Time is flying already ladies and gentlemen!!
We're onto week four of the season and we're going to start truly getting into the conference season. Things should start popping now and I for one am pretty excited about a few of these matches coming up!
Quick recap of last week...
Michigan was able to 'get right' in a few ways after the bad loss at Oklahoma. The bottom line is this -- they tried to shorten the Sooners game and play it tight when they are built to be a different team. That night was too much coddling and frankly stifling your new OC. Now, I understand that the OL wasn't up to par -- and that is a big part of it -- but they didn't give themselves their best chance at all. Anyways, last week Sherrone made a concerted effort to work with the OL all week. That is his bread and butter. They were much better vs Central. Yes, the Chips are awful but you could see the improvements.
The shock of the week was Bryce Underwood running for over 100 yards. Does he have that talent? Yup. Have they stated they are protecting him due to depth? Big-time. I'm assuming they wanted to show Nebraska some things and hopefully have some variations coming next week. We'll see. He needs to learn to protect himself a bit better though.
The biggest thing besides a more cohesive OL was the fact Chip was able to freely run his offense. Guys like @HUNT and myself are real exited about what he brings to the table and you saw what can happen when he's firing on all cylinders. Tougher competition will be the test of how well he can adapt. I for one, am excited to see what he has in store!
Alright, now onto the rest of the conference...
Indiana (not Indy) looked in fine form vs Larry Bird U and never really took the foot off the gas. Now that the cupcakes are done, they host the Illini in a BIG ONE that we'll get into much more this week...
Nice 2nd half by the Buckeyes and over 10 ypp this week in practice game. Two interceptions are the only issue I see...
Penn State has been coasting through 10 quarters this year until finally going for the jugular in the 2h vs Nova. That last second wild Nova TD is fitting for how Frames is treating the faithful bettors so far this year...
I feel pretty good about how I capped Oregon at N'western. The typical slow start you expect for a 9am 'body start' game. Value was created on TT's there by early 2nd quarter and money was made. Good under game (49 or 49.5) that was nearly moosed!!
Nice shutout by Illinois aagainst the Broncos in their tune-up for the Hoosiers game. Clean game and solid defense. Not much else you could ask for!
Wisconsin made a run at the ATS with a few 2nd half TD's but they are nowhere near ready to compete with a top 15 team like Alabama. I found one positive -- they were solid on 3rd down conversions.
Nebraska with two straight tune-ups before their signature early season game this coming week. HBU was not match and the Huskers offense was pretty crisp from what I saw...
Michigan State improved to 3-0 but the signature win vs BC is looking less stellar after this past week. Either way, they have to be happy with the growth of Chiles this year. Now, that OL is not good and the pass defense is brutal! Youngstown racked up 24 points and A LOT of chunk passes! Well talk a lot more about this in a bit...
Maryland and Rutgers took care of bad teams. Yeehaw...
No Taylor for Minnesota and despite being outplayed they led for a spell in the 3rd quarter. That was short-lived and they lost by DD's to a sneaky Cal team. Yardage ended up pretty even after a slow start but the 2-0 turnover deficit was their undoing.
After a long delay, USC grabbed a win in West Lafayette. This game went under despite 800 yards of offense. Pretty smooth game for SC except for the 9 penalties. Need to clean that up!
Alright, we're onto next week!!
Iowa @ Rutgers (+2.5 and 45) on a Friday night is really all you can ask for! A few of us have been pretty adamant about how bad this Knights defense is. Can Iowa take advantage with their prehistoric offense? That seems to be the cap here.
Illinois @ Indiana (-4.5 and 52.5) Prime-time game in Bloomington with what I see as one of the bigger games of the conference season. The Illinois schedule gives them a chance at championship game appearance if they can win here and not slip up in the winnable games until November. This is big for them. On the flip, the Hoosiers have played straight garbage so far and I am sure are eager to show they are up to the task! The Hoosiers are on the the most talked about teams the past 12 months due to both success and schedules... this is a great time to put up or shut-up!
Maryland @ Wisconsin (-9.5 and 43.5) is a game I won't be involved in. Frankly, I don't have much of a read on these teams. I sense @Timh isn't too happy with the 2025 Terrapins team and Fondy isn't too happy with the Fickell era either!
