I just realized that I neglected to honor our veterans last week.
So let me go ahead and do that through some college football handicapping.
College Football Betting Sites
Air Force is in action on Friday, but because we’re only covering Saturday games, we won’t do that one. However, Army and Navy are both in action a few weeks in advance of their annual blood rivalry game.
And did you know that Virginia Tech and Texas A&M are officially designated as “Senior Military Colleges”? Yup, and I bet you didn’t know that. Go and look it up.
Virginia Tech at Miami Parlay Betting
Virginia Tech vs. Miami Picks
Time: Saturday, November 20 – 7:30 PM ET
ATS Odds: Miami Hurricanes -7.5 (-110) vs. Virginia Tech Hokies +7.5 (-110)
The Play: VIRGINIA TECH +7.5 (-110)
Well, Virginia Tech has already fired coach Justin Fuente, and it looks as if Miami is going to dump Manny Diaz at the end of the season. There was one sign of what’s to come on Tuesday, when athletic director Blake James, who made the hire of Diaz, was canned.
Diaz has also been embroiled in a controversy over a call in the waning moments of last Saturday’s game, dropping eight men into coverage and rushing only three when Florida State had a fourth down and 14 yards to go. What happened, of course, was that FSU converted the first down and subsequently scored the winner.
So what else can go wrong? Plenty, when you execute (or don’t, as it were) on the fundamentals like Miami has. If you took the ten worst teams out of the 130 FBS squads in terms of penalties and turnovers, the Hurricanes would be on both of those lists. And against other FBS competition, they are 0-5 against the spread laying points.
Massachusetts at Army Parlay Betting
Massachusetts vs. Army Picks
Time: Saturday, November 20 – Noon ET
ATS Odds: Army Cadets -37 (-110) vs. Massachusetts Minutemen
The Play: ARMY -37 (-110)
We usually don’t deal with numbers this high. But has anyone asked UMass what it’s doing playing FBS (Division I Football)?
Some of their losing margins have been embarrassing – 44 points to Pitt, 50 to Coastal Carolina, 38 to Toledo, 56 to Florida State, 45 to Liberty. And to put the icing on the cake, consecutive double-digit losses to “small” colleges Rhode Island and Maine (neither of which is nationally-ranked in the FCS), by a combined 38 points. No, don’t fire the coach; he’s already been fired (Walt Bell).
UMass is allowing six yards per rushing attempt. Now along comes Army, which is second in the nation in rushing. And on top of that, even though they do it infrequently, they are #1 in the nation in team passer rating. That looks favorable in comparison to either Brady Olson (5.3 yards /attempt) or Colorado transfer Tyler Lytle.
West Point showed what it can do against this caliber of opponent (well, almost this caliber) with a 63-10 win over Bucknell last time out. And Navy’s still well off on the horizon. Yeah, lay it.3
East Carolina at Navy Parlay Betting
East Carolina vs. Navy Picks
Time: Saturday, November 20 – 3:30 PM ET
ATS Odds: East Carolina Pirates -4 (-110) vs. Navy Midshipmen +4 (-110)
The Play: NAVY +4 (-110)
So what does Navy have to look forward to this season? Well, of course there is the showdown with Army, which is a few weeks off. For a team with a 2-7 record, that would provide more than just a little consolation.
But perhaps the Midshipmen might catch East Carolina napping a little. The Pirates just qualified for a bowl bid this past weekend in a thrilling overtime victory over Memphis. So while they are living that down, there is also the business of trying to get ready for Navy’s unique option attack, and it’s going to be a difficult task even without the “letdown” situation.
The Middies, who are coming off a bye, have not been dominant on the ground, as they have been in some previous seasons, but they are still rather formidable, ranking 15th in the nation in rushing yards per game. And they stuck right with better opponents than this within their own American Conference, staying within a single possession against SMU, Houston and third-ranked Cincinnati. They’re a barking dog.
Nebraska at Wisconsin Parlay Betting
Time: Saturday, November 20 – 3:30 PM ET
ATS Odds: Wisconsin Badgers -9 (-110) vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers +9 (-110)
The Play: WISCONSIN -9 (-110)
What gives us a little pause here is that Nebraska has managed to play Oklahoma, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue all within seven points, giving them all some anxiety. And Ohio State only beat them 26-17.
But do we really want to buck Wisconsin now? They’re playing very much like a top ten team, allowing 44 points in the last six. And they are #1 in Total Defense, 31.6 ypg ahead of #2 (Georgia).
Braelon Allen is a name you’re going to be hearing next season as a Heisman candidate. This freshman is still only 17, and he played a seven-game season of high school ball in the SPRING! Right now he is on a run of six straight 100-yard games.
UAB at UTSA Parlay Betting
Time: Saturday, November 20 – 3:30 PM ET
ATS Odds: UTSA Roadrunners -4 (-110) vs. UAB Blazers +4 (-110)
The Play: UTSA -4 (-110)
UTSA is undefeated and nationally ranked, most notably 15th by the Associated Press poll. But they were anything but impressive this past weekend, as they needed a couple of turnovers in the last six minutes of the game to create the winning margin against Southern Miss, a team that, as we speak, is dead last in total offense in the nation.
But maybe we can chalk that up to USM’s strange offensive scheme, which hasd running back Frank Gore Jr. taking the snaps, as well as a look-ahead to this Conference USA showdown. A lot of people in the Alamodome crowd may be expecting that this game will be dominated by defense and played close to the vest. In that case, you have to figure the difference maker here might be Sincere McCormick, who’s got 1150 yards on the ground and was named to some All-American teams last season. Quarterback Frank Harris is the second leading rusher and has a nifty ratio of 20 touchdown passes to only five interceptions.
And by the way, we were not all that impressed with the Blazers when they moved up in class a little and lost by 24 points to Liberty. What’s that say?
Prairie View A&M at Texas A&M Parlay Betting
Prairie View A&M vs. Texas A&M Picks
Time: Saturday, November 20 – Noon ET
ATS Odds: Texas A&M Aggies -45.5 (-110) vs. Prairie View A&M Panthers +45.5 (-110)
The Play: PRAIRIE VIEW A&M +45.5 (-110)
Prairie View (7-2) has a Division I (FBS) transfer at quarterback in Jawon Pass, a very highly-touted recruit who was more or less the first-stringer at Louisville before getting injured. This is actually his sixth season of college football. He’s got 2363 yards and 16 TD’s.
In their last game, the Panthers came back from a 31-8 deficit to score the last 21 points against Alcorn State but still lost 31-29. Generally they’ve been pretty tough against the run (3.4 ypc allowed).
Texas A&M, which holds a win over Alabama but lost to Ole Miss last week, has a date with LSU next week, but they’re not going to the SEC title game.
They could conceivably do a gratuitous blowout, but Pass might be able to leave a huge back door open against a team that has to be looking ahead.