Last week – 2-2 (wins with Notre Dame and Alabama)

Overall – 3-6

Syracuse -1 at Minnesota – Kind of an up-and-down season for the Orange, with a 1-2 record but glimpses of quality (2nd half vs Northwestern, 1st half vs USC). The Gophers are without usual starting QB MarQuies Gray, and I think SU needs a big win on the road against a Big Ten team. They will need to avoid the mistakes that plagued them in the close loss to NW and too-close win against Stony Brook. Watch out for the combination of QB Ryan Nassib and WR Marcus Sales.

Notre Dame -5.5 vs. Michigan – A lot of people are on the ND bandwagon after their terrific win against Michigan State last week (probably the best win of the Brian Kelly era in South Bend). This has been an absolute classic series over the last three years, with 3 UM wins in the final minute of play. Simply put, I don’t like what I’ve seen from their defense. The Wolverines are playing D more like they did in 08-10 under Rich Rodriguez through three games. They could certainly raise their level of play (and will get better this season), but I haven’t seen enough improvement so far.

Arkansas -9.5 vs. Rutgers – Kind of a dangerous pick, given the disastrous last two weeks for the Razorbacks. Here’s the thing: some teams are built almost exclusively around one player, and I think Arkansas fits that category. Ever since QB Tyler Wilson was knocked out of their game against UL-Monroe, the offense just can’t move the ball enough. One of the nation’s best signal-callers is going to play in this game, and I believe that is a huge stabilizer.

Clemson +14.5 at Florida State - This is one of those picks where if it doesn’t hit, it should. Clemson is a top 25 team. I’m assuming they are preparing to go in there and win this game. Thus, there’s no excuse to lose by more than 2 touchdowns, right? If they do lose by 2, then I still win the bet. Florida State is very good, but Clemson QB Tahj Boyd is good enough to make this very competitive.

Mike Meltser can be heard on MaD Radio from 10am-2pm

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