Oklahoma Sooners Vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
10/27/12 Mark’s Free College Football Pick Against the Spread
It has certainly been awhile but Notre Dame appears to be on the return path to national prominence and only time will tell if this statement turns out to be true. Few could say this isn't true after the Fightin' Irish survived a stern test from Brigham Young in a 17-14 victory in week eight. This game was typical ND football in that the offense was just enough to support an above average effort from the defense. The Irish out gained the Cougars 389-243 and did a decent enough job of controlling the game with a productive rushing attack with 270 yards and over six yard average. The Cougars simply couldn't stop the duo of Theo Reddick and Cierre Wood who combined for 257 yards on 33 carries. The passing attack was hit and miss with Tommy Rees (7-16/117) connecting for a score and throwing a pick which turned out to be just enough with the defense owning the line of scrimmage and forcing two giveaways.
Apparently a loss to Kansas State has awoken a sleeping giant in Oklahoma with the Sooners have rattled off three straight wins by a combined 156-48 margin. Kansas was the latest victim in a week eight 52-7 defeat that was dominated from start to finish on both sides of the ball with OU owning a 397-309 edge on yardage. The Sooners ran for just under 100 yards behind Brennan Clay and Damian Williams who gave them 91 yards on only 12 totes. However, the air game of Landry Jones (19-28/291) was more than enough to keep the scoreboard operators busy with three touchdowns and zero picks with eight players recording catches. The special teams got in on the scoring with Justin Brown returning a punt 90 yards while Roy Finch brought back a kick off 100 yards.
The Irish will likely need their defense to really step up versus an Oklahoma offense who is on a roll right now. The problem I see here is will Notre Dame score enough to keep this one close. That's something we'll have to wait and see but right now I'm going with the hot team and laying the points...
Mark’s Pick: Oklahoma -9.5
