College Football Week 5 The first weekend of October features some highly anticipated games as the Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 10 finally join the SEC in playing meaningful conference games. These games along with the Ryder Cup, the last weekend of regular season MLB, and Saturday morning English League Premier games featuring Manchester United and their new acquisition Mexican striker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez make this one of the best sports weekends of the year. This weekend along with Real World marathons, Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks re-runs remind us why "DVR" is so valuable and makes us question how we lived without them for so long. Texas vs. Oklahoma (-3.5) @ The Cotton Bowl: The Red River Rivalry has lost some luster the past couple of years as Oklahoma came into last year's game 1-2 and Texas enters this game after being physically dominated by a .500 UCLA team and coach Rick "It isn't gambling unless you lose" Neuheisel. This game determines who controls the Big 12 South and Oklahoma stills holds faint hopes of contending for more than a conference title this year. Oklahoma's offense has been up and down depending on the week this year and I expect them to turn to RB DeMarco Murray early especially after watching game tape of Texas last week. The question in this game will be can Texas score? The Oklahoma defense under Bob Stoops plays 8 in the box vs. Texas and will force QB Garrett Gilbert to make plays down the field to have success; Gilbert's average yards per completion (6.9) makes this a sound strategy and the key factor in the game. Stoops dominated this rivalry when he came to Oklahoma in the first half of the decade, but has lost 4 of the last five. I think Stoops can smell a wounded Texas team and this game this year means more to him and that will show in Oklahoma's play Saturday making OK (-3.5) the play. Florida @ Alabama (-8.5): Probably the first of two meetings this year with the second one to come in the SEC title game and an early season look at what was the most anticipated game of the college season the last two years. Alabama showed their defensive youth early last week and their overall team determination late to get a big road win at Arkansas and the Florida offense has shown recent signs of competency with the QB tandem of Brantley and Burton. Florida will need QB Trey Burton and his "Tebow like" power running to complement RB Will Demps' speed and both will need decent games to keep the pressure off Brantley who should have opportunities to make plays through the air vs. the young Tide secondary. Alabama is no mystery on offense, Florida will see a heavy dose of Ingram and Richardson and McIlroy will manage the game based on how the defense plays the run. Much hyped Florida safeties Ahmad Black and Will Hill need to improve upon their play two weeks ago at Tennessee and how much of a factor they are will be a barometer of this game. Last week proved the SEC East is the red headed step child of this conference and I expect Alabama to win this game, but with Bama's style and Florida's talent the 8.5 points make Florida the play. Wisconsin @ Michigan State (-2): Both teams enter conference play 4-0, but both teams needed late luck to win home games against their only decent opponents. Wiscy needed a blocked extra point to hold off Arizona State by a point and their national ranking seems aided by preseason hype. Michigan State beat ND at home on coach Mark Dantonio's OT fake field goal that was successful due to ND defenders falling over each other. Dantonio returns this week after being hospitalized for a heart attack and will be an emotional boast to his team even as he coaches from the press box. More importantly Michigan State and LB Greg Jones have been very good against the run and that will be the key to this game as they need to slow down Wisconsin RB John Clay. Michigan State QB Kirk Cousins should be able to put up points at home and the Spartan offense has showed an impressive balance up to this point in the year. I think the Michigan State defense will hold Clay in check and I don't think Wiscy QB Scott Tolzien can make enough plays to win on the road. Michigan State -2 and the Dantonio feel good story are the plays. Penn State @ Iowa (-7): Another second tier battle in the Big 10, with both teams coming off early season out of conference losses albeit to much better competition in Alabama and Arizona. Special teams buried Iowa at Arizona where they dominated the stats, but lost on a blocked punt and kick return. I am sure Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz has been reinforcing special teams for the last two weeks and only time will tell if that was a fluke. Penn State has struggled since their loss at Alabama and while it was not a surprise to see Bama RB Trent Richardson run wild vs. their defense, it is a major red flag when Temple does the same thing a few weeks later. Iowa City has always been a tough venue for PSU and the combination of a struggling run defense and a young quarterback make Iowa -7 the play. VTech (-4) @ NC State: NC State enters this game as contenders for the ACC title after dismantling GTech on the road last week. Wins @ Central Florida and at home vs. Cincy are looking better and better each week for the Wolfpack and QB Russell Wilson has been the best QB in the ACC averaging 278 yds and 3 TD's/game. NC State is starting to resemble a Tom O'Brien type team and that doesn't bode well for the rest of the ACC. VTech got a nice road shutout last week at BC, but they kicked too many field goals and the offense looked out of sync. Fields goals this week on the road for the second straight conference game will put VTech in too much of a hole to overcome making NC State at home plus 4 the play. ND (-2.5) @ Boston College: Looks like BC will start freshmen QB Chase Retting and that might be the only way to make the ND defense look average. Brian Kelly's offense should bounce back this week after an off week vs. Stanford and is a capable unit, but just like under Charlie Weiss the ND defense does not have the size, speed, or strength to compete against good offenses. Lucky for ND BC is not a capable offense as shown in their home shutout loss to VTech last week. A change at QB was necessary, but scoring enough points to keep up with ND is asking too much making ND -2.5 the play. Stanford @ Oregon (-7): It is hard to believe that in a weekend with Texas/OK and Bama/Fla that the PAC 10 would provide the most compelling game of the day, but this matchup should be a great one. These two teams play different styles and watching these matchups on both sides of the ball will be extremely telling. Stanford is going to pound the ball at the undersized Oregon front seven and try to control the clock , while Oregon wants to make this game a track meet. I think Stanford's defense is improved and will slow Oregon QB Darron Thomas and RB LaMichael James enough to keep Stanford close. Andrew Luck will have a chance to win this game late for coach Jim Harbaugh making Stanford plus 7 the play.