Gator Country

There aren't a whole lot of games for our staff to pick this week, because there are a slew of Top 25 games on this week's college football slate.

That means it's time to buckle up and separate yourself from the pack if you want to win this thing.

Today our resident "experts" and four much smarter subscribers pick each SEC and Top 25 game on the schedule in a little friendly competition.

First off, the Gator Country crew would like to take our hats off and bow down to StuckUpNorthGator, who has officially moved to the top of the leaderboard after outpicking our entire staff through the first half of the season.

GirlG8tr also gets a shout out from us after holding firm with the crew for the past two weeks.

Now, on to the more pressing matters, like how the GC crew intends to respond to take down StuckUpNorthGator on a weekend chock full of good games and chances to establish dominance as a college football picking guru.

Of course, more likely, we’ll all just witness StuckUpNorthGator further destroy us and laugh as he realizes we really are just regular dudes who are good, err okay, at writing about stuff.

On to the games!

Out of 18 games on the picks menu this week, our pickers only agreed on eight of them, so this week we’ll separate the champs from the chumps.

We had two split picks. Surprisingly, one of our split games was Florida vs. Auburn. The most surprising part was that our staff was more optimistic than our guest pickers. Only one of our four guests took the Gators, while four of our six staffers did.

The other split decision involved a former Florida head coach. Our staff was split 3-3 and our guest 2-2, giving the Fighting Zookers and Illinois an even chance at staying unbeaten against Ohio State this weekend.

Four pickers took Michigan State over Michigan, but three of our four guests liked the Wolverines, while our staff was split down the middle.

Three people liked Baylor over Texas A&M and two subscribers liked Arizona State over Oregon.

Adam Pincus went out on a real ledge this week, taking Vanderbilt over Georgia and Wake Forest over Virginia Tech. I was the only one to take Texas Tech against Kansas State, and one subscriber apiece took Kansas over Oklahoma and Texas over Oklahoma State.

Without further ado, here are our entirely unfunny, probably wrong thoughts on this weekend’s games!

Thomas Goldkamp

Inspired by a night of debauchery, err, I mean good clean fun, on Bourbon Street last week, my picks this week will take the rest of the staff by storm, I mean Hurricane. After owning the leaderboard for the first four weeks of the season, I’ve trailed by one the past two weeks. No more.

Give me Auburn over Florida at night at Jordan-Hare, sorry Gators. I also like Michigan over Michigan State, Ohio State over the Fighting Zookers and Texas A&M over Baylor. In my first real against-the-grain upset pick of the year, I’m taking Texas Tech over Kansas State. All things Tommy Tuberville for the win.

Justin Wells

Still reeling from my Tennessee pick (at home against Georgia) a week ago, I traveled to High Springs a few days ago to consult with a Tarot Card reader. I think the results will be much more fruitful in my picks for this weekend’s slate of games. And if they aren’t, well...I could always give Danny Sheridan a call. He seems like a reliable source of information in this sort of situation…

Adam Pincus

I almost pulled off a string of upsets last week. Miami and Missouri lost late to their opponents. This week, ranked opponents will fall like flies. Michigan State shocks Michigan for the second year in a row. The Wolverines came into last year’s meeting against the Spartans undefeated. This year will be no different. “Sparty” stops the spark that is Michigan’s quarterback Denard Robinson.

Wake Forest builds upon its home victory versus Florida State and knocks off Virginia Tech in Winston-Salem. Game of the week is Illinois at home against Ohio State. The fighting “Zookers” continue their hot streak and stay unbeaten in a hard-fought battle in Illinois.

Derek Tyson

This is the week I take back the lead! I think Florida gets back on track and wins on the road against Auburn. The real question this week is will Oklahoma drop 100 on the awful Kansas defense? I also think Ohio State will beat Illinois, don’t view that as much of an upset though.

Tim Casey

I’m back on track after getting 21 points last week to recover from a dismal showing two weeks ago. Of course, that means I will do awful this week. Look for all of my picks to go wrong and every underdog in the country to win. It seems insane to pick Illinois over Ohio State, but this year’s game could be the first time that has ever happened. I’m interested to see how the Gators’ defense rebounds this weekend in Auburn, but I think the offense will put up enough points to keep the trees on Toomer’s Corner from getting rolled.

Andrew Spivey

I need to make up a few points this week so I’m going with a few upsets. I’ll take Michigan State to upset Michigan and Texas A&M to upset Baylor this weekend. Florida will also stop their two-game losing streak by knocking off Auburn.

Below is each of our 10 experts’ picks.

AP – Adam Pincus, AS – Andrew Spivey, DT – Derek Tyson, JW – Justin Wells, TC – Tim Casey, TG – Thomas Goldkamp, pk – pkaib01, Bi – BitterGreg, St – StuckUpNorthGator, Gi – GirlG8tr

About the author

Thomas Goldkamp

Thomas Goldkamp is the Gator Country beat reporter for football and basketball. He graduated from the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications and has been covering the Florida Gators since late 2009. He previously worked as a freelancer on the Rivals network, as well as at the Palm Beach Post. You can find his latest stories here and get breaking Univ. of Fla. news on Twitter at GoldkampGC.

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