Side effect of last week: we can now kiss TheFifthFuller's prediction of a 12-0 regular season goodbye. Even when we don't play ECU, we lose.
Moving to just six games a week has had the effect of producing a lot of perfect picks. We've now had six of them in just three weeks. Surprisingly no 0-fers, though.
Make your picks at http://keyplay.football.cbssports.com/opm. If you weren't in the pick'em group last year, you'll need to click this link to join.
Here are Week 1's results. They'll be added to everybody's total (along with the results of Championship Week, which also have to be picked in the comments here) at the end of the season.
September 22
He's not mad, just disappointed in you
Notre Dame (-7.5)
Wake Forest
Fun Fact #1: Notre Dame is 3-0. The scores of those games: 24-17, 24-16, and 22-17. Well, they're consistent.
Fun Fact #2: Wake is 0-3 against the spread, by a combined total of 5.5 points. Vegas seems to have them figured out.
PICK: I'm not a believer in Wake, but Notre Dame has been pushing it. Wake at least covers.
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Not the best thing you could choose for your midlife crisis
TCU (-3)
Texas
Fun Fact #1: Since TCU joined the Big XII, they've outscored Texas 153-33. Damn.
Fun Fact #2: Texas is just 9-7 under Tom Herman, but to be fair, 6 of those games were against AP Top 25 teams.
PICK: For those of us of a certain age, it's amazing to think that TCU could conceivably have a letdown game against Texas. They won't, though.
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Mississippi State (-10)
Kentucky
Fun Fact #1: Mississippi State's given up points on 100% of opponents' red zone trips this year. Then again, that amounts to 3 FG's and a TD in 4 trips. In 3 games.
Fun Fact #2: Kentucky RB Benny Snell is averaging over 5 yards/carry, and has Kentucky at 3-0 for the first time since...2017. When they finished 7-6.
PICK: This is a bigger line than it should be, I think. Kentucky covers late.
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Dana White's goofy southern little brother
Florida (-4.5)
Tennessee
Fun Fact #1: Florida's struggled in their first year under new coach Dan Mullen, having lost to the only P5 team they played this year (Kentucky).
Fun Fact #2: Tennessee's struggled in their first year under new coach Jeremy Pruitt, having lost to the only P5 team they played this year (WVU).
PICK: This used to be a big rivalry back in the day. Yet this past offseason, both teams were turned down by multiple prospective coaches. Shows how far they've fallen. I'll take Florida, I guess, though I don't feel good about it.
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"The Sred Zone"? "Thes Red Zone"?
Stanford (-1.5)
Oregon
Fun Fact #1: This will be Stanford's first road game, following three straight at home to open their season.
Fun Fact #2: This will be Oregon's 4th straight home game to open their season.
PICK: Damn, these teams are as bad as the SEC for never leaving home OOC. That said, Bryce Love is back this week, and I'll take David Shaw's already established program to cover.
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Wisconsin (-3.5)
Iowa
Fun Fact #1: Wisconsin had won 41 straight home non-conference games before the Fightin' Leftovers of Mendenhall U stunned them last week.
Fun Fact #2: Kirk Ferentz wants cut block penalties to be reviewable. I didn't care about him one way or another before, but I'm a fan now.
PICK: Somehow we ended up with all 6 games involving home underdogs. Iowa wins this one outright though.
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DRINK OF THE WEEK
Blanton's is one of those bourbons I actually wanted to not like. It's made by Buffalo Trace, who already makes a delicious bourbon at half the price (called "Buffalo Trace"). I didn't know they were behind this before I bought it, or else I never would have picked it up. Turns out that it is actually better than Buffalo Trace. Noticeably better, and that's saying something, 'cause Buffalo Trace is awesome. But it's still not twice-the-price better.
Comments
Notre Dame (-7.5) at Wake Forest
TCU (-3) at Texas
Mississippi State(-10) at Kentucky
Florida (-4.5) at Tennessee
Stanford (-1.5) at Oregon
Wisconsin (-3.5) at Iowa
Blanton's didn't used to be as ungodly expensive. And you could reliably find it at most stores, to include the ABC store by campus. I miss senior year.
Nothing out of buffalo trace used to be expensive, but they didnt prepare for the demand correctly.
Blantons is by far and away better than buffalo trace.
Other good stuff from BT:
Buffalo Cream - real cream needs refrigerated
WL Weller - poor man's pappy
Angel's envy
Angel's Envy is probably my all-time favorite whiskey. That stuff is amazing
It's a bitch when your business has to anticipate demand as much as 20-some years out. The other thing that sucks, as I found out visiting BT and other distilleries, is starting up a new business. We visited Three Boys Farm distillery, which had only been "open" for a few months, but they had been in business for 5 years. I don't have that kind of patience! But I do enjoy the fruits of their patience!
Don't forget Eagle Rare, only a couple bucks more than Buffalo Trace, but may be a tad better as well
I'm gonna say the field is split on this. Many I know far prefer BT over ER, even ignoring the cost. But others I know will spend the extra few dollars for something they like better.
True, it's a tough choice. I mean Buffalo Trace is still my go-to, but I'm willing to spend an extra couple bucks to mix it up now and then, especially since BT is near impossible to find these days in Richmond.
Fun fact, all of their bourbons actually use the same mash bill, only difference is the building they are aged in and how long they're aged.
Angel's Envy is different in that they age it in used port wine casks. Gives it a very different flavor, and makes it much smoother.
OOhh, didn't know that, i'll have to give it a shot
4 home games to open the season sounds awful.
Domers
Horny Toads
The Redneck Side of Kentucky
Chompers
The Fighting Nikes
The team who tried to do Enter Sandman one time back in the day (Iowa) and now do Back in Black and it's pretty cool.
(I'm not in the pick em thingy, I've just been doing these in my head for a while now and want to write/type em out somewhere)
Wake covering
TCU
Kentucky covering
Florida?
Stanford
Wisconsin
This week might be the hardest week of pick em I've ever done. All my pools are ridiculously hard picks.
Second. There were a lot of coin tosses in there.
Not really on topic, but I am meeting a good friend and his wife in Asheville to celebrate our wives' birthday (same day). They are huge Blanton's fans, and he is collecting the bottle stoppers to try to get a set. I want to get him a bottle with "B" horse on top, but can't find it in a local liquor store. I looked briefly online, but could not find where I can buy a bottle and specify the stopper. Anyone know somewhere that has bottles with multiple horses (outside of the distillery), or a way to get one with a specified top? He will not take the top unless he drinks the bottle, as that would be cheating.
Bourbon is absolutely on-topic for Six-Pick
The 375's have the same stoppers...so that might give him more options.
(A buddy has an unopened one so he's checking the letter.)
If someone collects all of the stoppers, they should build one of these custom horse racing game with those as the pieces.
4VPISU Beer of the Week
The Veil - Dirt Nap ^3
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4VPISU Bourbon of the Week
Blade and Bow (this will be the same for all of September)
I was unimpressed by Blanton's, but I know many that love it. However, I'm stubborn, so I want to collect all of the letters on the horse's feet.
Notre Dame
TCU
Kentucky
Tennessee
Stanford
Kentucky
Kentucky for the double win!!!! maybe the 2nd one is for the bourbon
Picks:
ND
TCU
UK
UF
Trees
Pissed off Badgers
pretty sure this is the week the luck runs out (got 4 right each of the first 3 weeks).
Beer: Need to finish off this delicious Galaxy/Hallertau Blanc DIPA - Commonwealth's 1.752B Sojourn
Bourbon: Last second decided to go to Louisville with a friend last weekend. Picked up some Willett Straight Rye and Rowan's Creek and got more Four Roses Single Barrel. One of these three will have to be opened.
EDIT: Update - all 3 have been opened. The Willett Straight Rye is the best rye whiskey I have every had. Wonderful spicy rye character, but there is zero burn and no harsh rye spiciness at all.
So did you not go to the Aslin Beer Fest?
No...I'm ashamed.
But I couldn't really get any friends to come along and at the last second a friend wanted to drive to Louisville. I was not opposed to checking out the bourbon trail for the first time.
Hey not a bad trade off though man, and you made a better choice! I heard there were a couple of hiccups with the beer fest - was worth it if you were VIP, but long lines otherwise.
Speaking of - did you see their post yesterday RE: Move to Alexandria?
Yea at the end of the day I'm not complaining. I've doubled my whiskey collection.
I just checked it out - glad to see Aslin will finally have a tasting room! It's been frustrating driving 50 minutes to buy their cans onsite or going to special tap takeovers.
ND -7.5
TCU -3
Kentucky +10
Tenn +4.5 (God this could be an awful game to watch. Complete train wreck. And it's glorious.)
Stanford -1.5
Iowa +3.5
Picking this up this weekend.
Made me think of our domination of UVa, which stands at 402-149 since joining the ACC. Not as impressive, but still deserves a "Damn." in my opinion!
Notre Dame -7.5 vs Wake Forest - God help me, I think I'm rooting for the domers, but I really want that premier game in a couple of weeks.
TCU -3.5 vs Texas - Shocked this spread is so small. TCU absolutely rolls.
Mississippi State -10 vs Kentucky - Bulldogs are on the warpath this year, they take care of business and win by 30 (but I'll settle for the 10 point spread).
Florida vs Tennessee +4.5 - Two evenly matched teams, two programs in a similar state, two fan-bases with like-minded levels of self-loathing and anxiety, cue the spider-man meme. With nothing differentiating eachother talent-wise, i'll take the points for the home dog.
Stanford vs Oregon +1.5 - I have no read on this game whatsoever, so I guess I'll take the points at home, entertainment wise, could be one helluva game though.
Wisconsin -3.5 vs Iowa - I think people are way overreacting to last week's loss. Good teams have bad days (yes, that means stop with the nonsense "we'll never get over the hump until we stop dropping games we shouldn't" comments). Wisconsin is very good and they're gonna be determined to show it.
Beer of the Week
Sierra Nevada x Weinstephan Oktoberfest
It's really, really hard to make a great German beer, but I suppose it's easier when you get Weinstephan to help. This beer is just no-nonsense fantastic.
Is there anyway you can make a summary at the end with all the match ups and the lines so we can just copy and paste that into the response?
Yeah can do. I'll update this one later today.
Remember we're making our picks at CBS Sports, though.
The biggest downside of doing picks on CBS is that Smlltwnsthrnlwyr or VPIhokieME don't post their picks on the Six Pick threads anymore.
I miss those, was always fun seeing the different ways people announced picks. I don't even play on CBS, i just like posting here
Yeah I feel you. The older Six Pick did seem more communal (and maybe a little more fun), but it's a huge PITA to parse a hundred comments or so by hand. I don't mind doing it twice a year, but if it had to be more than that, I'd probably just turn it over to somebody else.
Oh yeah, I thought about taking it over but didn't think I could keep up with the record keeping. Certainly no knock on you, it's awesome we've kept it going and still have the forum to post pictures of booze