{"id":1298,"date":"2016-09-23T12:15:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T16:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=1298"},"modified":"2016-09-24T17:34:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T21:34:41","slug":"dks-2016-week-4-cfb-game-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2016\/09\/23\/dks-2016-week-4-cfb-game-picks\/","title":{"rendered":"DK’s 2016 Week 4 CFB Game Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Week 3 was fun. It was stressful, but it was fun. It featured\u00a0great finishes (Texas<\/strong> @ California<\/strong>), fantastic performances (hello, Lamar Jackson<\/strong><\/a>), and national powers asserting themselves (how do Nick Saban<\/strong> and \u2018Bama<\/strong> do this year-in and year-out?). This coming weekend, most\u00a0Power 5<\/strong> teams will be engaged in battles within their respective conferences. In other words,\u00a0ish is about to get real.<\/p>\n

DK\u2019s 2016 Week 4 CFB Game Picks<\/strong><\/p>\n

All game times in Eastern Daylight Time.<\/p>\n

Last Week: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 6-4 \u00a0(.600)<\/p>\n

2016 Season: 20-10 (.667)<\/p>\n

Georgia @ Mississippi (Saturday, September 24<\/strong>th<\/sup><\/strong>, 12:00 p.m., ESPN)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Georgia has won each of its games\u00a0going into Week 4,\u00a0and Mississippi is the nation\u2019s highest-ranked two loss team. The Rebels<\/strong> played well early against Alabama<\/strong>, so they do have something to build upon. Georgia notched a quality win in its opener against North Carolina<\/strong>, but has not looked great since. QB Chad Kelly<\/strong> will start fast, and Ole Miss<\/strong> will hold on for the win.<\/p>\n

Pick: Mississippi 37, Georgia 35<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Upset Special of the Week:<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Florida State @ South Florida (Saturday, September 24<\/strong>th<\/sup><\/strong>, 12:00 p.m., ABC\/ESPN3)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Seminoles<\/strong> got thumped in Louisville<\/strong> by new Heisman<\/strong> front-runner Lamar Jackson and the Cardinals<\/strong> last week. How will they respond? FSU<\/strong>\u00a0is more talented, but Willie Taggart’s<\/strong>\u00a0Bulls<\/strong>\u00a0are playing terrific offensive football, and they are averaging 51 points per game, ranking\u00a05th<\/sup> amongst FBS<\/strong> schools. QB Quinton Flowers<\/strong> will be a handful, and will\u00a0be this week\u2019s breakout star. South Florida will pull the upset at home.<\/p>\n

Pick: South Florida 45, Florida State 41<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wisconsin @ Michigan State (Saturday, September 24th<\/sup>, 12:00 p.m., BTN)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The surprising Badgers<\/strong> begin a very tough stretch against three B1G<\/strong> foes ranked in the Top 10 with a trip to East Lansing<\/strong> to take on Michigan State. Paul Chryst\u2019s<\/strong> team got\u00a0caught looking ahead last week, and barely survived\u00a0Georgia State<\/strong>\u00a0as a result. Michigan State opened some eyes with its early-game performance in South Bend<\/strong>, and will win handily this week at home.<\/p>\n

Pick: Michigan State 42, Wisconsin 20<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Florida @ Tennessee (Saturday, September 24th<\/sup>, 3:30 p.m., SEC)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The SEC <\/strong>game of the year of the week is in Knoxville<\/strong> on Saturday. The Vols<\/strong> are slight favorites\u00a0at home, but it doesn\u2019t feel like that should be the case. QB Luke Del Rio <\/strong>will not be available for the Gators<\/strong>, and Tennessee has played–and beaten–stiffer competition so far this season. QB Jalen Hurd<\/strong> is a difference-maker, and he will be the key difference in this contest. Tennessee will win.<\/p>\n

Pick: Tennessee 38, Florida 17<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LSU @ Auburn (Saturday, September 24th<\/sup>, 6:00 p.m., ESPN)<\/strong><\/p>\n

LSU brings QB Danny Etling<\/strong> and RB Leonard Fournette<\/strong> to eastern Alabama to take on Gus Malzahn\u2019s<\/strong> struggling Tigers.<\/strong>\u00a0Auburn’s QB drama lingers, while LSU seems to have solved its issue at that position. Auburn plays\u00a0one of the nation\u2019s toughest schedules to start the season, and it welcomes its third ranked foe to campus during the season\u2019s opening month. Mr. Fournette<\/a> brings his punishing stiff arm, and he will not be afraid to use it. The Bayou Bengals<\/strong> will win going away.<\/p>\n

