Penn St (-12.5) over Purdue
Home field does not mean that much. Notre Dame handed Purdue a big loss and if that team struggled against the Irish defense they will have a VERY tough time against Penn St. PSU did not play extremely well against Ill, don't get me wrong but they were exxposed on kick coverage and deep by Benn. Still that is not gonna happen again. PSU has Wisky on the door step but I do not see this team looking ahead. This is a game for Penn St to go into and work out everything they need to in order to get ready for Wisky and Ohio St. With Royal leading the rushing attack they should be able to completely destroy the d-line for purdue and out run they on any plays run to the outside. The have the beef to bully them up the middle. They have the speed to beat them deep and the running passing threat at QB. All that said I like the PSU defense to get all over Painter. He showed a lack of pocket pressence and he will be rushed all day. The Irish were able to shut him and Sheets down and I just cannot see that offense being able to handle the Penn St size and speed. This is a look ahead game but with the upsets from last weekend lingering Joe Pa will have all his boys ready and focused to give the boilermakers a tough day at home.
Tex Tech (-7.5) over K State
If louisville could throw all day aginst KSt the red raiders will make them look very bad through the air. This team is coming from a week off (well UMass) and should have everything planned out for going deep early and often to show they are a tough team in the big 12. Looking at K St they have beaten the pancakes of their sched to get a bit overrated in my eyes and after watching them just not able to get Louisvile off the field I cannot think they stay stride for stride in this track meet. Remember this team went into ?Nevada and won by 10 plus and I would put KSt and navada on the same level. Do I put a lot of faith into them looking ahead to Neb, well Yes. But even looking ahead the raiders have the offense to make KSt very confused in the secondary. This is a team that has give up a ton of points in the last two games. Again this has to be a statement game and basically going to try to win by as much as possible because with bigger teams coming up they need as many big wins as possible to sway some voters. The defense is not too shabby either and they have a good enough line to get onto of the K State QB. He has shown poor deciosion making and the raiders need to get those mistakes and turn them into points. Give the wildcats no life and they will fold late.
Okla St (-24.5) over Texas A&M
Miami destroyed them, they barely beat Army and now Okla St is getting the aggies at home. This is a HUGE look ahead game to Mizzou but look at last game aginst Troy, it was 35-10 at half and they really never were worried. But this is Big Twelve country and an opening game against a conference team, that means the cowboys will be ready to play. This is a lot of chalk but I think that after watching Tex AM just struggle to move the ball aginst Army they will be hard pressed to move it at all aginst Okla St. The defense for A&M was just shredded against Miami, the hurrican offense is not nearly as efficent as Okla St and they will not be able to compete. As always on any given week teams can surprise but A&M is a bad football team with little to no confidence and on the road they will not have much in the tank to battle if this goes the cowboys way early. I could see a back door in this game but considering the lack of effort from the aggies if the cowboys get ahead they will take all the wind out of the A&M sails. Get on them early and watch the Aggies fold up the tent as they have done this season.
Mizzou (-11) over Neb
So the cornhuskers showed they are not ready to recieve any hype when VT dominated every aspect of the game. Yes it was closer than I expected but VT really never lost control. Now they go against an offense that is just a juggernaut and should put up big numbers. The VT defense exposed Ganz and Mizzous offense will expose him even more. He will not be able to run at 100% all game and with the tigers fresh off a bye they will be hungry to move up the polls after big teams lost this past week. Yes this is at Neb but this is not the 90's cornhuskers, with no blackshirt intimidation and no real fear of playing in Nebs stadium the tigers should go in and just take care of business. Dianiels is a big leader and without pressure on him he will have no problems handling the cornhuskers defense. This is old hat for Neb, last year they looked good to start and then when it came time to step up and play the big dogs they couldn't play at the same level. Mizzou averages 50 plus points a game and if they get near that which I think they will Neb will be luck to be within 4 TD's of them. The key for the tigers is not to beat themselves and give the huskers any life. Since the ball rarely touches the ground during practice I don't see Dainels and Mizzous offense beating themselves.
