Mitch's College Football Picks Week 5 Recap

I can just sit here and say that my 9-13 performance against the spread yesterday was better than just about anyone else I've seen out there, or that I still have a winning record for the year (59-52-1), but I'm not going that route.

I should have learned my lesson about yesterday from the same weekend last year, but instead I paid the price. I can only hope everyone else lived to see another day like I surely will.

There were some calls that didn't go our way, some bad play, and to be honest just some bad picks on my part. I'm not going to harp on this too much and let's just see exactly what happened and move on to next week.

We drank the Kool-Aid and thought that 23 1/2 points would be nothing for USC to cover on the road at Oregon State, not the first time we've been wrong, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Loss

We knew that Tulane was one of the best teams with a losing record out there. When the Green Wave jumped out to a big early lead against SMU we thought it was over. It wasn't, and they blew the cover. Loss

We added Ball State as one of our late picks, they didn't hold it against us and covered easily against Kent State. Win

Not everyone agreed with my pick of Duke laying points, but it didn't deter me as I knew Virginia wasn't very good. Win

We knew UConn wasn't going to get a free TD against Louisville like they got last year; the Huskies didn't need the points they got either. Win

We rarely miss an opportunity to go against Tommy Bowden's Clemson team when they're favored and Maryland's running game made us look pretty smart again. Win

We knew Iowa wasn't a very good cover team, and we knew Northwestern was improved. We thought the Wildcats would cover, but what we got was another one of our dogs outright winning. Win

We said we were done with Mike Price and UTEP; we can now add Central Florida to that same list. Loss

We thought Wake Forest was the class of the ACC; instead, they were a turnover-prone mess against Navy. Loss

We liked Marshall's chances in a local rivalry with West Virginia, unfortunately for us, the Mountaineers proved to be a little too much. Loss

Wisconsin was rolling by halftime and it looked to be over; someone forgot to tell Michigan. Loss

We knew Virginia Tech was underrated once again and knew Nebraska had beaten no one; both still hold true. Win

Fresno State took a knee at the UCLA 2-yard line with the cover easily within reach. They didn't seem to care about anything more than getting the win. Loss

I thought Colorado State had the running game to stay within the huge point spread against Cal; they didn't. Loss

Picking against Western Kentucky is still one of the best deals in town and Kentucky showed us why. Win

While Illinois probably didn't do much to help their ranking at Penn State, they did enough to cover. Win

Auburn's offense should change their name from spread to dead, Tennessee almost beat them. Loss

Many thought Oregon was laying too many points against Washington State; I would have probably laid even more if I had to. Win

Purdue was tied with Notre Dame at the half; the refs weren't going to let the upset happen. Loss

Oklahoma State is just a better team than we thought they were, and maybe Troy isn't as good as we thought they were. Loss

I really thought Cincinnati against Akron was a mismatch. While the Bearcats, won they didn't come close to covering. Loss

I used a new format to broadcast to the world that Georgia was going to beat Alabama; maybe I need to still tinker with it a little bit. Loss

We have a full slate and a full week of games next week and I'll be back to pick then just like I always am. We should see the lines come back in order as some of these monster spreads may be a thing of the past as will a lot of the other guys picking games. We've been doing this for a long time and always have a winning season, and we're still easily on track to do so.

You can always hear more of what Mitch has to say at The College Football Place