FOX 2 Sports Wrap: The debut of the weekly football picks!

A live look at the Mackinac Bridge. Beautiful night after what was a stormy day. Welcome back, everyone. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, man. I mean, can't get better than a Lake Michigan sunset straight to Mackinac sunset. Sports producer James Paxson, you're hearing him now and seeing him now. We were talking up there, ate some wings before. So fitting for this conversation, we're about ready to have. I didn't want people to know I ate wings. I wanted to make sure my face looked okay. It did look okay, but you mentioned it. It was a fitting segue. Okay. We're talking football because. We are. It's. It's here. Officially starting tomorrow. You've been busy. So can I give you a fun football tidbit that only losers like us would love? 100%. Have you looked at the UMass Rutgers score? No. UMass is currently up 34-7 and Rutgers was a 30-point favorite. Fun fact, UMass went winless last year at 0-12. Oh, no. So that's a fun thing for Greg Ciano and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. And for Big Ten people, hopefully you play Rutgers this year. Yeah. Oh, we do. It's we end the season with them, which I don't want to talk about what happened the last time we played them. And you know. 34-7 to UMass. Wasn't. Wasn't Don Brown coaching them? The former Michigan defensive? At one point, but it's not him anymore. I knew it wasn't him anymore. I knew we got fired, but I couldn't remember if. 34-7. Good Lord. Yes, but football is here. Football is here. I'm excited. I mean, of course, I've been looking forward to college football for some time. I've been, I'll admit it. I've been playing EA Sports college football nightly for the past month since it's been out. So that's just gotten me even more excited. Michigan State kicks off the season tomorrow against Toledo. Western Michigan versus U of M Saturday night. Correct. I'll be at the state game tomorrow. Before we get into football, Jimmy, I do want to go to this sports office moment. Because I saw part of it, but I kind of want to see what the heck happened here. So set up this clip and then we'll go to it. I guess I will explain more after it. But I think me and my boss, Greg Canner, the executive producer in sports, almost died. So all right, let's go ahead. I'm excited about this on Thursday night because we got an old friend that's going to join us. Greg and I worked with him when we were in Washington, D.C. Oh, I hit it on the run. That was a little aggressive. Thankfully, that wasn't a real golf ball because I didn't even take the time to figure it out. Dave Ross cited a couple things here. Bob Richards, who's one of our stagehands and one of the best lighting guys in Detroit, rolled a golf ball into Dan Miller's swing. So when Dan went to swing, there was no golf ball. He was not planning to hit a golf ball at us. And so the reason I reacted differently than Greg on the other side of the couch is because I saw the golf ball get rolled in and saw what was about to happen. Greg only just looked to see a ball come flying at him. So Dan had no intention of hitting a golf ball. But of course, Bob Richards just rolled one perfectly into his swing. And you'll see right about here, he does hit the TV. Yeah, I drove it. Honestly, rolling the golf ball in and hitting it, if he was hitting it on an actual golf course and we saw the flight, he probably would hit it fairly straight. So hitting it as he rolled in, that was a great shot by Miller there. Probably his best shot of the year. Obviously not a real golf ball. It was closer to Greg. I thought Greg was going to get hit. I was just because I saw the ball roll in. When you see it roll in like I did, it was a weird car crash to watch. I was about ready to say, so let me ask you this. We'll watch it one more time just for fun because I'm really enjoying this. Was that a slow-mo type of deal when it came in like that? I saw it come in like this and I saw his swing. So I saw it perfectly. Where Greg, on the other side of the couch, just saw him swing and this golf ball come out of nowhere. When he swung, there was no golf ball. But me, at my angle of the couch, I see someone rolling this golf ball like this and Dan's just, oh, we got our betting friend, Dave Ross. Oh, I hit that. He genuinely was shocked that he hit a golf ball. He was just practicing his swing there and then the golf ball was there. That's amazing. It was a fun night. The sports office, always a great time. Seven o'clock, Fox 2, Fox Local, you got to watch. Absolutely. But very fitting because we talked to our betting expert, Dave Ross. He gave us what his favorite games of the weekend are. He talked to us about Michigan, Michigan State, over-unders and his pick to win the NFC North at plus 440 for you betting people, the Minnesota Vikings. All right. And you know what? I can't get mad at that. I don't get it. I can't get mad at that either because I think the Vikings are going to be better this year. Better and winning the division are two separate things. Fair point. Do you want to start with Michigan, Michigan State, over-unders? Or do you want to go to the teams you're watching? Let's start with the local teams. We'll start with Michigan, over-under eight and a half this season. I'm