College & pro football picks, Sept. 29 - 30

College football

Toledo 27, Western Michigan 24 — The Rockets will find a way to upset the Broncos in Kalamazoo despite their injuries, porous young secondary, playing on the road, etc. There won’t be any letdowns from last week. Fluellen and Bell, hurt in the Coastal Carolina win, should be able to play Saturday night.

Bowling Green 35, Rhode Island 15 — Falcons whip on a flatulent FCS team from the Colonial Conference. It’s BG’s Homecoming game. Weird scheduling in my opinion.

UConn 42, Buffalo 13 — Huskies handle a MAC weakling with little sweat broken.

Kent State 28, Ball State 27 — Two evenly matched MAC teams. I’ll take the home team. Cards knocked off a decent Big Least team to boost the MAC’s usually lousy image.

Miami 37,  Akron 10 — Two in a row for the Redskins/Redhawks. Beating the Zips does not take much hard work.

Ohio U. 27, UMass 13 — Bobcats travel to Foxboro. They’ll look like the sluggish Buckeyes for part of the first half.

Northern Illinois 27, Central Michigan 24 (OT) — Four weeks ago, this looked like the usual easy Huskie win over the Chippewas. Now it will be much closer and a tough one to pick.

Michigan State 13, Ohio State 7 — Back in August everyone pegged this game as a matchup of two of the Little 12’s top teams. Now both of them can barely beat weaklings from the MAC and Conference USA. This could be one butt ugly game that could go either way. Sparty’s offense sucks and the Buckeye defense still can’t tackle well but will still be good enough to hold MSU to a close, low-scoring, dull win. On the other hand, if the Buckeyes keep missing tackles or making bump tackles on Bell and the other Spartys, it could be more like 35-7.

Penn State 24, Illinois 14 — More butt-ugly football, courtesy the Little 12. Louisiana Tech is another WAC  team that could easily finish second or third in either Little 12 grouping.

Northwestern 38, Indiana 13 — Wildcat fans should not delude themselves into thinking their team is the best in the Legends division. Come to think of it, which one is?

Nebraska 24, Wisconsin 17 — Unlike last Saturday night’s Clemson-Florida State game, this will be a dull matchup of two teams that do not play basketball on grass. Ball might be a sideline observer if his head still hurts from last week’s concussion.

Minnesota 23, Iowa 10 — Floyd of Rosedale trophy is up for grabs and the Gophers get the steel pig. Minnesota fans should also not delude themselves that their team is the best of the Legends. Ferentz’s head ought to be on the guillotine after gagging to the MAC’s Chippewas.

Purdue 37, Marshall 20 — Boilers use this game as a tune-up for Denard and Michigan next week. Wolverines are off and Denard is getting schooled on how to throw a pass to a teammate wearing the same colored jersey Denard’s wearing.

Alabama 42, Ole Miss 7 — Saban puts a big whuppin' on the Rebels. It’s conference play for Nick and he won’t be taking his foot off the accelerator against conference teams.

LSU 59, Towson 3 — Come on, Les. Schedule a real team. I’m sure you could get Toledo to come to Baton Rouge for a game.

South Carolina 35, Kentucky 9 — KY fans are eagerly awaiting the start of basketball practice. There won’t be anything to make Spurrier grimace unless Lattimore blows out his knee again.

USC 24, Utah 19 — Wins aren’t coming that easy for Lane Violation Kiffin.

Oregon 45, Washington State 10 — Ducks made Rich Rod look like pretenders.

Florida State 37, South Florida 17 — Two teams with much more speed than any Little 12 team can provide.

Georgia 38, Tennessee 10 — Hope the Volunteer fans enjoyed the Akron whipping, ‘cuz their team will be on the wrong side of the whipping here.

No Fun League with the "real" refs

Lions 34, Vikings 27 — Lions can’t afford to be 1-3 at the end of the first quarter of the season.

Cowboys 26, Bears 22 — Can’t see this one going in the Bears’ favor in the Jerry Jones Dome.

Packers 27, Saints 20 — Saints are looking like the Aints of old.

Bengals 25, Jaguars 19 — Cincy’s early success is due to a soft schedule.

Ravens 34, Browns 13 — Browns will definitely be 0-4 after this rout.