After another 3-2 week in which we cashed in nicely, I’m really excited about my picks this weekend. Starting with tonight’s Cincy game and ending on Sunday with the Fish, I’m ready for a big weekend of winners and look to improve on a very solid 23-15-2 record on the season. Those of you who have followed me throughout the season know I love underdogs but this weekend’s slate is filled with favorites that the public will go against. Whichever way the public goes, I go the opposite. When people are running out of the building, I’m running in! Here we go…..-Fireman Mike

Cincinnati -9.5 vs. West Virginia

The Bearcats offense has been nearly unstoppable since the beginning of the season but has been dynamic since Zach Collaros stepped in at quarterback. Collaros gets the call against West Virginia even though Tony Pike is healthy, which tells you all you need to know about the Cincy coaching staff’s confidence in him.

West Virginia is on their way to a disappointing ending to their season and the Bearcats will be happy to hang a big number on them tonight at home. A Friday night home game for the Bearcats is going to cause an atmosphere that is borderline illegal. We warned our readers of this about a month back that the Mountaineers are an overrated team right now and to be careful of their inflated lines.

Tonight’s line should be somewhere around 13 but Vegas has given West Virginia a little bit too much respect all season long and the public has bitten, one of the reasons the Mountaineers are 2-6 against the spread this season.

Cincinnati puts on another offensive display and confuses quarterback Jarrett Brown with an array of blitz packages and cover schemes on their way to a 44-24 victory.

USC -10.5 vs. Stanford

There is a serious revenge factor this weekend for the Trojans. In order to avoid another upset this season, Carroll will show his team tape of the debacle a few years ago in which the Trojans were a 41-point favorite and lost to an upstart Cardinal team.

In our latest top 25 we mentioned to watch for the Trojans to cover for the rest of the season because they won’t be allowed to overlook anybody the rest of the way. Matt Barkley is getting deeper and deeper into the playbook and it will show against an overmatched Stanford team.

Pete Carroll is 28-0 in November and it’s the time of the year when the Trojans start to click. USC wins 41-24 and reminds us why they are one of the nation’s best programs.

Ohio State -16.5 vs. Iowa

The Buckeyes are out to make an Ohio State-ment this weekend in Columbus. With Cincinnati garnering all the publicity inside the state it has gone unnoticed on the national level how good the Buckeyes defense truly is. You can predict that a ton of action will be thrown Iowa’s way in Vegas because this line doesn’t look right. Believe me, it’s low.

Iowa comes into the Horseshoe with a green quarterback who is going to be ripe for the picking. And throw picks he will. The Ohio State defense has a tendency to make some of the best quarterbacks in the conference look like third stringers and while going green might be hip these days it will only get you a big ‘L’ at the quarterback position.

Terrelle Pryor has played much better the past three weeks and has responded to criticism as well as any player in the country over that period of time. If he can get a little more from his running game this weekend we could be looking at a blowout of epic proportions. Outside of the Purdue debacle, Ohio State hasn’t given up more than 14 points in conference all season long. Don’t look for that to change this weekend. The Buckeyes also have an average margin of victory of 23 points in the Big Ten as well.

The Buckeyes seal the deal in the Big Ten with a resounding 31-9 pounding of the Hawkeyes.

Tennessee -7 vs. Buffalo

This is a matchup of two teams that have failed to live up to the expectations and this game will be a classic battle of ineptitude but we’ll take the only aspect from both teams that translates into success regardless of the weather or stadium, Tennessee’s running game.

Not only do the Titans have the ability to break big plays with Chris Johnson on a regular basis, now they have Vince Young scrambling around and gaining huge chunks of yards for them too. For some reason, this team responds well to Young and he has been a winner in the league even though his stats are disgusting sometimes.

The Titans have covered their last two games and are sitting at 3-5 ATS this season. Even bad teams don’t fall too far under .500 ATS during the season and the Titans will continue their climb to mediocrity this weekend against Buffalo.

Tennessee wins 27-10 in a game you should put money on and walk away from.

Miami -10 vs. Tampa Bay

Miami is coming off a disappointing loss to New England but they are still in the race for a playoff spot if they can put together a string of victories of the last two months of the season. Looking forward at their schedule there has to be an overwhelming sentiment in the Dolphins locker room that they can win at least 6 of their final 8 games. Believing and happening are two different things but Miami should be running on all cylinders this weekend against one of the worst teams in the league.

Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams form one of the most dangerous running back tandems in the league and they should be able to exploit the Bucs porous rush defense that allows 163 rush yards per game. If they stack the box, Chad Henne has become comfortable enough with the offense to keep the offense balanced throughout the game.

Josh Freeman starts at quarterback for the second straight week and the Dolphins now have some tape on the rookie to beat up on the Bucs. This is a bad team with a young quarterback that is going to have a ton of difficulties with the Dolphins this weekend.

Miami pounds Tampa Bay 37-13 in a game that is over by the half.