Clemson Football: The picks are in! Staff picks for Week 8

Each week this season the RubbingtheRock.com staff will pick the score of the Clemson football game against the spread and we’ll also pick a wild card game in a “friendly” competition.

The staff managed a solid 5-3 record against the spread last week, including 4-0 on the Clemson – Florida State game, where the Tigers dominated the middle 8 and covered the spread against the Seminoles.

The points race looks like this:

Houston 145.46
Chancey 39.55

Beef (-154.54)

Marty (-345.45)

Two of us are in the black and the other two, well that’s the kind of season Beef and I are having.

The spread we used for the Clemson game was the Tigers -13.5.

Without further ado, here are the picks for week 8.

Houston Burnett (8-5-1, 7-5-1 ATS)

Syracuse will never be a team that I feel is a natural fit that should have ever been picked for the ACC. 6-0 or not it is just weird, but I digress. As far as the game, I think when you dive into some of The Orange’s prior games, some of their success is a bit of fool’s gold. That gets exposed on Saturday.

Houston’s wild card pick is Oklahoma State +7.5 against Texas.

John Chancey (8-6, 7-6 ATS)

Take a look at Clemson games over the years before a bye week. Beware: you will cringe a bit. I think the outcome here will be similar to the NC State game so I am predicting the same score.

Chancey’s wild card pick is Duke +9 at Miami, FL.

Casey “The Beef” Cregan (7-7, 6-7 ATS)

Syracuse is a better coached Florida State team with worse athletes who play well together. With that being said, I don’t think the Tigers will have a problem making Cuse one dimensional and that one dimension will be stopping Oronde Gadsden. A big-bodied WR who lines up as a TE and is a matchup problem. Cuse D is good too. But sorry, you’re still Syracuse.

Marty Coleman (6-8, 5-8 ATS)

I’m usually pretty confident in my Clemson pick, even when I’m wrong.  I’ve got a little trepidation this week though as I think Syracuse is a decent team, but doesn’t have the number and caliber of athletes that the Tigers have on either side of the ball. That said, this Clemson team is going to have to prove they can put their opponent away before I take a spread this big and I can see the Orange with a late touchdown and the back door cover.

Marty’s wild card pick is Ohio State -28 against Iowa.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change