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Our Mike Marteny lays out the confidence points in ESPN College Pick Em for week 6 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!
It was a better week for the group as a whole this week. Six people went over 40 points with lbockenek leading the way with 46 points. left handed freshman is still leading the group with 190 points. With the strong week, lbockenek moved into second place and is only three points back. Rounding out the top three is keepingthelittlehumansalive with 185 points. I am one point behind in fourth place. BKNoleGirl moved into fifth with a strong week, two points behind me.
Bamarick is only one point out of the top five. 2pretty4orange! is one point behind that. Judith6074, Kev Shep, and Kdstacks85 round out the top ten. The top ten pulled away a little bit this week with Kdstacks 13 points ahead of 11th 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! I only missed two last week. Unfortunately, one of those was my ten-point pick.
(1) Notre Dame over Virginia Tech
There is a budding quarterback controversy for the Irish and they have to head to Blacksburg.....at night. Just ask North Carolina how that goes. I don't fully trust the Irish not to lose this game. That Cincinnati game could have went far worse for the Irish considering how the first half went. This is still a strong, and probably more talented team than Virginia Tech. However, the Hokies defense is far removed from last year's disaster. They are good enough to win at home. Stay tuned. I might end up changing this one.
(2) Iowa over Penn State
This is the first time Kinnick has hosted a top four matchup since 1985. Penn State entered Kinnick for the most iconic game in this series in 2008 ranked third. The left ranked seventh. I also distinctly remember these two teams combining for two field goals and two safeties as Iowa beat Penn State in State College 6-4 back in 2004. What we can expect here is another defensive battle. I trust the Iowa defense a little more than Penn State's. The home crowd should help the Hawkeyes out a lot here.
(3) Oklahoma over Texas
TCU provided Oklahoma the defensive game plan to rattle Casey Thompson and the Oklahoma run defense has been by far the best part of the team in 2021. They are going to have to step up against Bijan Robinson where TCU couldn't. Oklahoma's coaches understand the struggles of the offense, so they have morphed into more of a ball control team to keep the defense rested. It worked against West Virginia and Nebraska. They struggled with it against Kansas State in the second half. I haven't seen anything from the Texas defense that really has me worried though. Oklahoma wont win a track meet with this offense. They need to slow the game down, which is the antithesis of the Oklahoma offense under Lincoln Riley. I think they can do it though.
(4) BYU over Boise State
Boise's inability to run the ball is going to be a huge problem against the BYU defense. So is their inability to stop the run. Tyler Allgeier is coming off the best game of his career last week. There's a good chance that he flirts with 200 rushing yards again in this one. My confidence in BYU is growing. This one may move up the list before Saturday.
(5) Kentucky over LSU
Kentucky just had a win that can help change a program. They got it because of a scrappy defense and an offense that didn't turn the ball over. That has been a huge problem for the Wildcats and one game is not enough for me to believe that it's no longer an issue. Otherwise I would have this game higher. This feels like a game that Kentucky could run off with. That defense is really, really good.
(6) Arkansas over Mississippi
Plenty of teams have been dominated by Georgia this year. The Bulldogs doing that to Arkansas hasn't soured me on the Razorbacks. Georgia is the best defense they'll face this year. It will be back to business as usual for Arkansas here. The Ole Miss defense has holes, and KJ Jefferson is good enough to find them.
(7) Oregon State over Washington State
This one might go down the list. Wazzu is a solid team. I really like B.J. Baylor and think he can do some damage. The Beavers have looked a lot more put together this year and they beat USC where the Cougars could not. I think this game could be close, but Oregon State is still the better team right now.
(8) Georgia over Auburn
That was a giant win for Auburn on the road last week, but Georgia dismantled what I still consider to be a good Arkansas team. Auburn is built a little differently than Arkansas, but they are also going to have trouble getting anything going offensively. Will the defense hold up? It might, but probably not enough to win the game.
(9) Michigan over Nebraska
This is the best rivalry that never happened. Both still claim the 1997 National Championship, a team that Nebraska coach Scott Frost was a part of. Nebraska won the first meeting between them after 1997 in the 2005 Alamo Bowl. They are split 2-2 in Big Ten(14) conference games, though both Michigan wins have been in blowout fashion. This wont be a blowout, so I do believe that Nebraska has a chance. Not a good one, but still a chance....
(10) Wake Forest over Syracuse
The Orange are a better team with Garrett Schrader finally winning the quarterback job and the Carrier Dome is going to be filled to the brim with noisy fans. Can any of those fans cover both Jaquarii Roberson and A.T. Perry? If not, the fans wont do enough for the Orange to win this.
