Season Record 2-0 +1.5 units
Favorites 0-0
Dogs 0-0
Totals 0-0
Halftimes 2-0 +1.5 units
I am going to spend this college football season concentrating on the Big 10 and the Irish. I will have plays on other teams during the year as far as systems and fundamentals, but I think that I have been wasting too much time handicapping teams that I don?t have all of the information on, nor am able to see every week.
The Wildcats have upgraded their schedule significantly and it will be much harder for them to get to a bowl this season compared to last year and they will probably need to take 3 out of 4 of their non-conference games to get to a bowl. They return a behemoth of a line and they will need to rely on them this Thursday. Northwestern will still be featuring the trap option which will put a lot of pressure on a young TCU line. It?s not that hard to play aggressive when you?re inexperienced, but aggressive technique from the interior will get them killed facing this offense where you need to read and react. The pride of St. Viator, Brett Basanez had a rough 2003, and his arm won?t match up well against TCU?s secondary unless they start committing to the run ? which I believe they will have to once the N?Western run game starts piling up yardage.
The loss of Wildcat end Loren Howard definitely hurts the Northwestern line as he is the best player on the defense and is the only one who excels at pass rushing. But I didn?t ever expect the Wildcats to shut down TCU as they have too many weapons to match up against a slow Wildcat secondary. The Wildcat defense had their moments last year, but were killed against balance attacks, which is a TCU strength. I just feel that there?s more opportunities for mistakes in a offense that will need to rely on the pass to win versus a team that should be able to run at will. TCU?s coach mantra has always been ?you only need to win by one? and that philosophy translates into how the team has played. Even in a stellar year for the program last year, they only beat Navy, Army, Vandy and Cincy by more than 7. That schedule included small wins over the likes of Tulane, Arizona, South Florida, UAB, Houston, and SMU. Not exactly a who?s who of college football in 2003.
The real beauty of this play is that if I am entirely wrong about the success of the N?Western running game, then there should be an opportunity to get my money back with a halftime play because if Basanez has to pass without fear of play-action against the Frog secondary, he will throw multiple picks and this game will turn into a blowout.
N?Western +7 1 unit
Favorites 0-0
Dogs 0-0
Totals 0-0
Halftimes 2-0 +1.5 units
I am going to spend this college football season concentrating on the Big 10 and the Irish. I will have plays on other teams during the year as far as systems and fundamentals, but I think that I have been wasting too much time handicapping teams that I don?t have all of the information on, nor am able to see every week.
The Wildcats have upgraded their schedule significantly and it will be much harder for them to get to a bowl this season compared to last year and they will probably need to take 3 out of 4 of their non-conference games to get to a bowl. They return a behemoth of a line and they will need to rely on them this Thursday. Northwestern will still be featuring the trap option which will put a lot of pressure on a young TCU line. It?s not that hard to play aggressive when you?re inexperienced, but aggressive technique from the interior will get them killed facing this offense where you need to read and react. The pride of St. Viator, Brett Basanez had a rough 2003, and his arm won?t match up well against TCU?s secondary unless they start committing to the run ? which I believe they will have to once the N?Western run game starts piling up yardage.
The loss of Wildcat end Loren Howard definitely hurts the Northwestern line as he is the best player on the defense and is the only one who excels at pass rushing. But I didn?t ever expect the Wildcats to shut down TCU as they have too many weapons to match up against a slow Wildcat secondary. The Wildcat defense had their moments last year, but were killed against balance attacks, which is a TCU strength. I just feel that there?s more opportunities for mistakes in a offense that will need to rely on the pass to win versus a team that should be able to run at will. TCU?s coach mantra has always been ?you only need to win by one? and that philosophy translates into how the team has played. Even in a stellar year for the program last year, they only beat Navy, Army, Vandy and Cincy by more than 7. That schedule included small wins over the likes of Tulane, Arizona, South Florida, UAB, Houston, and SMU. Not exactly a who?s who of college football in 2003.
The real beauty of this play is that if I am entirely wrong about the success of the N?Western running game, then there should be an opportunity to get my money back with a halftime play because if Basanez has to pass without fear of play-action against the Frog secondary, he will throw multiple picks and this game will turn into a blowout.
N?Western +7 1 unit