Oregon State @ Oregon (-35 and 55.5) brings us a Civil War at the end of the summer. Who would have thought that possible?? Here's the thing -- Oregon heads to Penn State NEXT WEEK for a top 5 match-up. The Ducks are doing the West to East to West to East stretch here and I think this Saturday is about honoring the rivalry while prepping for a BIG TEST!
Michigan State @ USC (-17.5 and 55.5) has the locals here up in arms as this game kicks at 11pm eastern! LOL. You know your boy Reno loves it! Plus, this has been my most anticipated betting game of the year for around 8-9 days... I've been plotting and locked in the first part of the bet Saturday night around 1am. Huge value already looking at this current line. Wow. Both teams will score, but the Trojans will score A LOT MORE. I have the side, I'll have USC Team totals and I'll likely have the game over as well. My early thought here is 42-21 or so. I like this match-up, a lot, for totals. I took the side because the # was at flat 14. I wouldn't touch it now. I may jump in at 55.5 here sooner rather than later.
Michigan @ Nebraska (+2.5 and 46.5) is such a big game early. Rhule and the Huskers need a 'name' win. This would be it, no matter how good or bad you think this years Michigan team is. Before the season, we knew that games @ Oklahoma @ Nebraska and @ USC in the first half of the year would be the litmus test. They best win one of those and if they want to be a factor they'll need two of them. Big game both ways. We'll get into this one a bit more but I invite @cubsker and @huss to jump in right away...
Purdue @ Notre Dame (-26.5 and 55.5) renews an old rivalry and the Irish need a win badly. They'll grab the win here but how hungover will they be to start? That is the cap I would be looking at for potential bets. Purdue with another tough one at home -- good for the fans but bd for the team record.
Washington @ Washington State (+20.5 and 53) renews the ole Apple Cup. Washington offense has been very kind to me this year on some bets in the first few weeks. Just like Oregon, this is a bit of a lookahead. Why? Ohio State visits next week.
Alright...
Now, let's get to discussing! I'll be more active this week as my work life is pretty tame this week. I'll be concentrating on the UM-NU, MSU-USC and IU-ILLY games the most. I am fascinated by all three of those.
Again, we have a Friday night game so let us pick that one apart as well!
DISCUSS!!
We're onto week four of the season and we're going to start truly getting into the conference season. Things should start popping now and I for one am pretty excited about a few of these matches coming up!
Quick recap of last week...
Michigan was able to 'get right' in a few ways after the bad loss at Oklahoma. The bottom line is this -- they tried to shorten the Sooners game and play it tight when they are built to be a different team. That night was too much coddling and frankly stifling your new OC. Now, I understand that the OL wasn't up to par -- and that is a big part of it -- but they didn't give themselves their best chance at all. Anyways, last week Sherrone made a concerted effort to work with the OL all week. That is his bread and butter. They were much better vs Central. Yes, the Chips are awful but you could see the improvements.
The shock of the week was Bryce Underwood running for over 100 yards. Does he have that talent? Yup. Have they stated they are protecting him due to depth? Big-time. I'm assuming they wanted to show Nebraska some things and hopefully have some variations coming next week. We'll see. He needs to learn to protect himself a bit better though.
The biggest thing besides a more cohesive OL was the fact Chip was able to freely run his offense. Guys like @HUNT and myself are real exited about what he brings to the table and you saw what can happen when he's firing on all cylinders. Tougher competition will be the test of how well he can adapt. I for one, am excited to see what he has in store!
Alright, now onto the rest of the conference...
Indiana (not Indy) looked in fine form vs Larry Bird U and never really took the foot off the gas. Now that the cupcakes are done, they host the Illini in a BIG ONE that we'll get into much more this week...
Nice 2nd half by the Buckeyes and over 10 ypp this week in practice game. Two interceptions are the only issue I see...
Penn State has been coasting through 10 quarters this year until finally going for the jugular in the 2h vs Nova. That last second wild Nova TD is fitting for how Frames is treating the faithful bettors so far this year...
I feel pretty good about how I capped Oregon at N'western. The typical slow start you expect for a 9am 'body start' game. Value was created on TT's there by early 2nd quarter and money was made. Good under game (49 or 49.5) that was nearly moosed!!
Nice shutout by Illinois aagainst the Broncos in their tune-up for the Hoosiers game. Clean game and solid defense. Not much else you could ask for!
