BroncoBlitz.com - Celebrity Picks

October 16, 2009

D. Burgardt
Special to BroncoBlitz.com

This weeks celebrity prognosticator is Robin Hook. Robin has been the voice of the Broncos since 1984. After a 15 year stint with WKMI in Kalamazoo, Hook joined the WMU Athletic Department as Director of Broadcast Services. The "Hookster" has a tough act to follow as Steve Hawkins and Matt Holmes have picked the winner 71% of the time.

Graham Couch of the Kalamazoo Gazette joins us as well. Graham has gone out on a limb this week picking 7 out of 9 road wins.

Our two competitors for the free month on Rivals are Mile High Bronco, an alum out of Denver, and Moe, a long time Bronco fan and the top Bronco hockey blogger around.

Robin has boldly picked NIU to to lose in Toledo, so we're going to call that our upset special.

* The picks for the Cincy vs South Florida game were entered before being played on Thursday

How we see it

Reading the previews for this rivalry game one would think Western Michigan was playing Florida. The tone reminds me a lot of when an 8-2 Bronco team ventured into Kelly Shorts as a 34 point favorite against the last place Chips. We all know how that turned out, but if you don't, the Broncos lost 21-17.

So I'm not quite ready to anoint the Chips as unbeatable, based primarily on a win over Michigan State. For those that forget, Toledo blew out Colorado. While I'm not saying Colorado is MSU, I am saying that one win over a BCS team does not translate into unbeatable. Bronco wins over Virginia, Illinois, and Iowa did not translate to a MAC West title.

That said, this game is very winnable, particularly at home. The CMU defense is improved, but have yet to face a quarterback with Hiller's skills. Western Michigan has the skill position players on offense to keep up, and they showed it last week. Is dropping 56 on EMU more difficult than dropping 58 on Toledo's homecoming? Probably not.

This game may very well come down to which team's defense can make some stops, or force turnovers. The Broncos forced a combined 8 fumbles in their two MAC wins. If that's a trend, then it's a trend they'd like to continue. CMU has been very good at hanging on to the ball, losing only 4 fumbles to their opponents seven.

The bottom line for this writer is that WMU is still a work in progress at several positions, and CMU has experience at nearly every spot. Tim Hiller is a quarterback who can take a game plan and execute it to perfection. Dan LeFevour is a quarterback who can have an awful day, and still be productive. Juan Nunez is a deep threat who can take it to the house on a well executed play. Antonio Brown is an athlete who can take a botched throw and turn it into 7 points. Too many game changers wearing the ketchup and mustard.

CMU 38 WMU 24

This week's games	D. Burgardt BB	Graham Couch KG	Robin Hook (celebs)	Mile High Bronco, Brown	Moe, Gold
Central Michigan at Western Michigan	CMU	CMU	WMU	CMU	WMU
Northern Illinois at Toledo	UT	NIU	UT	NIU	NIU
Bowling Green at Ball State	BG	BG	BG	BG	BG
Kent St. at Eastern Michigan	KS	KS	EMU	KS	KS
Iowa at Wisconsin	WI	WI	WI	IA	IA
Cinci at South Florida	SFL	UC	SFL	UC	SFL
USC at Notre Dame	ND	USC	USC	USC	USC
Oklahoma at Texas	TX	OK	TX	TX	TX
Detroit at Green Bay (Jennings vs Delmas)	GB	GB	Lions	GB	GB
Record	16-11	13-14	19-8	0-0	0-0