Picks, Non-Picks, and What Was Bill Stewart Doing?

I'm just not one of those people who like to say what would have happened; I prefer to talk about what didn't happen or did happen.

Bill Stewart showed such gross clock mismanagement in the last minute of last night's game that he took away any chance West Virginia had of winning in regulation and, in turn, he looked absolutely unqualified to be a head coach at any level.

While I congratulate Colorado, even though they didn't score after the first 8 minutes of the game, it's hard not to think what could have been. It's tough to even guess what Stewart was thinking as his team obviously needed as much time as they could squeeze out of the clock to at least set up a field goal attempt.

You can't even argue that this situation came as a surprise to Stewart, as his team is a running team, which generally means they chew more clock on their drives. I am going to say it right now: If West Virginia doesn't win the Big East, Stewart is outta there at the end of the season.

OK, I'm done—let's look at some other matchups.

Arkansas +9 1/2 vs. Alabama (Saturday 9/20/08, 12:30 EST) 1 Unit

I actually had to double-check as I thought I had already written up this pick. Arkansas has barely escaped with a win in both of its games this season. Alabama opened with a nice outright stomping of Clemson as an underdog in its opener, really struggled against Tulane and then easily walked over D-1 newcomer Western Kentucky. I think the Hogs rise to the occasion at home against the Tide, as neither team has been a world beater recently against the spread.

The trends do not point to anything close to an Alabama cover this week. The Tide are 1-4 against the spread in their last five on the road, 1-6 against the spread against teams with a winning record, and a sad 1-6 against the number in the conference.

Arkansas is 4-1 against the spread in its last fiveafter a bye week and 4-1 against the spread in the conference. The underdog has covered eight of the last 11 in this series and, throw in the fact the underdog is the home team, I'll take my chances with the Razorbacks.

More picks and the games Mitch isn't touching at The College Football Place