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Westsider Rider

Friday, September 29, 2006

Picks of the Week

It seems as if I'm stuck in this 2-3 slump as it has happened again for the 3rd week in a row bringing the year to date record at 11-9. I feel much better about this week though so hopefully things will turn around. Starting off this week tonight with:

Rutgers -4 @ South Florida - The Scarlet Knights are off to their best start in decades as they are 4-0 and even ranked in the top 25. Brian Leonard and Ray Rice lead the charge as they head to South Florida who is coming off a 13-7 loss following two tight victories over heavyweights Florida International and Central Florida. It's Friday night on the road so advantage USF but this Rutgers team was beaten at home by the Bulls last year so they will be out for payback.

Nevada -3.5 @ UNLV - Nevada was good to me last week as they pulled a great backdoor cover by taking an INT back to the house with less than 3 minutes to play to cover against Northwestern. Part of my belief in them is because when I played college fantasy football the past two years I had their QB Jeff Rowe who put up some big games for me and I believe the pistol offense is difficult to prepare for as not many teams in the country run it. This is a rivalry game so you never know what can happen but I believe the Wolfpack will pull it out in Vegas.

Oregon +1 @ Arizona State - The Sun Devils are coming off a whopping by Cal up at Berkeley and it doesn't get any easier for them as the Oregon Ducks come to town. The Ducks head to Tempe a week removed from their controversial 34-33 win over the Oklahoma Sooners. Led by Dennis Dixon and Johnathan Stewart I believe the Ducks will come out on all cylinders ready to prove to the nation that they are for real and send Arizona State into a deeper tailspin.

California -9.5 @ Oregon State - The Golden Bears head to Corvallis after a convincing win over Arizona State. Nathan Longshore has buckled down after a terrible performance to start the season in Knoxville and Cal is starting to look like the team that many thought would challenge USC for the Pac-10. The Beavers have dominated the games they should have, big wins over Eastern Washington and Idaho but got blown out at Boise State, I believe they are more like the team that got blown out by Boise State and I expect Cal to keep rolling with a big W.

Clemson -33.5 vs. Louisiana Tech - The Clemson Tigers did whatever they wanted to on the ground last week against North Carolina and it should be even easier to do against Louisiana Tech. The Tiger rushing attack looks to keep running against the Bulldogs who have been blown out by the major conference teams they have played Nebraska and Texas A&M, Clemson is better than both of them. I try to stay away from games with spreads this large but after what Clemson has shown the past two weeks I think they are for real.

Bonus pick: I have been betting additional games this season which has kept me afloat as it seems my unpublished picks are hitting more than my published ones. So because of that I've got two more games I'm betting this week which are:

Temple +34 @ Vanderbilt - yes Temple is bad but they are playing Vanderbilt, who although has been respectable I highly doubt they can ever cover spreads this big, even my boy who went to Vandy agrees with this as Vandy is not used to being a huge favorite. They are 3-0 against the spread against BCS conference teams but they are 0-1 against non-BCS teams ATS so I hope that continues this week against the Owls.

Houston +16.5 @ Miami - The Cougars are a surprise 4-0 after a big win against Oklahoma State. Houston is led by Kevin Kolb, another player I had on my college fantasy team, and he has been lighting it up this year as he is averaging almost 300 yards per game along with 3 TD's and he has only thrown 1 INT so far. Miami is in the unthinkable position of being 1-2 and many are calling for Larry Coker's job. I don't know if Houston can pull off the upset but I do expect them to hang around and make it a game.

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