I decided to hold off in joining Pigskin Picks until what is now the fifth week of our competition because I wanted our elder (and I mean elder) statesmen sports editors to get a false hope that they might have a chance at our little competition. So I will start out with a 0-0 record in the fifth. Have no fear, for I, your USF football beat reporter, am here to make sure imperfection in the art of football picks does not soil the back page of The Oracle. I have sat back and watched as the “Jamaican Sensation” Khari Williams has put up miserable numbers in the school-wide (e-mail your picks to oraclesports@yahoo.com) competition. As for our esteemed leader here at The Oracle … well, let’s just say I like my job so I won’t mention his pathetic numbers. But since you, the reader, seem to really want to know, when I envision Kevin “pick at random” Graham choosing his teams, it’s something similar to throwing darts at a board on the wall – blindfolded.

As for our other sports editor, Brandon “I always think I’m” Wright, well he’s almost living up to his fallacious moniker boasting a 21-4 record in the “hoghide’s.” However, eventually his hours wasted on watching SportsCenter and loyalties to an overrated weak storm front coming out of the Coral Gables area, will fail the eldest sports reporter, much like his hearing and his memory.

My only real competition seems to be coming from the student body. This week Marcus Jackson was our winner going 6-0 last week, picking Northwestern in the swing game. The guest this week is the director of player personnel for the Buccaneers, Tim Ruskell. Ruskell has more than 20 years experience in professional and college scouting. He is also a USF graduate who was the student chairman on the first program to bring football to the university.

On to this week’s picks:

In our first game we have the Bulls traveling out to face Mountain West Conference opponent, the Utah Runnin’ Utes. Well, this reporter has seen some good practices out of the Bulls this week so, yes Kawika Mitchell, I will pick the USF to come out of Rice-Eccles stadium with the ‘W.’

Next, we have the Miami Hurricanes showing how tough their schedule is by hosting Troy St. I wonder if they can institute a one-game running clock in college so the Trojans can catch the early plane back to Alabama.

In the game of the week, a battle of undefeated teams as No. 3 Oklahoma takes on No. 5 Texas. I will take the Longhorns upsetting the Sooners, who will be an opponent of South Florida next season. I guess they will get the ‘horns’ before they meet the Bulls.

In our other matchups for this week, I’ll take Florida beating LSU, and Michigan demolishing Joe Paterno’s hopes of being a successful college coach again. Finally, in our swing match of the week, I will pick the Eagles of Eastern Michigan beating the Huskies all the way to Raymond James for next weeks game between UConn and USF.