By Paul Schmidt
OK, sports fans, welcome back for week three of college football! This week is marked with…well, not a ton of marquee matchups. It’s kind of a dull week after going through the games. That doesn’t mean you can’t make money though!
You know, unless you listen to me….ouch. 1-3 last week? 3-5 for the season? Man. That’s just depressing. However, the MAC love I’ve been proposing…it paid off last week if you went with it!
Let’s take a look at this week’s games, including a pretty consistent foray into marquee games…
Florida -30, at home against Tennessee
I think at this point everyone knows the story…on National Signing day last year for college football, Tennessee’s new head coach Layne Kiffen thought it would be a good idea to call Florida and their head coach Urban Meyer a bunch of cheaters and send in reports to the NCAA.
It probably would have helped if anything Kiffen alleged was actually true.
Meyer and his team have been pretty tight-lipped about this game, but make no mistake…Florida could hang 100 on them. And Florida’s defense is going to be ready to absolutely tee off on the Vols. I’d go as far to say that this is an iron-clad lock this week.
Iowa -4 at home against Arizona
I’m not a huge fan of this Iowa offense, which had trouble scoring points against Northern Iowa, for heaven’s sake. And Arizona’s D is for real, which is saying something because they are in the Pac-10…for instance, they shut down my Man-Crush, Dan LeFevour of Central Michigan, completely, and he put up 350 yards of passing against Michigan State in their upset win last week.
However, I think Arizona’s is comparably awful when compared to their defense. And Iowa’s D is better than Arizona’s.
And finally, there’s this. Generally, if teams are viewed as equal, you’ll see the home team as a three-point favorite. Are we really to believe that Iowa is only one point better than Arizona on a neutral field? Color me skeptical while I lay the points.
Texas -18.5 at home against Texas Tech
Two words — “Revenge Game”. The Red Raiders should be wildly overmatched in this one, as a whole new of position players get used to starting. This is Texas’ first marquee matchup of the season and want to make up for their one mistake last year. Look for this one to get ugly.
Washington +19 at home over USC
You know…I don’t have any other reason for this other than a hunch. I love Jake Locker. I think he’s a great QB. The chosen one, Matt Barkley, is hurt and not playing (and if you noticed that this was up a little later on Friday, the reason is that I was waiting for this particular bit of information). There probably will be a little bit of a let down after last week’s HUGE road win against Ohio State.
Again, I’m not saying the Huskies will win. But I think that the other foot finally drops for USC this week, and that Jake Locker is a great enough athlete that he can overcome an amazing USC defense.
Good luck this week!
Last week: 1-3
For the Season: 3-5