Tap's Thursday Night Picks

IT'S TIME. College football returns tonight, and we will have football on Thursdays until some time in January. It is a beautiful thing and I am happy we are back in the saddle for another year. Thursday night picks will be a couple of the college games and the NFL game. Usually, we just do ranked teams, but for Thursday night, we will add some unranked games just for the hell of it. I am pretty excited for everything to begin and for Twitter to be hilarious again (CFB Twitter > than anything else.  Let's have some fun with it and see what happens.

North Carolina at 6.) South Carolina 5 pm ESPN - Do I find it weird these two teams are playing at five?  Yes I do.  Do I care? Absolutely hell no. The earlier the college football season starts, the better I say. This is the first of three ACC v. SEC matchups this weekend.  I still have questions about North Carolina's defense and obviously Jadeveon Clowney will do something special.  SCAR 31-21    

UNLV at Minnesota 6 pm Big Ten Sports Network - There are certain games that set the tone of the season. The Gophers had their best year in some time last season and they need to start off on the right foot. UNLV is not really a mid-major juggernaut, but the first game of the year tends to provoke crazy things. This is close for a half and the Gophers pull away. MINN 42-24

Utah State at Utah 7 pm FOX Sports 1 - 2012 marked the first time since 1997 since the Utah State Aggies beat Utah in a thrilling overtime game. 1997 was also the last time they won in Salt Lake City. Even with Gary Anderson leaving, they still have a solid core led by Chuckie Keaton, one of the most exciting quarterbacks to watch. We need a little bit of an upset so let's go with the Aggies here, not too impressed with the Utes this year. USU 24-16 

Ole Miss at Vanderbilt 8:15 pm  ESPN - This is a great SEC matchup of two teams that are on the second-tier of SEC teams. Vanderbilt does have Jordan Matthews, but they have a new quarterback in there with Austyn Carta-Samuels facing a pretty difficult Ole Miss team returning a lot on both sides of the ball. I think this one is a toss-up and I will take the home team in a squeaker. VAN 23-20   

Rutgers at Fresno State 9:30 pm ESPNU - The Bulldogs are definitely a part of the mid-major sleepers, and could be one challenging the BCS when it's all said and done this year.  They bring back almost their entire defense and Derek Carr is pretty solid at quarterback. Rutgers always features a tough defense although they only bring back four from last year's team. I doubt the Scarlet Knights can travel across the country and win this one. The Valley is a tough place to play and I think Fresno will get it done. FRESNO 27-14   

24.) USC at Hawaii 10 pm CBS Sports Network - Pretty interested to see this one although I do not have CBS Sports Network meaning I will be reaching for the livestream. The reason I am interested is to see whose the quarterback for the Trojans and how they do even if it's just Hawaii. I think this game will be weirdly close. USC 42-34