Week 5: Get ya Horns up

By Kyle Magin
Let's go to Mobilehoma, on purpose. It's OK, the locals are out fisting for fish. Don't ask. We'll follow the Longhorns up to the land of sad Indians and T. Boone Pickens. For some reason America's asshole Oklahoma produces some pretty good college football quarterbacks. Like the 2011 edition of Landry Jones and Brandon Weeden. And the 2012 edition of Landry Jones and Wes Lunt. Wait, lome again? (see what I did there?)

Central Plains REPRESENT!

Texas -2.5 @ Oklahoma State
The Longhorns go into Stillwater looking to avenge three straight losses to the Pokes, who've had their number lately. This isn't the 2010 (Thank God) or the 2011 edition of the Horns, though. The defensive line is the fiercest in the nation, and ends Alex Okafor and Jackson Jeffcoat are letting exactly nothing past them. QB David Ash is playing above everyone's expectations, completing 76-plus percent of his passes for nearly 13 yards per hookup. There's some question about whether or not OSU can make Ash uncomfortable in the pocket given the fact his second leading rusher—Joe Bergeron—is likely out for the game. Likely, all is not well on the UT defense, where linebacker Jordan Hicks is likely out and the defensive secondary has given up a glut of huge plays already. I'll guarantee Mike Gundy is going after  UT DB Carring Byndom. But, I'm not sure he has the tools to do it. Lunt and J.W. Walsh have looked pretty pedestrian after a big opening win over BCS punching bag Savannah State and are coughing the ball up often. Texas is +6 in turnovers, and if they can win that battle Saturday, it'll be a long night for the Cowboys.

Virginia Tech -6.5 @ Cincinnati 
Blacksburg plays host to two teams who have designs on conference titles late in the nonconference season. The undefeated Bearcats looked great against a then-sorry looking Pittsburgh team in their opener before coasting against Delaware. Not much can be gleaned from Cincy yet except that QB Munchie Legaux has one of the cooler names in college football. He's got accuracy problems and is a string bean, but does himself favors by overthrowing the defense when he's off and scrabling well out of the pocket when pressure is closing in. They'll need a big game from him Saturday if he's going to hold off a strong Tech defense. The 3-1 Hokies lost to Pittsburg, the common opponent, but it was a much different Panthers team than when Cincy saw them. Hokies QB Logan Thomas has been miserable this season, completing just a hair over half of his passes and taking eight sacks against some subpar competition. If Cincy can mount any sort of rush, it could tilt the time of possession in the Bearcats favor, giving them more possessions to work with and greater chance of putting more points on the board. Math!

Toledo @ Western Michigan -1.5
Saddle up Waldo, the Rockets are coming. Will Toledo expose the Broncos' one-dimensional offense and drop extra defenders into coverage, forcing WMU to win by rushing the ball, something they've proven they can't do? Even with the addition of former MSU G John Deyo, WMU just cannot get a push running the ball, and Toledo does have a time of possession advantage on opponents this season. That said, Toledo can't run the ball any better, and while QB Terrance Owens is surely WMU QB Alex Carder's superior when it comes to completions and yards per completion, Carder wins out when it counts, leading his team more effectively in the red zone (where the Bronco score 68 percent of the time to the Rockets' 50 percent) and per-game passing yardage. Neither defense has been spectacular, but I'd give the slight edge to Toledo.