going to go under slightly. I'll say they win eight games. See, that's such a tough number. I think it literally is eight or nine. Because I think they're going to lose to Ohio State. I think they're going to lose to Oklahoma. I think they're going to lose to Oregon. And I think there's another loss in there somewhere. I think Penn State might have been it. Yeah, maybe. That might have been. I mean, Penn State could go either way. That's another new coach type of situation. I'm going to go slightly under too at an eight and four season before the bowl. Which wouldn't be a high disappointment if their offense looks better and Winningham looks like he's putting on a good program. But see, that's a tough number. Because if you gave me nine and a half, I'd for sure say under. If you gave me seven and a half, I'd for sure say over. Exactly. But that eight to nine wins is where it's at. I got to go under. Yeah, and if they go nine and three, I won't be surprised. If they go eight and four, I won't be surprised. Michigan State's over under, excuse me, four and a half. I'm going over. I'm not saying that because I'm a State guy. I can see them winning six games. They have to get most of them before November though. Sure. Because that November schedule is tough. But I believe they have Ohio State. That's a for sure loss. I think they're going to lose to Michigan. Notre Dame's a loss. Oregon is another loss. But there's a pathway to get to that six wins to get a bowl game. First bowl game since the Kenneth Walker year, 2021. Five years. But I'm going to say over. But I'm not saying there are going to be any world leaders though either. That's another really tough number for me. I got to go slightly under. I just don't see five, six wins on there. They have a really hard schedule. But it's going to be weird to say. If Pat Fitzgerald can have a good team. And they look better. And they look more exciting to play. Then I'd look forward to year two. But I don't think you can judge Pat Fitzgerald on pretty much anything they do this season. It's a brand new team. He doesn't have a ton of new players. Because he didn't come from a program. He was not coaching anywhere. And so I think it's a four and eight year for them. I think it's just under. I like his staff hires that he made as far as LaVar Woods special teams coach. Known as being one of the best in the nation. Sheridan is the offensive coordinator. We'll see. I think that could be a good hire though. Keeping Joe Rossi as the DC was good. And bringing Bulla back to the program as well. I like everything. But Michigan State just has not put the money. The cover is very bare right now. Exactly. They just don't have the money in there. I want to turn to the teams you're watching outside of Michigan State. Here's your list. Tell me about why you're picking them. All right. So this one's kind of a little bit easy. I'll kind of simplify it. But I always loved college sports for me personally to look at who's going to excel in the pros. And this is a list of guys who I think everyone should watch next year. But also I picked four teams where if you were going to tell me who I like Heisman wise. They're all on these teams. I think Oregon quarterback Dante Moore was probably going to be the number two pick in the draft last year. He just decided to stay in college to get paid. Maybe go for that national championship. And who can blame him? He didn't want to be a Jack. Who does? I wouldn't blame him there. Dante Moore, who's actually a local kid who's at Oregon. He's a great thrower. A great quarterback. Texas. Michigan and Michigan State will be able to see him in person. Correct. I think Dante Moore is going to be great to Texas. Arch Manning is going to be terrific. And I think that offense is going to be unbelievable. Also, my pick to win the SEC. I think Texas is going to have an unbelievable year. Miami has Malachi Tony, who's a running back wide receiver. He looks like one of the fastest guys you will watch in college. And then Notre Dame. That's easy. CJ Carr. And who I believe will win the Heisman this year. So I'm watching all those teams. Texas, Notre Dame, I think have something to prove this year from not being in the college football playoff. And then they will have excellent years this year. I think those four teams are the most exciting to watch. I went a little bit of a different route with mine. Texas, you and I are in lockstep with that. I'm going to be really interested to see how Arch Manning's development is this year. Got better at the end of last year. He absolutely did. Looking at the Ohio State game, his mechanics felt like they were off. It didn't seem like he was really stepping into his throws. He got a lot better last year. LSU, it's honestly the Lane Kiffin story of it all. They bring in Sam Levitt from Arizona State. Will he live up to the hype? That's the question. I mean, you saw what he did at Ole Miss. He did really nice at Ole Miss. Controversial exit. What will his first year look like? USC, this year feels like it is show or go for Lincoln Riley. 