Welcome back to the Funvee Tailgate BLOG, The THUNDERBLOG’s Weekly College Football Series. If you noticed the emphasis on BLOG, that is because this season we have the podcast tying in as well! This we had BOTH Matty D and thirdandgirl.com’s Emily on. You definitely need to check it out and here’s the iTunes link to go subscribe. Getting this up a bit late (1 pm Eastern on Saturday) but thankfully, I went into some of the earlier games on the pod. Matt is down at Clemson/Wake Forrest so make sure to check out our instagram story for live, in-person updates. LET’S FIIIIIRE IT UP!

Last Week’s Record:

5-6 ATS, 24-26 in 2017. DAMNIT! I was so close to getting back to .500 play. Hopefully, this week helps.

Thursday Night Upset:

That’s right! Louisville goes down to an NC State Wolfpack squad that we need to take a good look at. Lamar Jackson was stifled and saw his hope for back-to-back Heismans go down the drain and Louisville’s hope to unseat Clemson as the ACC-representative in the CFP went down with it–although the loss to Clemson somewhat sealed that anyway. NC State is now 5-1, 3-0 in ACC play, has an interesting next three games ahead: at Pitt, at Notre Dame, and then hosting Clemson on November 4th. Pencil in Raleigh as the location for College GameDay for that morning. Anyway, enough looking ahead. Let’s look at this afternoon…

Saturday Slate

So I guess the one saving grace for missing the early games was that the lines all stunk for them. Not really good for Pick’em. Some of the bad lines are going to be in the pick’em and we’ll get to why…

• #23 West Virginia (+13) at #8 TCU at 3:30 on FS1–The lone Saturday matchup of ranked opponents. Will Grier has started to find his groove as the Mountaineer QB but the road test may be a little too hard to pass. TCU wins and covers.
• #13 Miami (-3) at Florida State at 3:30 on ESPN–Could have possibly been one the best games all season FSU’s QB hadn’t gone done against Alabama. The U’s RB Mark Walton might get tripped up a bit by the Seminole D but I still love the matchup. Miami wins and covers.
• #21 Notre Dame (-13.5) at UNC at 3:30 on ABC–Weird game. Weird line. Notre Dame was THIS close to being 5-0 and you might think this could be a trap game. I don’t think so. Notre Dame wins and covers.
• LSU (+1.5) at #21 Florida at 3:30 on CBS–I talked about the inconsistency of LSU last week and then they showed it off to lose. If it were at home, they could have a good shot at a bounce-back. Florida wins and covers.
• Maryland (+30) at Ohio State at 4:00 on FOX–WHAT IS THIS LINE!? Have they watched the Terps? Ohio State wins but definitely doesn’t cover.
• Oregon State (+33) at #14 USC at 4:00 on Pac 12 Network–Similarly to last week, USC is too shaky to be getting this many points. I don’t care if it is Oregon State. USC wins but doesn’t cover.
• #1 Alabama (+26) at Texas A&M at 7:15 on ESPN–TAMU definitely isn’t winning this game, that’s for sure. This line is intriguing to play, but it’s still a lot of points to give. Bama wins but doesn’t cover.
• #16 Virginia Tech (-16.5) at Boston College at 7:15 on ESPN2–VT losing some points here after the Clemson loss last week. Josh Jackson has a BIG bounce-back. Hokies win and cover.
• Michigan State (+10.5) at #7 Michigan at 7:30 on ABC–Revenge game. 10.5 points are not enough against a pissed off Jim Harbaugh. Wolverines win and cover.
• #9 Wisconsin (-10.5) at Nebraska at 8:00 on Big Ten Network–An interesting road test for the Badgers as Nebraska has played well to start Big Ten play. Jonathan Taylor will be too much for the Huskers, though. Wisconsin wins and covers.
• #11 Washington State (-2.5) at Oregon at 8:00 on FOX–Seems like a low line. Royce Freeman could have a big night but expect Luke Falk to have a bigger night. WSU wins and covers.
• Stanford (+3.5) at #20 Utah at 10:15 on FS1–Stanford has been very disappointing. A good Utes defense could hold up their running back Bryce Love from pulling out the upset. Utah wins and covers.
• #19 San Diego State (-9) at UNLV at 10:45 on ESPN2–SDSU’s Rashaad Penny continues to bowl over defenders as his rushing total is at 823 yards coming into tonight. Expect that to continue: SDSU wins and covers.

#6 Washington and #25 UCF are both MASSIVE favorites and should win. I didn’t hate their lines to feel like I need to comment. Lehigh (0-5) is currently fighting for their first win of the season. The Mountain Hawks are up at Colgate to open up Patriot League play and currently up 14-7. Here’s hoping they pull it out!

(cover photo via)