Florida (-24) over Ark
I feel bad for Ark, they are very bad and texas just hammere them. Will the gators be focused... off a loss the answer is yes and they will be looking to run it up and leave no doubt. This will be a woodshed game and Urban off a loss will not leave any point off the board. Ark has been just hammered all season, they have NO defense and really no offense. They get points when the towel boys are in the game and in this contest I think you might see Tebow going deep in the fourth. They want to work out some of the kinks on offense and they are being giving the perfect scout team to run them against. This should get ugly early and continue all game regardless of where it is being played.
Mary (-14) over UVA
Swagger is in turtle town, a win over Clemson and now the dreadfull cavs. UVA just got blown out by DUKE people... thats DUKE. The terps have all the mo, they believe and they are playing good enough offense to make the Cavs pay on drives. When the terps turned it on defensively they shut Clemson down in the second half and that should continue in saturdays game. They have the guys that can completely stop the Cavs just like Duke did and they have more skill position players to exploit the holes Duke took advantage of last week. This will be a nice let down game for the terps but considering how they started the season and what they have done since they have all the pistons firing and should dominate both lines and leave the Cavs in another hole that they cannot crawl out.
Kansas (-13) @ Iowa St
Iowa St just lost a heart breaker in ot to UNLV, that is just tough to rebound. Not only that but they lost by 10 to Iowa, remember that Iowa team lost to Pitt. Yeah, so that is not saying a whole lot about this cyclone team. Still they are going to be up and ready for the jayhawks in Iowa. With a QB controversy brewing at Iowa St, an offense that managed about 37 yards of offense in the first half against UNLV and a Kansas team looking to iron out some issues should be a situation for the jayhawks to move the ball and get points while the cyclones struggle to keep drives going and leave Kansas having long field to cover but not enough defense to stop them. Unfortuately Kansas is not affraid of having to go the full field to score and that will be the reason they get on the score board and keep Iowa st guessing on defense. This will be a game where Kansas needs to start running the ball better and establish some threat other than the pass. Considering Iowa St really is not the toughest test on rush defense the jayhawks need to shake off early game problems if they want to beat the big teams coming up. Everyone knows Reesing can throw so teams cannot overload the box but Crawford and Quigley have not stepped up in that open space. Kansas's passing attack should be enough in this game but they need to show dominance on the o-line if they want to be a big boy in the big 12.
Cheers
Irish
Home field does not mean that much. Notre Dame handed Purdue a big loss and if that team struggled against the Irish defense they will have a VERY tough time against Penn St. PSU did not play extremely well against Ill, don't get me wrong but they were exxposed on kick coverage and deep by Benn. Still that is not gonna happen again. PSU has Wisky on the door step but I do not see this team looking ahead. This is a game for Penn St to go into and work out everything they need to in order to get ready for Wisky and Ohio St. With Royal leading the rushing attack they should be able to completely destroy the d-line for purdue and out run they on any plays run to the outside. The have the beef to bully them up the middle. They have the speed to beat them deep and the running passing threat at QB. All that said I like the PSU defense to get all over Painter. He showed a lack of pocket pressence and he will be rushed all day. The Irish were able to shut him and Sheets down and I just cannot see that offense being able to handle the Penn St size and speed. This is a look ahead game but with the upsets from last weekend lingering Joe Pa will have all his boys ready and focused to give the boilermakers a tough day at home.
Tex Tech (-7.5) over K State
If louisville could throw all day aginst KSt the red raiders will make them look very bad through the air. This team is coming from a week off (well UMass) and should have everything planned out for going deep early and often to show they are a tough team in the big 12. Looking at K St they have beaten the pancakes of their sched to get a bit overrated in my eyes and after watching them just not able to get Louisvile off the field I cannot think they stay stride for stride in this track meet. Remember this team went into ?Nevada and won by 10 plus and I would put KSt and navada on the same level. Do I put a lot of faith into them looking ahead to Neb, well Yes. But even looking ahead the raiders have the offense to make KSt very confused in the secondary. This is a team that has give up a ton of points in the last two games. Again this has to be a statement game and basically going to try to win by as much as possible because with bigger teams coming up they need as many big wins as possible to sway some voters. The defense is not too shabby either and they have a good enough line to get onto of the K State QB. He has shown poor deciosion making and the raiders need to get those mistakes and turn them into points. Give the wildcats no life and they will fold late.
