Well, I certainly dont want to hijack Kramer's thread here with my own opinions. But, the thread does bring up opening week, so in that spirit I figured I would throw something out there that caught my eye for the first weekend of games.
Labor Day, 9/1: Fresno at Rutgers.
Man, do I really like Fresno in this spot. Everyone knows they are more than willing to take on the boys from the BCS leagues, and they have their fair share of victory scalps over the years in those contests that proves they belong.
I will probably be on the Bulldogs and Mr. Fu Manchu himself, Pat Hill.
From a technical standpoint, Hill is 23-10 ATS against schools from BCS leagues. In the last five years, he is 13-4 ATS as a non conference underdog. Breaking those numbers down, toss out a loss to Colorado State in '03, and its 13-3 as a dog vs BCS teams. And, all three of those ATS losses have come to Oregon, one each for three striaght years.
Rutgers is no Oregon! They are playing their first game without the intangible face of the program Ray Rice. He carried the ball nearly five times as much as anyone else did for the Knights last year. They are breaking in a lot of new faces on the line. While their WRs are good, I think the questions up front and along the line, might be a huge factor in the opener. Teal is a solid QB, but he has had turnover and consistency issues throughout his career. I feel that will rear its head in this contest.
Fresno looks primed for a very nice season. They have an efficient QB who had a 3 to 1 TD to INT ratio last year and a bevy of backs who saw extensive action last year, plus virtually their entire OL intact. They moved at will against Georgia Tech and Kansas State in late season games last year. Think the same thing happens here.
I see Rutgers as a short fav, maybe 3 to four points. I will take those points even if I expect Fresno to pull off the outright win. They might be a public doggie, which scares me, but I think they get a big win to open their season and set up a rather alrge showdown with Wisco a couple weeks later in the Valley.
Just an early lean.....long summer ahead of us....we'll see how these teams and everyone else looks during practice.