1,000%. Hyped up when he came there. Did really well at Oklahoma. Not so successful in the playoff. But he hasn't made the playoff since he's been to USC. And he had Caleb Williams as his quarterback for a couple of those years. So this feels like show or go here. Alabama, I mean, they made the playoff last year under Kalen DeBoer. I'm not, didn't end the way they wanted to. They got dominated by, they got dominated by Indiana. Yep. And I mean, that Indiana team was really good. And they just kind of dominated everybody through the playoff. But at the same time, it's Alabama. And we know what their standards were under Nick Saban. So again, just an interesting one that we're watching there. All right, we want to run, we're going to do this every week. Normally we're going to go three college, three pro games for each of us. But we're going to, this week we're doing six college games for each of us. But two of them, three of them, excuse me, are the same. Starting with tomorrow night, Michigan State, Toledo. Michigan State favored by 10. I'm going Michigan State here. I will also go MSU minus 10. I think Alessio is actually going to look pretty good tomorrow. I think he showed some talent last year. And I think the offense could look better. I don't see him losing to Toledo. So I think you're safe there. And I also think MSU is probably going to win this one. Maybe 13, 14 point win. It won't be a huge blowout. But yeah, I got MSU. Agreed. And that's, we're in lockstep with that. And I believe we're in lockstep with this one here too, James. You have been minus 27.5 over Western, Michigan. That 27.5 feels too high. I want to see it from Bryce Underwood. I can't do it. I can't, I can't go that high. I can't. I'm sorry. It's too many points for a quarterback who didn't look good last year. And here's the thing, and I hate to do this. But if you win by 25, that's still a great victor. Yeah, it is. It's just way too many points. I know that's insane. I have to go Western plus 27.5, and that probably makes me a hater. I probably would pick a game to actually bet on. I probably would not do that, just for the record. I'm clearly a hater, but I just, I can't do it. I can't. It's so many points. Bryce Underwood still doesn't look good to me. Hopefully he turns it around. I'll go Western to cover, but Michigan will probably win by three touchdowns. Michigan wins for sure. LSU versus Clemson. I'm taking LSU in this one. Clemson, they just haven't had it the last few years. I need to see it to believe it with them. I would agree. All right, so we're in lockstep for our first three picks. Who else do you got for this week, James? Oh, I got a fun one. Tomorrow on Fox 2, you have USC Fresno State. We've said that this is a boomer bust year for Lincoln Riley. They have to make the playoff. I think Jaden Maiava looked pretty good last week, and I think he's going to look good tomorrow against his former team. So I'm going to take USC minus 22.5 to beat Fresno State tomorrow on Fox 2. Be sure to check in tomorrow after the state game. 100%. Or do a split screen. Have the FS1 game for Michigan State on one, the Fox 2 on the other. My first one that I have for you is I'll take Washington State 23.5 over Washington. I think Washington ends up... Washington State's favored by 23.5 points. They're a 23.5 point underdog to Washington. I think they cover this... Let's clarify there. Washington is favored in this game. I just think they cover the spread. I think that's too many points. I will agree with you. A quick one here, because I've already talked about it. I'm very big on Notre Dame. I think Marcus Freeman's a great coach. My Heisman pick is CJ Carr. I think they have something to prove. And also, they're playing Wisconsin on Sunday. I don't think the Luke Fickle Wisconsin thing is going to work. So I'm kind of going to pick the biggest number I would, which is Notre Dame minus 20.5 over Wisconsin Sunday night. Big number. I almost went with Wisconsin in that. It's a lot of points, but I'm big on Notre Dame. I'm going to say my next one is Auburn 7.5 over Baylor. I'm just going to be interested to see this. I like what Golish did when he was at South Florida. I'll be interested to see if that translates to Auburn. So I got my last one here. I have a sneaky team. I really like this year. And an easier, unpredictable ACC. That was a fly. I'm kind of interested in Louisville. They're ranked in the top 25. They are an underdog this weekend. I really think they got some cool weapons to watch. If you want to see offense, look out for running back Isaac Brown and wide receiver Trey Richardson. They are against Ole Miss, and they're a 6.5 point underdog. I actually think Louisville is going to win that game. So I'm going to go Louisville plus 6.5 for the spread. But I'm into Louisville. And we're going the opposite there because I've got Ole Miss tomorrow for that. Because I like what I saw with Trinidad Chambliss. Is he a pro quarterback? Probably not necessarily. Very athletic. We saw what he did with Ole Miss last year, and he's getting another year. So actually a West Michigan kid is well played at Forest Hills Northern in high school. Got to cover one of his games when I was over there. It was a lot of fun. But I got Ole Miss tomorrow. Fair enough. Or Saturday, excuse me. James Paxson, thank you so much for joining us. We're going to do this every week, starting with the pros next week as well. Hopefully you'll tune in. And thank you so much for watching. Have a good rest of your night.