Okla St (-24.5) over Texas A&M
Miami destroyed them, they barely beat Army and now Okla St is getting the aggies at home. This is a HUGE look ahead game to Mizzou but look at last game aginst Troy, it was 35-10 at half and they really never were worried. But this is Big Twelve country and an opening game against a conference team, that means the cowboys will be ready to play. This is a lot of chalk but I think that after watching Tex AM just struggle to move the ball aginst Army they will be hard pressed to move it at all aginst Okla St. The defense for A&M was just shredded against Miami, the hurrican offense is not nearly as efficent as Okla St and they will not be able to compete. As always on any given week teams can surprise but A&M is a bad football team with little to no confidence and on the road they will not have much in the tank to battle if this goes the cowboys way early. I could see a back door in this game but considering the lack of effort from the aggies if the cowboys get ahead they will take all the wind out of the A&M sails. Get on them early and watch the Aggies fold up the tent as they have done this season.
Mizzou (-11) over Neb
So the cornhuskers showed they are not ready to recieve any hype when VT dominated every aspect of the game. Yes it was closer than I expected but VT really never lost control. Now they go against an offense that is just a juggernaut and should put up big numbers. The VT defense exposed Ganz and Mizzous offense will expose him even more. He will not be able to run at 100% all game and with the tigers fresh off a bye they will be hungry to move up the polls after big teams lost this past week. Yes this is at Neb but this is not the 90's cornhuskers, with no blackshirt intimidation and no real fear of playing in Nebs stadium the tigers should go in and just take care of business. Dianiels is a big leader and without pressure on him he will have no problems handling the cornhuskers defense. This is old hat for Neb, last year they looked good to start and then when it came time to step up and play the big dogs they couldn't play at the same level. Mizzou averages 50 plus points a game and if they get near that which I think they will Neb will be luck to be within 4 TD's of them. The key for the tigers is not to beat themselves and give the huskers any life. Since the ball rarely touches the ground during practice I don't see Dainels and Mizzous offense beating themselves.
Florida (-24) over Ark
I feel bad for Ark, they are very bad and texas just hammere them. Will the gators be focused... off a loss the answer is yes and they will be looking to run it up and leave no doubt. This will be a woodshed game and Urban off a loss will not leave any point off the board. Ark has been just hammered all season, they have NO defense and really no offense. They get points when the towel boys are in the game and in this contest I think you might see Tebow going deep in the fourth. They want to work out some of the kinks on offense and they are being giving the perfect scout team to run them against. This should get ugly early and continue all game regardless of where it is being played.
Mary (-14) over UVA
Swagger is in turtle town, a win over Clemson and now the dreadfull cavs. UVA just got blown out by DUKE people... thats DUKE. The terps have all the mo, they believe and they are playing good enough offense to make the Cavs pay on drives. When the terps turned it on defensively they shut Clemson down in the second half and that should continue in saturdays game. They have the guys that can completely stop the Cavs just like Duke did and they have more skill position players to exploit the holes Duke took advantage of last week. This will be a nice let down game for the terps but considering how they started the season and what they have done since they have all the pistons firing and should dominate both lines and leave the Cavs in another hole that they cannot crawl out.
Kansas (-13) @ Iowa St
Iowa St just lost a heart breaker in ot to UNLV, that is just tough to rebound. Not only that but they lost by 10 to Iowa, remember that Iowa team lost to Pitt. Yeah, so that is not saying a whole lot about this cyclone team. Still they are going to be up and ready for the jayhawks in Iowa. With a QB controversy brewing at Iowa St, an offense that managed about 37 yards of offense in the first half against UNLV and a Kansas team looking to iron out some issues should be a situation for the jayhawks to move the ball and get points while the cyclones struggle to keep drives going and leave Kansas having long field to cover but not enough defense to stop them. Unfortuately Kansas is not affraid of having to go the full field to score and that will be the reason they get on the score board and keep Iowa st guessing on defense. This will be a game where Kansas needs to start running the ball better and establish some threat other than the pass. Considering Iowa St really is not the toughest test on rush defense the jayhawks need to shake off early game problems if they want to beat the big teams coming up. Everyone knows Reesing can throw so teams cannot overload the box but Crawford and Quigley have not stepped up in that open space. Kansas's passing attack should be enough in this game but they need to show dominance on the o-line if they want to be a big boy in the big 12.
Cheers
Irish