It’s that time of year, dear readers. The smell of nasty, oversized, sweaty men and pigskin hangs heavy in the Knoxville air. It’s Cal week and most of my beloved Vols are out of jail for the fall and ready to play some mediocre football.

And what does this season have in store for us Vol fans? Will we see more of the team that pulled out a miracle win at LSU?

Or will we be treated to more Big Orange Brand™ failure?

One thing is for certain, things can only improve in 2006.

What is my prediction, you ask? Well, I’m not optimistic. Reports from summer scrimmages have been less than stellar. You would think a Junior QB with as much experience under his belt as Ainge has would be lighting it up, but no such luck. Word is that Ainge doesn’t look much better than he did last year. By the end of the season, I believe Jonathan Crompton will be your starting QB, and not due to injury or necessity.

Now, on to this weekend’s picks.

• Cal 31 Tennessee 21 – I really want to pick the Vols in this one, but I just can’t. Neyland has become a tomb, filled with old people and fat asses. The only time they yell is when they’re telling people to “sit down and be quiet, I’m trying to watch the game!” There is no home field advantage at Neyland, so chalk up a Cal win.
• Notre Dame 33 Ga Tech 17 – The Irish have a shot this year at doing some big things. They should start by beating up on an outmanned Rambling Wreck.
• Michigan 30 Vandy 14 – Without Jay Cutler, Vandy is back to their old selves. Michigan ain’t all that good, but they’ll be able to knock the Commode-dores around pretty good, I reckun.
• Ole Miss 26 Memphis 21 – This one should be a barn-burner down in Oxford. The real question is, can Brent Schaeffer stay out of jail long enough to play in the game on Sunday?
• Florida State 29 Miami 24 – Speaking of having to pony up bail money to field a team, it’s yet another chapter in the FSU/Miami soap opera. Will it be wide-left or wide-right? I say it won’t matter, as Bowden’s jail birds will beat Coker’s chain gang by more than a field goal this time around.

That’s it for this week. Tune in over the weekend, as I’m sure the Big Orange will drive me into such a rage that I will have to use this blog as an outlet to vent my spleen. Like that’s anything new.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 11:08 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.