Pigskin Picks: Week 10

As we head into the final month of the season, we’re honored to have University of Virginia royalty Elton Brown and Larry Sabato join the panel for the Week 10 picks.

Brown is a 2005 UVA alum who was an All-American as a Cavalier before playing for four seasons in the NFL.

Sabato, of course, is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, where he is also the founder and director of the Center for Politics. Politics, if you’ve ever sat in one of his classes, is a good thing.

Looking back to last week, guest picker Chris Dembitz, a.k.a. ‘Phony Bennett,’ had the best finish last week at 9-6, while Cavalier basketball legend Barry Parkhill went 7-8 in a tough week loaded with upsets.

Week 9 was the final week of picks for Dave Scarangella, who led the pack for much of the first half of the season but dropped out of first place (picking Duke and UNC the last two weeks against the ‘Hoos didn’t help his cause) and went out with a 6-9 performance.

Scott was 8-7, but clung to the lead with the help of upset winners Syracuse and Mississippi State (he was the only picker to choose both), while Hootie was unable to gain any ground of his own, also posting an 8-7 mark last week.

Our friend Chris Graham assumes Dave’s former slot for the remainder of the season. Chris is editor of the Augusta Free Press, and is also as a regular on ESPN3 and ESPN+ as a play-by-play announcer and color commentator on VMI and Southern Conference football and baseball. In his spare time, Chris and his wife, Crystal, run a web design and marketing business in Waynesboro, and in this role, the Grahams have been very helpful to us here at JerryRatcliffe.com in our transition.

Our panel was in near-unanimous agreement that the ‘Hoos will win Friday night against the Panthers. (Ahem, Elton.) There was total agreement on Clemson over Louisville (easy, that one), Syracuse over Wake, Georgia Tech over UNC, NC State over Florida State, Georgia over Kentucky, Michigan over Penn State, Notre Dame over Northwestern, and Alabama over LSU.

So, either a bunch of good records next week, or a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.

One last thing before the picks: we wanted to take a look back at how our celebrity pickers have done so far this season. Here goes:
Rick Mast (Week 8) — 14-1
Tony Barnhart (8) — 13-2
Michael Guthrie (1) — 13-2
Greg DePalma (6) — 11-4
Shawn Moore (1) — 11-4
Les Disharoon (6) — 10-5
Charles McDaniel (4) — 10-5
Chris Dembitz (9) — 9-6
Jay James (3) — 9-6
Chris Long (5) — 9-6
Charlie McDaniel (4) — 9-6
Bill Millsaps (7) — 9-6
Frank Quayle (7) — 9-6
Jonathan Coleman (5) — 8-7
Thomas Jones (2) — 8-7
Ahmad Hawkins (3) — 7-8
Mark Mincer (2) — 7-8
Barry Parkhill (9) — 7-8

This Week’s Picks

	Chris Graham	Scott	Jerry	Larry Sabato	Elton Brown
		94-41	89-46
Pitt at UVA	UVA	UVA	UVA	UVA	Pitt
Louisville at Clemson	Clemson	Clemson	Clemson	Clemson	Clemson
Syracuse at Wake Forest	Syracuse	Syracuse	Syracuse	Syracuse	Syracuse
Georgia Tech at UNC	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech
Florida State at NC State	NC State	NC State	NC State	NC State	NC State
Boston College at VT	Virginia Tech	Boston College	Boston College	Virginia Tech	Virginia Tech
Duke at Miami	Duke	Miami	Miami	Miami	Miami
Georgia at Kentucky	Georgia	Georgia	Georgia	Georgia	Georgia
West Virginia at Texas	West Virginia	Texas	West Virginia	Texas	Texas
Penn State at Michigan	Michigan	Michigan	Michigan	Michigan	Michigan
Mizzou at Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida
Utah at Arizona State	Utah	Utah	Utah	Utah	Utah
Notre Dame at Northwestern	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame
Alabama at LSU	Alabama	Alabama.	Alabama	Alabama	Alabama
Oklahoma at Texas Tech	Oklahoma	Texas Tech	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Oklahoma