game for the Irish. This is going to be another battle. Cincinnati's slow starting this year will cost them the game if they don't have everything working early on. They don't have the margin for error to make the mistakes they've been making and win this game. Jack Coan looks to be ready to go for the Irish, but if he's not at 100%, this could be trouble. I trust Ridder a little more than Coan, but I'm flipping on this one regularly and likely will up until Saturday morning. I have Cincinnati right now, but I know that I wont move this out of the one point slot. It really could go either way.
(2) Georgia over Arkansas
I have this lower because I could see Arkansas winning this game. Georgia's defense is 50 shades of nasty and is going to be a huge problem for K.J. Jefferson, especially if he is still hobbled. I don't like the rotating quarterback thing for the Bulldogs and this Arkansas defense is a very good unit as well. This is going to be similar to the Clemson game. Both offenses are good, but they wont look like it against these defenses. I trust the experience of Georgia just a little more and they're at home. That should be enough to get past the Razorbacks, but they are going to have to sweat this in Athens.
(3) Oklahoma State over Baylor
I don't trust a team run by Gerry Bohannon to win this game in Stillwater. Breece Hall had a strong game against Baylor, but the Iowa State defense couldn't get off the field. That wont be as much of a problem for the Cowboys. Jaylen Warren isn't as talented as Hall, but he's closer than most think. Oklahoma State hasn't been winning pretty, but they're still winning. It continues here.
(4) LSU over Auburn:
Death Valley at night against a team that needed a spark from the backup quarterback to beat Georgia.......State. Not Georgia. Georgia State. They're having to mop the drool out of Mike's tiger cage already. This could get ugly. Could. Auburn's defense is still good enough to hang around, but they'll need a lot more offensive output than we've seen to actually win this.
(5) Michigan over Wisconsin:
I'm confident enough that at some point Graham Mertz will make a back-breaking mistake or four that loses this game for Wisconsin to put this all the way up at number 5. Michigan will struggle at times because they can't really throw either. However, something can be said for Cade McNamara not making huge mistakes. That's a big deal for a Michigan team that has had poor decision making from quarterbacks for the last decade or so.
(6) Oklahoma over Kansas State:
Skyler Thompson was a real problem for us last year. Unfortunately for Kansas State, he still wont be ready for this game. Deuce Vaughn will be a problem, but I have enough confidence in the Oklahoma defense to keep him out of the end zone most of the time. Kansas State isn't really beating themselves this year, so Oklahoma is going to need some offensive production in this one. I think this is the game where Marvin Mims comes back to life. It's October. Stuff like that happens in October, I've heard.
(7) Wake Forest over Louisville:
The Wake defense did a stellar job against a potent Virginia offense. Louisville may as well be Virginia in red uniforms. Their quarterback is another do-everything player who is electric. They have some good receivers. Both teams don't run the ball nearly as well as they like, and definitely not enough to beat a defense like Wake's. Wake Forest wont do anything flashy, but they'll control the ball and pick apart the Louisville defense much like they did against Virginia. There weren't really any big plays. Just lots of chain moving.
(8) Alabama over Mississippi:
Lane Kiffin has always been able to score points on the Tide. Unfortunately for him, the Ole Miss secondary has little shot of containing these receivers. The names are different from last year, but the talent level is nearly the same. We may have another scoreboard-breaker on our hands here, but Bama will still win by a couple of touchdowns, much like last year.
(9) Ohio State over Rutgers:
If C.J. Stroud can't go, I may move this one down. Kyle McCord was solid, but it was against Akron. This Rutgers defense has been the most quickly improved unit under Greg Schiano, and it makes sense. The Buckeyes run the ball well enough to eventually take control of this game, but Rutgers is going to hang around for a while. The longer they do, the more dangerous this becomes for the Buckeyes.
(10) Oregon over Stanford
Tanner McKee has run the Stanford offense well enough to overshadow the issues that the Cardinal still have on defense. They wont be able to hide from the talent and speed of Oregon though. The Stanford defense will be exposed again here, but Oregon is one of the few team that can still do that to them.