Pick: LSU 38, Auburn 24<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nebraska @ Northwestern (Saturday, September 24<\/strong>th<\/sup><\/strong>, 7:30 p.m., BTN<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cornhuskers<\/strong> made a statement at home in Week 3 against Oregon<\/strong>, and they look to continue their momentum against a Northwestern team experiencing the opposite. The\u00a0Wildcats<\/strong>\u00a0win a lot of games like this one with\u00a0Pat Fitzgerald<\/strong>\u00a0as their head coach, even when they are\u00a0inconsistent early in a season,\u00a0as is the case this year. Nebraska will win a closer-than-it-should-be game at Ryan Field.<\/p>\n

Pick: Nebraska 30, Northwestern 24<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Burgeoning Rivalry Game of the Week:<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (Saturday, September 24<\/strong>th<\/sup><\/strong>, 9:00 p.m., ESPN)<\/strong><\/p>\n

These two SEC West<\/strong> foes do not like one another, almost always playing tough, physical games against one another that are close until the end. TAMU<\/strong> handled Auburn<\/strong> last week, behind new QB Trevor Knight<\/strong>, who is playing well within\u00a0Kevin Sumlin\u2019s<\/strong> offensive system. Arkansas’ offense has struggled\u00a0against quality competition, but the Hogs<\/strong> have played just well enough on defense to remain undefeated. The Aggies<\/strong>\u00a0are better and they have the\u00a012th<\/sup> Man<\/strong> at AT&T Stadium<\/strong>\u00a0on Saturday. They will get the win, and will get it decisively.<\/p>\n

Pick: Texas A&M 35, Arkansas 20<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

USC @ Utah (Saturday, September 24th<\/sup>, 9:00 p.m., FS1)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Southern Cal<\/strong>\u00a0benched\u00a0Max Browne<\/strong> at QB, and will try\u00a0the talented youngster Sam Darnold<\/strong>. Darnold runs better, but it seems like an overreaction by trying-to-keep-his-permanent-head-coach-status\u00a0Clay Helton<\/strong>. Furthermore, the\u00a0Utes<\/strong> play tough at home, and they possess a lot of talent. USC is\u00a0desperate, though, and the Trojans<\/strong> will use their speed on the outside to get the win.<\/p>\n

Pick: USC 31, Utah 27<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Road Warriors Game of the Week:<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

Brigham Young vs. West Virginia (Saturday, September 24th<\/sup>, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2)<\/strong><\/p>\n

BYU<\/strong> Athletic Director Tom Holmoe<\/strong> stacked\u00a0the scheduling deck against his new Head Coach Kalani Sitake<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>as if he doesn’t like the guy that he hired. The Cougars<\/strong>\u00a0are a tough out in 2016, but have lost two of their first three games, managing only to squeak by Arizona<\/strong> on a neutral field. Now, they travel to Landover, MD<\/strong>\u00a0to play the Mountaineers<\/strong>? This will be another loss for the road warriors from Provo<\/strong>, and the rest of the schedule will not be much easier.<\/p>\n

West Virginia 31, BYU 28<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stanford @ UCLA (Saturday, September 24th<\/sup>, 8:00 p.m., ABC)<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Shaw<\/strong><\/a> and the Cardinal<\/strong>\u00a0ride an eight game winning streak against UCLA into the Rose Bowl<\/strong> this weekend. Coach Shaw is now the second winningest coach in the history of Stanford football, trailing only the legendary Glenn \u201cPop\u201d Warner<\/strong>. Christian McCaffery<\/strong> has gained\u00a0200+ total yards in each of his last eight games, and looks to extend that streak, which is the longest in the nation by six<\/em> games. Significantly, Coach Shaw owns\u00a0Jim Mora, Jr.<\/strong>, going 6-0 against him at the helm in Westwood<\/strong>. That streak must\u00a0end sometime, but it will not end this weekend.<\/p>\n

Pick: Stanford 41, UCLA 28<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week 3 was fun. It was stressful, but it was fun. It featured\u00a0great finishes (Texas @ California), fantastic performances (hello, Lamar Jackson), and national powers asserting themselves (how do Nick Saban and \u2018Bama do this year-in and year-out?). This coming weekend, most\u00a0Power 5 teams will be engaged in battles within their respective conferences. In other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[314,537,244,200,59,64],"class_list":["post-1298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fbs","category-featured","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-david-shaw","tag-florida-gators","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-am-aggies"],"modified_by":"Don King","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}