It’s Maryland’s bye week, but the weekly picks continue nonetheless …
* Middle Tennessee at Georgia Tech (Noon, CSN): Yellow Jackets 34-14. After three league games in four weeks —- including last Saturday’s collapse against Miami —- Georgia Tech faces a more manageable task.
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* N.C. State at Miami (Noon, ESPNU): Wolfpack 28-21. Miami might turn out to be the conference’s biggest wild card, with enough talent to keep things interesting but also a penchant for erratic play. Consider the three distinct phases of the Hurricanes’ defeat of Georgia Tech last week. Expect a stable outing from N.C. State, which has cruised in back-to-back weeks.
* Duke at Wake Forest (12:30, ACC Network): Demon Deacons 34-28. Wake has won 12 straight in the series, a rather remarkable bit of dominance achieved almost entirely under Jim Grobe. Look for Michael Campanaro and the Deacon offense to do enough to survive, much like last week against Army.
* Clemson at Boston College (3:30, ESPN2): Tigers 34-17. Don’t look for a full-fledged rout from Clemson, but it should recover nicely from last week’s loss to Florida State.
* Idaho at North Carolina (3:30, CSN): Tar Heels 41-10. Bringing the nation’s No. 106 pass defense to Chapel Hill to face a quarterback (Bryn Renner) who is averaging 297.8 yards passing a game will probably not end well for the Vandals.
* Louisiana Tech at Virginia (3:30, ESPN3): Bulldogs 38-21. This does not bode well for the Cavaliers, who have struggled mightily on offense the last two weeks. Louisiana Tech, meanwhile, has dropped at least 50 points in each of its first three opponents.
* San Jose State at Navy (3:30, CBS Sports Network): Midshipmen 28-21. It’s time to finally really learn something about Navy after two predictable losses (Notre Dame and Penn State) and an equally predictable rout (VMI). The best thing going for the Mids? Arguably the cross-country trek the Spartans had to make.
* Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati (3:30, ESPNU): Hokies 27-14. Cincinnati took a sack of money and moved their home game against Virginia Tech to FedEx Field. Odds are, there will be more Hokies fans in Landover, and they should go home happy as Virginia Tech wraps up nonconference play with a respectable victory.
* Florida State at South Florida (6, ESPN): Seminoles 35-10. Florida State shouldn’t lose this game. It probably shouldn’t be seriously tested by a team coming off a loss to Ball State. But weird things can and do happen. This will be a nice barometer on how well the Seminoles handle success after last week’s riveting defeat of Clemson.
Week 4 record: 9-1 (1-1 conference)
Overall record: 37-6 (4-3 conference)
ACC record: 34-6 (4-3 conference)
Preseason ACC record: 34-6 (4-3 conference)
Navy record: 3-0
Preseason Week 5 picks changed: N.C. State-Miami, Louisiana Tech-Virginia
—- Patrick Stevens
