Gator Country

With the 2011 season underway, Gator Country is here to introduce a little friendly fun as our staff members compete against each other and a handful of subscribers in a weekly pick ‘em contest.

Each week, we’ll pick every SEC and Top 25 game straight up, to give us an overall staff pick ‘em champion at the end of the year.

Our six staff members (Tim Casey, Derek Tyson, Thomas Goldkamp, Andrew Spivey, Adam Pincus and Safid Deen) will pick every week along with four subscribers randomly selected during the week.

This week our guest pickers are johnagator, u8evol19i, Swamplizard and StuckUpNorthGator. Welcome to the gang!

As an added bonus, the top subscriber picker each week will get to stay on to pick the following week. Also, any subscriber who has a score equal to or better than five of our six staffers will get to stay on for the next week.

Now, on the good stuff…

This week, there aren’t a whole lot of intriguing picks. Of the 27 games we picked, all 10 of our pickers agreed on 23 of them. The four games we had different picks on were: LSU vs. Oregon, Boise State vs. Georgia, BYU vs. Ole Miss and Notre Dame vs. USF.

Thanks to LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson’s best efforts to win a starting kicking job, only two of our pickers had the stones to pick Les Miles’ Tigers.

Meanwhile, only three pickers decided to give the Georgia Bulldogs the edge against BCS-buster Boise State and USF the edge over Notre Dame.

Surprisingly, the Ole Miss vs. BYU game created the biggest split amongst our pickers, with four taking the Rebels and six of us tagging the Cougars as winners in Oxford.

Without any further ado, here’s what our team had to say about their picks:

Safid Deen aka “The Brown Mamba”

Brown Mamba here to give my football picks for opening weekend, and like everyone else, I can’t wait for the game of the week with Vandy vs. Elon… Let me stop.

So I’ve got the Ducks quacking the LesMilgers by at least three LaMichael James’ touchdowns in the premiere game of the week. I have nothing much after that. As you know, the first few weeks are usually won by the overwhelming favorite, and although I wanted to dig a little deeper to really make a splash in my first ever picks column, I just couldn’t give the edge to Skip Holtz winning on his daddy’s old turf in South Bend. I’m just going to play it safe this week and finish with BYU over Ole Miss. Jimmer goes for 48.

Adam “Pinky the Penguin” Pincus

College football finally arrives this week and so do my expert predictions. Take that, Brown Mamba! Let’s get to the picks. As with the rest of the country, I am looking at the LSU-Oregon game at Cowboys Stadium. At Death Valley, I pick LSU, but with this game at Cowboys Stadium, Oregon prevails. LSU senior backup quarterback Jarrett Lee does not give the Tigers the offensive firepower needed to combat the Ducks duo of quarterback Darron Thomas and running back LaMichael James.

Now, UGA-Boise State is a tough call. Can the Bulldogs sophomore quarterback Aaron Murray reach the sky-high expectations placed upon him? Not so fast. Boise State wins with their proven Heisman candidate quarterback Kellen Moore.

Ole Miss-BYU intrigues me the most out of the other games. BYU sophomore quarterback Jake Heaps looks primed to make huge leap from his 15-touchdown freshman campaign. Ole Miss features new offensive coordinator David Lee, an assistant last year on the Miami Dolphins. BYU prevails in what could be a shootout. The Cougars finished last year scoring 40 points in four of its last five games. Keep an eye on nose tackle Romeny Fuga who returns from a season-ending knee injury. Two years ago, the 321-pounder tallied 40 tackles.

Tim Casey

The 2011 season opens with only two Top-25 matchups, so don’t expect many upsets. This week’s slate of games could produce some smaller margins of victory because LSU, Miami and Ohio State are playing with the roster they expected in the spring. All eyes will be on LSU and Georgia to keep the SEC atop the national consciousness in a year many expect the conference’s five-year BCS Championship reign to end. My early pick to win the championship: Nebraska.

Derek Tyson

Of the SEC games this first weekend, I think Ole Miss will lose to BYU. Playing what essentially is a home game, I think Georgia will take care of business against Boise State. My top 25 upset would be USF over Notre Dame in South Bend. Tim, Thomas, and Andrew look out, you guys are in for a long year picking against me!

Andrew Spivey

This week isn’t really a week I see many upsets happening. A couple of games that intrigue me are the UGA vs. Boise State game and the Ole Miss vs. BYU game. I also picked Oregon for the simple fact I don’t think LSU can rebound this quickly from everything that has happened to them.

Thomas Goldkamp

Since Adam decided to write a book on the most boring opening week of all time, I’ll keep my summary short and sweet. No amount of “expert analysis” can convince me Adam knows something I don’t. The only pick of mine I think is a stretch is USF over Notre Dame. Call it a hunch, but I think Skip Holtz will have a really good team this year. A couple of Yeungling Lights says I win that battle over Pincus. Of course, he can’t drink them so it’s a safe bet for me!

Below is each of our 10 experts’ picks.

AP – Adam Pincus, AS – Andrew Spivey, DT – Derek Tyson, SD – Safid Deen, TC – Tim Casey, TG – Thomas Goldkamp, u8 – u8evol19i, Sw – Swamplizard, jo – johnagator, St – StuckUpNorthGator

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