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Our Mike Marteny lays out the confidence points in ESPN College Pick Em for week 4 of the 2022 NCAA college football season.
The ESPN College Pick Em game goes into Week 4 this weekend! There will be ten games to pick every Saturday. Each week you assign a confidence total for each game from 1-10 points. If you win, you get that many points. Simple, right? Now that you've got the hang of it, this year we are going to offer a little prize. The winner of the group this season will win FREE access to RotoBaller's college football DFS premium tools for the 2023 season. We have a pretty good turnout of 33 entries. You have a one-in-33 chance of winning, so set your lineups every week!
We had some good weeks in the group this week. Six entries had 50 points or more led by ryan_peoples with 53 points. Puzzleman81, Fred Smoot Boat Rentals, and randybthesly1 all notched 52. I missed another 7-pointer to keep me from having a really good week. Fred Smoot Boat Rentals and ryan_peoples2 are leading the way with 136 points. HumbleBee is four points back with randybthesly1 one point behind that. jphowell09 rounds out the top 5 with 130 points.
XLVIII and ertlt are tied for sixth with 127 points. lbockenek sits in eighth with 126. 2pretty4orange sits in ninth one point back. There is a little separation before the three entries tied for tenth (wbsptfn53, San Diego's Finest, and Geoffafa) with 120 points. We still only have 16 points separating the top 12 spots, so it's nice and close!
College Football Pick Em Overview
This article will be for the confidence game mode. You can also read my against-the-spread picks here every week for every game so you know how I'm leaning for that version of the game. Each week, I will recap who's dominating the group before I get into the picks. If you're going to beat everyone, all of the readers will know about it!
Let's get to the countdown! I will count them up from least confident (1) to most (10). You know, for dramatic effect. If I do change my pick or points sometime during the week, I will try to update the article or post it on Twitter. Otherwise, you know all of my picks each week. Good luck out there.
(1) Notre Dame over North Carolina
The Irish offense moved much better under Drew Pyne and the North Carolina defense has been nothing short of awful so far. Notre Dame's defense did a bang-up job on Ohio State and has held their own against everyone else. Omarion Hampton is going to be a problem, but the fact that the Tarheels D can't hold up their end of the bargain has me going with the Irish here.
(2) Minnesota over Michigan State
The loss of Chris Autman-Bell is a big one for Minnesota, but they still have the best running back in college football in Mohamed Ibrahim. The backup, Trey Potts, could start for another hundred FBS schools or so. The Spartans defense leaves a lot to be desired and they might be without big-play receiver Jayden Reed again. That's enough for me to take the Gophers.
(3) Baylor over Iowa State
I want to say that this is a winnable game for the Cyclones, which I guess is why I don't have it higher up the list. The Cyclones offense outside of Xavier Hutchinson is an adventure and the Baylor defense is still pretty solid. I want to see that Hunter Dekkers can win a big-time game like this before I go picking the Cyclones. Iowa did more to beat themselves than Iowa State did to win that game.
(4) USC over Oregon State
Any Trojans fan can tell you what a nightmare Corvallis can be at night. The Beavers won three straight in Corvallis in the first decade of this century when USC was miles better than the Beavers. Oh, and the Beavers got their first win against USC in the Coliseum last year since 1960. USC is the better team, but I really don't trust them here. There are more sure things in front of them.
(5) Arkansas over Texas A&M
Beating Miami was a big win for A&M and the Razorbacks were almost caught looking ahead to this one. They needed a furious fourth quarter to top Bobby Petrino's Missouri State team. Not Missouri...Missouri State. This is a winnable game for A&M and I might move it down, but this offense still hasn't been all that impressive. I'm more impressed with the skill players that Arkansas has.
(6) Oklahoma over Kansas State
The Sooners look like the much better team on paper, but that doesn't always mean much. We pulled out the win in Manhattan last year, but the Wildcats got us in Norman in 2020. I feel like Oklahoma is a different team this year, but not in a bad way. We have a quarterback that doesn't make a lot of mistakes and Marvin Mims is a problem for any secondary. If Oklahoma wants to challenge for another Big 12(10) title, this is a big one.
(7) Clemson over Wake Forest
I like Sam Hartman, but I have no respect for the Wake defense. They were very fortunate to not lose to Liberty on that two-point conversion attempt. Even the offense looks sloppy right now. Clemson weren't world beaters in the first half against Louisiana Tech, but they didn't let them hang around in the second half either. That's the difference between Clemson and Wake right now.
(8) Tennessee over Florida
South Florida had no problems running the ball on the Gators, which is rather surprising. Tennessee runs a ton of plays and they have a lot of offensive talent. Everything South Florida did, the Vols can do better...including play defense. It's going to be a long day in Knoxville for the Gators.
(9) Oregon over Washington State
I might move the Florida and Clemson games up over this one. Washington State has looked good with Cam Ward, but Bo Nix has revitalized Oregon as well. He seems to be a good fit in that offense. I just don't see enough around Ward for Wazzu to keep up with the Ducks.
(10) Kansas over Duke
The Jayhawks are everything that is right about college football. They usually aren't the most talented team on the field, but they will outplay you. Jalon Daniels is a special player. We saw flashes of it last year, but we are seeing all of it this year. This has been a great start for Duke, but they aren't winning this game at Phog East.
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