The picks, week 7

It's a bye week (in case you haven't heard), so no injury report or teleconference this week. Also, we're hoping to get a podcast done and posted here by tomorrow.

Edsall said yesterday during his meeting with the beat writers that he feels UConn is close to being a very good team. "We're eighth in the country in productivity in the red zone. We're not turning the ball over, we're plus 3. We're very close. That's the thing that's more discouraging than anything else."

The players haven't "given full attention to detail for 60 minutes", which has led to some big mistakes, Edsall said. But he also admitted the coaching hasn't been perfect, either. "There was a situation during the game where we ran a play the first time, great design, and they played it a certain way. We as coaches messed up because we should have made an adjustment. We came back and ran it later, we didn't make the adjustment where we should have had Kashif, instead of running a corner route, just give it a little bend to the corner and take it right down the pipe. That was coaching."

Often, one little mistake causes a chain reaction of errors as others try to adjust. "We talk about it all the time. I wish I had a dollar for every time we tell them 'just do your job," Edsall said. "Don't do anybody else's, just do your job. Until they understand it and do that, those are the things that will happen."

On to the picks...quickies this week. I should also point out that the reader who won the weekly contest last weekend was the guy who picked the exact opposite of my picks. Pretty good strategy.

Game 1: Pittsburgh (-1) over SYRACUSE
Game 2: Army (+7) over RUTGERS
Game 3: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (-2.5) over California
Game 4: Iowa (-3.5) over MICHIGAN
Game 5: TEXAS TECH (-3.5) over Oklahoma State
Game 6: Ohio State (-4) over WISCONSIN
Game 7: AUBURN (-4) over Arkansas
Game 8: North Carolina State (-7) over EAST CAROLINA
Game 9: South Carolina (-5) over KENTUCKY
Game 10: Baylor (-1) over COLORADO
Game 11: TEXAS A & M (-3) over Missouri
Game 12: DUKE (+19.5) over Miami
Game 13: New Haven (-1) over AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL: (Second-year Chargers could take first-place in the NE-10 outright with a win)...

Last week's results
1. opposite guy (nice) 8-4-1
2. caleb mandrake 7-5-1
govphalen 7-5-1
vinny 7-5-1
5. ian 6-6-1
gary 6-6-1
7. chip 4-8-1
B-stew 4-8-1
gabe 4-8-1
10. Pete 3-9-1
11. sammy 2-10-1

Standings
1. Caleb Mandrake 39-32-4
2. Pete 38-33-4
3. B-Stew 37-34-4
Ian 37-34-4
5. Chip 36-35-4
Gabe 36-35-4
Vinny from East Haven 36-35-4
8. Gary 34-37-4
9. governorphalen 32-39-4
10. sammy 29-42-4
11. Uconnbob 12-9-1
12. Opposite guy 8-4-1
13. Walt 7-4-1
14. harper 6-6
15. Rollo V. 5-6-1
16. seanO 4-6-1
17. BostonDan 3-7-1