Wisconsin made a run at the ATS with a few 2nd half TD's but they are nowhere near ready to compete with a top 15 team like Alabama. I found one positive -- they were solid on 3rd down conversions.
Nebraska with two straight tune-ups before their signature early season game this coming week. HBU was not match and the Huskers offense was pretty crisp from what I saw...
Michigan State improved to 3-0 but the signature win vs BC is looking less stellar after this past week. Either way, they have to be happy with the growth of Chiles this year. Now, that OL is not good and the pass defense is brutal! Youngstown racked up 24 points and A LOT of chunk passes! Well talk a lot more about this in a bit...
Maryland and Rutgers took care of bad teams. Yeehaw...
No Taylor for Minnesota and despite being outplayed they led for a spell in the 3rd quarter. That was short-lived and they lost by DD's to a sneaky Cal team. Yardage ended up pretty even after a slow start but the 2-0 turnover deficit was their undoing.
After a long delay, USC grabbed a win in West Lafayette. This game went under despite 800 yards of offense. Pretty smooth game for SC except for the 9 penalties. Need to clean that up!
Alright, we're onto next week!!
Iowa @ Rutgers (+2.5 and 45) on a Friday night is really all you can ask for! A few of us have been pretty adamant about how bad this Knights defense is. Can Iowa take advantage with their prehistoric offense? That seems to be the cap here.
Illinois @ Indiana (-4.5 and 52.5) Prime-time game in Bloomington with what I see as one of the bigger games of the conference season. The Illinois schedule gives them a chance at championship game appearance if they can win here and not slip up in the winnable games until November. This is big for them. On the flip, the Hoosiers have played straight garbage so far and I am sure are eager to show they are up to the task! The Hoosiers are on the the most talked about teams the past 12 months due to both success and schedules... this is a great time to put up or shut-up!
Maryland @ Wisconsin (-9.5 and 43.5) is a game I won't be involved in. Frankly, I don't have much of a read on these teams. I sense @Timh isn't too happy with the 2025 Terrapins team and Fondy isn't too happy with the Fickell era either!
Oregon State @ Oregon (-35 and 55.5) brings us a Civil War at the end of the summer. Who would have thought that possible?? Here's the thing -- Oregon heads to Penn State NEXT WEEK for a top 5 match-up. The Ducks are doing the West to East to West to East stretch here and I think this Saturday is about honoring the rivalry while prepping for a BIG TEST!
Michigan State @ USC (-17.5 and 55.5) has the locals here up in arms as this game kicks at 11pm eastern! LOL. You know your boy Reno loves it! Plus, this has been my most anticipated betting game of the year for around 8-9 days... I've been plotting and locked in the first part of the bet Saturday night around 1am. Huge value already looking at this current line. Wow. Both teams will score, but the Trojans will score A LOT MORE. I have the side, I'll have USC Team totals and I'll likely have the game over as well. My early thought here is 42-21 or so. I like this match-up, a lot, for totals. I took the side because the # was at flat 14. I wouldn't touch it now. I may jump in at 55.5 here sooner rather than later.
Michigan @ Nebraska (+2.5 and 46.5) is such a big game early. Rhule and the Huskers need a 'name' win. This would be it, no matter how good or bad you think this years Michigan team is. Before the season, we knew that games @ Oklahoma @ Nebraska and @ USC in the first half of the year would be the litmus test. They best win one of those and if they want to be a factor they'll need two of them. Big game both ways. We'll get into this one a bit more but I invite @cubsker and @huss to jump in right away...
Purdue @ Notre Dame (-26.5 and 55.5) renews an old rivalry and the Irish need a win badly. They'll grab the win here but how hungover will they be to start? That is the cap I would be looking at for potential bets. Purdue with another tough one at home -- good for the fans but bd for the team record.
Washington @ Washington State (+20.5 and 53) renews the ole Apple Cup. Washington offense has been very kind to me this year on some bets in the first few weeks. Just like Oregon, this is a bit of a lookahead. Why? Ohio State visits next week.
Alright...
Now, let's get to discussing! I'll be more active this week as my work life is pretty tame this week. I'll be concentrating on the UM-NU, MSU-USC and IU-ILLY games the most. I am fascinated by all three of those.
Again, we have a Friday night game so let us pick that one apart as well!
DISCUSS!!
Hawkeye punt returner Wetjen named BIG player of the week as UMass punter outpunted the coverage several times. Wetjen can motor!
