Lord, I Was Born A Gamblin' Man: Week One Picks
NORTHWESTERN (-11.5) over Syracuse – It just seems like good sense to bet against Greg Robinson and the Orange, especially when they’re on the road and going against a Northwestern team returning quality offensive threats in the backfield and eight starters on defense. Could Northwestern be going bowling for only the fourth time this millennium? If they sweep their opening month of
PITTSBURGH (-13.5) over Bowling Green – I don’t know why I have such faith in Dave Wannstedt, but there just seems to be too much talent for the Falcons to overcome, even though they should be fielding a competitive squad in the MAC this year. If we were assigning confidence points to games, this would not be highly rated. If Bill Stull can be as sharp as the practice reports claim he’s been so far this summer, the lanes opening up for LeSean McCoy should cover this spread – barely.
EAST CAROLINA (+9.5) over Virginia Tech – You might remember the Hokies for their early season struggles last season, when they barely prevailed over East Carolina at home before being curb-stomped at LSU. They lose all their big names on defense (Abidi, Hall and Flowers are all gone), leading rusher
Oklahoma State (-7) over WASHINGTON STATE – Mike Gundy, now a man of the ripe old age of 41, doesn’t have to deal with Bobby Reid, but he also loses his best receiver and running back. This is pretty much a bet based solely on Zac Robinson being seven points better than anything they’re fielding in
Southern Cal (-20) over

OLE MISS (-7.5) over
Michigan State (+4.5) over CALIFORNIA – There’s something to be said for having a heady senior quarterback, a 1500 yard rusher returning, a lot of close losses in ’07 and some experience on defense. Cal always has talent, but it’ll need to fill some holes, including replacing all their receivers and leading rusher Justin Forsett, all while stabilizing the Kevin Riley/Nate Longshore QB Carousel of Death. I also don’t think anyone has ever been that intimidated by playing in
Missouri (-9) over Illinois – My second lockiest game of the week after Southern Cal/Virginia, the wheels will continue to come off of the Ron Zook train following the Rose Bowl. They lose the heart of their offense (Mendenhall) and the heart of their defense (Leman) while Chase Daniel is still there to toss up epic numbers for the Tigers. Eight starters on defense return for a Mizzou team that, remember, only lost to Oklahoma last season and blew out Nebraska, Texas Tech, Kansas and Arkansas last season.
This is so random and so awesome I had to post it.
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the ACC
and i thought the big ten was bad…gah.
by SBakerTheTouchdownMaker on
Aug 31, 2008 4:57 PM EDT
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Until proven otherwise...
…the ACC is always worse. I feel like this is karmic retribution for their raiding of the Big East.
http://www.rakesofmallow.com
by CW on
Aug 31, 2008 9:55 PM EDT
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