Quick Hits #1 - Saturday Predictions.

Italics indicate my pick.

Stanford at Wake Forest
(19)North Carolina at UConn
Duke at Army
(16)TCU at Virginia
UCLA at Tennessee
(24)Kansas at UTEP
South Carolina at (21)Georgia
Mississippi State at Auburn
Rice at Texas Tech
Purdue at Oregon
Hawaii at Washington State
Oregon State at UNLV

And now here's my three games to watch this week.

Syracuse at (7) Penn State

Not a really fun game to watch, but I put it in here since I'm a Nittany Lion fan. Despite hating his guts, I was very surprised with Greg Paulus's performance against Minnesota last week. For being out of football for four years, he looked confident, poised, and accurate. Well...other than that last pass, but don't all Dukies choke in the clutch? That's besides the point. Another yawner for Penn State here. I'd like to see the freshman Kevin Newsome get some time with the first team in the second half to build on his experience.

Penn State 48, Syracuse 7

(18)Notre Dame at Michigan

Hot damn, the rivalry is back! Both teams are now legit because they blew out their opening day opponents! Tate Forcier for Heisman! No, it's Jimmy Clausen! Congrats, you defeated Nevada and Western Michigan. Nevada had the 91st ranked pass defense last year and Western Michigan had the 75th ranked scoring defense in the country. One team continues to think they are legit after this one, and one licks the wounds in hopes of winning next year.

Notre Dame 31, Michigan 20

(3) USC at (8) Ohio State

Here's your Game of the Week. I was really looking forward to this game, until Ohio State almost lost to the Midshipmen of Navy. I saw a lot of flaws in the Buckeyes, especially in the secondary. If this was in LA, I'd predict a Trojans blowout. If they weren't starting a true freshman quarterback in Matt Barkley, I'd predict a Trojans blowout. Terrelle Pryor has a lot to prove to me tonight, cause I didn't see much from him last Saturday. I hate both teams (just like the Michigan/ND game if you didn't notice) and I'm not rooting for either. I'd like to see the Buckeyes win for the Big Ten's sake, to give them some credibility...but I don't see it happening. USC's stable of runningbacks carry the load, Barkley doesn't look too fazed in the 'Shoe and finds Arkansas transfer Damian Williams for a couple touchdowns. Once again critics will speak of the Big Ten not being able to win a big game after this one.

USC 21, Ohio State 13