The Smoking Musket Pick Em Gauntlet is an online college pick 'em game where we will try to pick the winners of the weekly Big 12 contests plus Yahoo! editors' selected games (usually the games involving the top 25 teams). We do pick against the spread (when available). There are usually 20-30 games to pick each week and each correct pick is worth one point. The winner (excluding Musket staff) will be the person at the end of the regular season who has the most correct picks/points. Points are cumulative, so don't worry if you happen to miss a week or two. We will award the winner a WVU Nike T-shirt at the conclusion of the games in December.
All participants are subject to the Official Rules (PDF document link) as determined by SB Nation.
In the case of a tie at the end, the winner will be determined by who "won" the most weeks, head to head with the other folks tied. Coin flip will be used in case that method not resolving the issue..
Our game, as in the past, will be hosted by Yahoo! Fantasy. GAME LINK
Group Name: The Smoking Musket
Group ID: 8233
Group password: WestByGod
We have 22 games to pick this week, starting with games at 8 pm ET Friday. Deadline for each pick is 5 minutes before kickoff.
Here are the top performers (top 11 and ties) from week 5. Congratulations to WWJerryD for winning week 5 (all you win for this is kudos).
Here are the overall standings after five weeks:
We will once again also be featuring staff predictions for the weekly WVU game (or game of interest on the off-weeks). Without further adieu (in order of staff ranking, number correct in parentheses):
John Radcliff (57)
Once again, Dana takes Mike Gundy out for a night on the town Friday night against the wishes of Mrs. Gundy. This leads to some bad decisions for Mike on Saturday and a big win for the Mountaineers.
WVU 55
OSU 17
whirsch_wvu2014 (56)
WVU rebounds well after a tough loss to Oklahoma. Instead of giving up big plays to let OSU back in the game when the WVU offense takes a lead or is making a comeback like last Saturday in Norman, the defense steps up and WVU keeps the momentum. The night "Stripe The Stadium" crowd is raucous as well.
WVU 38
OSU 27
Mountaineer Chuck (54)
Rebound win born of an angry defense trying to redeem itself.
WVU 31
OSU 21
JPFanshawe (53)
DE White (53)
Oklahoma State probably isn't as good as their record and ranking says they are. The night crowd is the difference in this one.
WVU 27
OSU 24
WVUIE97 (53)
This team lost it's heart and soul to injury, but will rally and hold off the Cowboys in a packed Milan Puskar Stadium.
WVU 28
OSU 24
Abpriddy (53)
SmithFire13 (50)
The loss of Karl Joseph is going to hurt West Virginia in the long run, but not in this game. The Mountaineers lock down the line of scrimmage and for Mason Rudolph to beat them...and he doesn't.
WVU 27
OSU 20
WVUfanMG (42)
I want to say this will be a huge rebound game for Skyler Howard and our defense. However, I'm worried that Skyler will press to correct his errors from the last game and continue with costly turnovers. While this may lead to points for OSU, I still think night time in Morgantown will be too much and WVU will pull off a much needed win.
WVU 35
OSU 24
Matt Kirchner (34)
Reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated. The secondary learns from experience and comes out refocused. Durante and Gibson make early plays to seize momentum and stay a couple scores ahead all night.
WVU 34
OSU 20
Michael Miller (32)
Oklahoma State has never won in Morgantown and, unfortunately for them, that streak will continue. Skyler Howard will rebound from that not-so-great performance in Norman, and will have the offense running on all cylinders again against the Cowboys. It'll be closer than some would like to see, but in the end a win is a win.
WVU 35
OSU 31
sbwvu1 (32)
OK State has gotten pretty lucky against a bad Texas team and an unproved K State team. WVU is hungry after being embarrassed in Norman, and takes it out on the Cowboys.
WVU 42
OSU 28
Dremorgan93 (22)
This West Virginia secondary ate a young inexperienced OSU offense up last year but this year the Cowboys have a proven leader in quarterback Mason Rudolph who unlike last year will pick this team apart. His receivers David Glidden and the 6'4 Marcell Ateman will reinforce this prediction.
WVU 24
OSU 35
Patrick Southern (9)
UpToMyEERS
And here's the prediction widget for you to make and track your own prediction: