Smack Zone — Florida State Football

Get your picks in!: Smack Apparel College Pick ‘Em

This week our panel of “Experts” are joined by Oregon football legend and former Heisman candidate, Joey Harrington. (Let us state for the record, he should have won.)

Joey laid out his picks for 10 of the weekend’s biggest games and gave us some insider analysis of arguably the biggest game of the week, #12 BYU at #25 Oregon. For the full video and breakdown, head on over to our YouTube page.

As far as our “Experts” go, The Bear is leading the way with a 15-4 overall record, followed by Wayne Dawg at 12-7, while Jeff and Kenny are both bringing up the rear at 11-8. 

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Football. Obviously.

Georgia at South Carolina, Noon – ESPN

On paper this shouldn’t be much of a game, but on the road in the SEC, you just never know what to expect. I’m interested to see if the new-look Gamecocks can use their home field advantage to keep things close against the best team in the country. My guess is no, but in the Sandstorm, anything is possible.

Prediction: Georgia 52 - South Carolina 24

Last year the Tigers went into Happy Valley and played the Nittany Lions close, but ultimately came up short. This year Auburn is hoping to return the favor in what would be one of the biggest program wins they’ve had in a while.

Penn State on the other hand, is aiming for a climb up the top 25 rankings and cementing themselves as a contender. There’s no doubt that Jordan Hare Stadium will be ROCKIN for this one, but at the end of the day, I think Penn State has too much talent and the atmosphere is nothing Penn State’s sixth-year quarterback Sean Clifford hasn’t seen before.

Prediction: Penn State 20 - Auburn 17

By now everyone knows Texas A&M was embarrassed last week by Appalachian State. Since then, they’ve named a new starting quarterback, and spent the last week trying to defend their program and weird traditions on the internet. This feels like a must-win for Jimbo Fisher if he wants to keep his oil money boosters happy.

For Miami this is the first big test of the Cristobal era, and a win here would no doubt have those “donors” feeling good about their investment.

As much as I love our “Sucks to be U” shirts, I think it’s going to be a “Sucks to be Us” for Texas A&M fans, as last year’s Alabama win fades further into Aggieland memory.

Prediction: Miami 24 - Texas A&M 17 

OTHER GAMES TO KEEP AN EYE ON

• Oklahoma at Nebraska, Noon – FOX
  First game in the post Scott Frost Era
• BYU at Oregon, 3:30pm – FOX
  Potentially huge playoff implications out West early in the season
• USF at Florida, 7:30pm – SEC NETWORK
  No reason other than that we have some USF graduates in the Smack house, and avoiding embarrassment at the hand of the Gators would be a win.

No love lost between these two rivals! Chicago is 1-0, while Green Bay is off to another slow start. Should be a fun one to finish the weekend! 

Enjoy your weekend, Smack Fam! Keep an eye on our socials for gametime Smack talk! 

To celebrate Friday, enjoy 15% off the entire website with promo code: SMACK 

www.SmackApparel.com

[caption id="attachment_1140" align="alignright" width="474"] The Jim McElwain Era at Florida is off to an auspicious start. The Gators are back in the AP top 25 for the first time since 2013, and are poised for a game with Ole Miss that has national title implications. Seems like old times ...[/caption]   By Erez Ladetzky, SMACK ZONE contributor After Florida’s wild, last-minute victory against Tennessee Saturday at the Swamp, the Gators have re-entered the AP poll as the No. 25 team for the first time since 2013. Making room for the Gators, Oregon dropped out of the AP for the first time since 2009 after getting whooped at home by Utah. The days of Tim Tebow leading the Gators to double-digit wins are over. Outside of All-America defensive back Vernon Hargreaves III, there are not too many potential first-round NFL picks on this Gators team. This team probably won’t win the national championship any time soon, but returning to relevance is the next step. That step was taken with a crazy victory over the Vols on Saturday. Tennessee did the most Tennessee thing possible, blew ANOTHER double-digit lead to lose a heartbreaking game. This time, the Vols had a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter and STILL managed to lose this game. Florida was set up with fourth and 13 with just under two minutes to go and down by 6. Not only did the Gators convert, they scored a TD on that play to take a 1 point lead. Vols coach Butch Jones is feeling the heat on his seat right about now. Tennessee drove the field to set themselves up for a last second field goal, and came inches away from ending UF’s dominance over them. Jones did a little, very brief, wishful thinking celebration when he thought the field goal was good. That was just kind of sad, actually. Florida heads into October undefeated, and facing a brutal schedule. Who thought Ole Miss-UF would have national championship implications? We sure didn’t. But next Saturday, Florida hosts Ole Miss in a battle of ranked, undefeated SEC teams. Ole Miss goes to Gainesville as the No. 3 team in the nation, and has playoffs on its mind. The Gators can make a huge statement with a victory Saturday. Not only will it help them gain confidence heading into the meat of their conference schedule, but it would be a story book start to the Jim McElwain era. Not too many people counted on Florida to play meaningful games in October this year, but that is what they will do. Another bonus for Florida: FSU dropped a spot in the AP poll to No. 11 after not playing last weekend. Not a bad day to be a Florida Gator. But just as a friendly reminder to the Gators that things can go South quickly in this game, here's a Vine clip of receiver C.J. Worton taking one off the gourd during Saturday's game:

Monday morning hits you like … https://t.co/F19YYmlo0r

— SB Nation (@SBNation) September 28, 2015