Author: rickro51

IU has an intriguing opener tonight in Miami against FIU.  The line on the game has been moving up to 10.5.  FIU has an experienced QB in Alex McGough (pronounced “Magoo”) and gave IU all they could handle last year in Bloomington.

Given that IU lost a stellar QB, stellar RB and an All American Left Tackle, this is quite a compliment to the IU program….The public is saying Reload.  RickRock is not quite so sure about that.

I really enjoy seeing how many wins the betting public thinks a team will win during the course of the season.

Two teams that have a great chance to surprise:

Wake Forest.  Their predicted number of wins is 5.5….Granted, the Demon Deacons have suffered 5 consecutive losing seasons and are coming off a pair of 3-9 stinkers.

HOWEVER, consider:

Dave Clawson is in his 3rd year as Wake head man.  Usually, teams progress in the 2nd and 3rd year of a coaching reign.

Wake’s defense has been solid in the past two years (their double overtime, 2011 6-3 win over Va Tech remains a weird, unparalleled epic) and rates to be solid again.

As for the offense that was anemic in 2015, the good news is that QB John Wolford (and his 22 previous starts) returns.  It is unclear if this also constitutes bad news!

Wake has 3 titans on their schedule:  Fla St, Louisville and Clemson.  Let’s assume 3 losses:  The rest of the schedule looks tissue soft.

Wake can easily be 4-0 at the end of September.

9/3  Tulane         The Deacons are a 17 point favorite over a Tulane team  revamping their offense with new coach, Willie Fritz, the former Ga Southern            head man.

 

9/10  @ Duke     Perfect time to play the Dukies!  Last year’s starter, Thomas Sirk,  is lost for year.  With some key defensive losses and untested                                          Parker Boheme at QB, I expect Wake to win

9/17   Delaware   The FCS Blue Hens are picked to finish 8th in the Colonial:  Largely due to their anemic 2015 offensive output of 14.9 per game

9/24 @ Indiana   The Hoosier have to replace a stud QB, Nate Sudfeld, stellar RB Jordan Howard and All American Left Tackle, Jason Spriggs.

If Wake does get off to a 4-0 start, do they immediately hit a roadblock. ?  NOPE!  Their next two games are at NC State and home versus Syracuse.  The Orange are rebuilding.  Name the last quality win by the Wolfpack.

Is it remotely, miraculously possible that Wake Forest goes into their Oct 15 game at Florida State with a gaudy 6-0 record???  GameDay might even show up.  🙂  🙂

As for the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders, the season projected win total is currently 7.5.  So much to like!  The coach’s son, Soph QB Brent Stockstill, was Conference USA Freshman of the year.  Three of the toughest teams on their schedule all seem like they will not be as formidable in 2016:

Western Kentucky:  MTSU gets the Hilltoppers at home not having to deal                 with graduated superstar QB Brandon Doughty.

La Tech suffered massive graduation losses.

@ Bowling Green on 9/17.  Both head coach Dino Babers and all-MAC QB, Matt Johnson, have flown the Falcon coop.

There are also 2 SEC teams on the schedule with good defenses and subpar offenses:  Vandy and Mizzou.  Vandy will be a dangerous foe but remember that Murfreesboro is only about 30 miles from Nashville so MTSU fans will be in force.

To not exceed 7.5 wins, I believe MTSU will have to lose all 5 of the above games.  NOT going to happen!

As an afterthought, I must also mention Houston’s projected win total is either at 9 or 9.5, depending on where you look.  Even if one assumes losses to Oklahoma and Louisville (and I do not), where is the 3rd loss coming from?   Gosh, with Greg Ward Jr. and a host of other returnees, this projected win total makes it seem  as if I dreamed the Cougars’ 38-24 over FSU during bowl season.                       RickRock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of college football odyssey’s national reporters, Scott Miller, will be lucky enough to be in Texas this weekend for a fantastic double header….He will be checking in with us next week and offering his insight.

CFO is very interested in any other contributors to the site who partake in  interesting trips.  The first weekend is ideal for attending multiple games since there are games each day from Thurs thru Labor Day.

My record number of games to attend during the opening weekend is four…..in 2010:

Villanova @ Temple

Richmond @ Va

Maryland vs Navy in the Crab Bowl

Boise State vs Va Tech

We welcome comments from any who have had fun opening weekend trips to multiple games a la Scott Miller.      RickRock

 

Ohio U.’s presumptive starting QB going into August camp was JD Sprague.  Sprague had started 10 games for the Bobcats the previous 2 years.    About 10 days ago, it had been announced that Sprague had left the team…That is pretty big news and made me wonder why.

The coverage on ESPN regarding the Sprague departure:  Zip, zero, nada, aucune.   There are so many interesting stories that do not involve the Power 5 conferences. where ESPN and its media brethren tend to give virtually no coverage.  This is one of the reasons I love sites like Hustlebelt.com which covers the MAC.

It turns out Sprague was dissatisfied with progress on his surgically repaired shoulder and allegedly left the team for that reason.  But when an incumbent QB bails two weeks before its opener (against Texas St.) , that is news! !

Fear no more, COLLEGEFOOTBALLODYSSEY.com  and its investigative staff will do their best to keep you posted.   RickRock

 

Almost 50,000 Aussies will experience the joy of college football Sat afternoon!!  (their time)   Makes me tingle with anticipation.    This is the first college game in Oz since 1987 (a BYU-Colorado State tilt that was viewed by less than 10,000)

Imagine how much travel the Rainbow Warriors will have in their first two weeks of the season….They will play in Ann Arbor in 8 days.  It cracks me up that their flight to Sydney is actually shorter than the travel from Honolulu to the Big House.

Cal’s flight to Sydney was 12 hours…their scheduled reaction to jet lag was, “What jet lag?  They immediately had a practice, then took a swim in the ocean.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Hawaii’s new head coach, Nick Rolovich.  He was the QB for some high octane offenses for the Rainbow Warriors.  One of my all-time favorite games was  Hawaii’s regular season finale in 2001 against an undefeated BYU.  Rolovich and company piled on 72!!!!  in a 72-45 win that featured Owens shattering the all-time record for return yards…..if memory serves he had about 240 by the end of the first quarter!!!  Broke Tutu Atwell’s record when Atwell was a Gopher.

As the opener approaches, I am waking up each morning with a special, tingling sensation.

Openers are an animal all its special species….Kind of like bowl games.   I am always intrigued as to what the betting public thinks of each contest.   My general sense is that some teams are favored by too much in openers  — especially if they have to replace 3+ offensive line starters.  No matter how talented the big uglies may be, it takes time for them to gel as a unit.  To a lesser extent, this also applies to the coordination of the entire offensive unit.

For that reason, I think three terrific teams may be giving away too many points in the opener.

To wit:

Alabama-10   vs  USC

Stanford-15 vs KState

Oklahoma -10.5 vs Houston

Arguably, I should add LSU – 9.5 to this list, especially at Lambeau Field, but they are so talented (even with recent injuries, including DE LaCouture lfyr) that even with so-so QB play, the Tigers rate to be a load and a half.

Let me know what you think!!  Rick Rock