Bets for the week...

I have been on fire this football season and I have no intention of letting up.  I am up $1,800 this last week and am very confident about my selections going into this weekend.  My bookie Tommy Knuckles is up A LOT of monopoly dollars due to some Wall Street hot shots who like to make four figure wagers going 2-18 this past weekend.  Time to get some of that Wall Street money my way. Lets get to the picks:

Duke +3 over Georgia Tech, risking $110 to win $100: Duke (4-1) just had a bye week coming off a tough loss to Miami.  Georgia Tech meanwhile is coming off a big home win against those same Miami Hurricanes.  GT is 5-0 and their triple option offense appears to be clicking. Playing at home against Duke, this should be a lock for the Yellow Jackets right? Not quite.  Duke has has two weeks to prepare for this Georgia Tech offense.  David Cutcliffe is one of the most underrated coaches in the country and will have the Blue Devils ready.  Georgia Tech while undefeated has shown themselves to be vulnerable beating Georgia Southern by only 4 points and at times struggling against a bad Tulane side.  I like Duke straight up.  

BYU vs UCF Under 47 points, Risking $220 to win $200:  UCF has a pathetic offense.

Taysom Hill recovering from surgery

It is becoming more apparent by the week that UCF will be carried by their defense this campaign.  BYU lost their darkhorse heisman candidate quarterback in Taysom Hill last week adding injury to insult
as they lost to in state rival Utah State bursting their playoff aspirations.  They are also nursing major injuries on both sides of the ball.  BYU has a bad secondary but I do not believe UCF's anemic offense will be able to expose Cougars weaknesses.  The line has moved down to 44.5 as sharp money pounded that line down from the 47 points I got originally.  While 2.5 points is significant, I think there is still value in that low line of 44.5 total points.

The USF bandwagon is empty

East Carolina -14.5 over USF, risking $220 to win $200:  USF is a bad team.  There is no way around it.  That stadium will be empty and USF will have no home field advantage.  I like the Pirates big breaking the hearts of the hundreds of USF fans that actually show up to the game.  While EZU struggled on defense last week, they will step up this weekend against the 117th ranked passing and 95th ranked rushing offense.  USF makes UCF' offense look like the New Orleans Saints.  While our directionally challenged neighbors from Tampa have a good defense, I have a hard time believing they will contain this high flying Pirate offense for four quarters.  Take EZU to win big.

Memphis -7 over Houston, Risking $240 to win $200:  Memphis is the surprise team of the AAC.  With a fairly easy conference schedule, Memphis might actually be the favorites to win the conference title this season. Their biggest obstacle lies in the Houston Cougars who lost in pathetic form to UCF last week.  The Cougars lost their #2 Wide Receiver Daniel Spencer to an ACL tear this week and will be starting Freshman Quarterback Greg Ward Jr over struggling John O'Korn.  The wheels are falling off for a Houston side that had high expectations going into this season.  These are two teams trending in opposite directions.  The line is now at 8.5.  I still find value in this line.  Memphis wins big.

Texas A&M -3 over Ole Miss, Risking $200 to win $200

Four team teaser: 
Duke +16 over Duke
LSU vs Florida under 60 points
EZU -2 over USF
Steelers +15 over the Cleveland Browns
Risking $500 to win $417

No Joy, Just Relief...

Summary: Led by a strong defensive effort, UCF managed to win an ugly game 17-12 over Houston.  UCF capitalized on a late forced fumble caused by Brandon Alexander to force a turnover by Quarterback Greg Ward Jr in the UCF endzone for a touchback. This key play avoided a possible game winning touchdown for the Cougars.

Blowhard James O'Korn

The Good: UCF's defense was put in an awful position all night because of our bumbling offense. UCF had only 228 yards of offense, completing only 6-18 passes for 100 passing yards and averaging a mere 127 rushing yards on 37 attempts. As a result UCF defense was constantly put in a position where Houston had a short field in front of them.  While Houston had many drives deep into UCF territory, our defense held strong and prevented the Cougars from reaching the endzone.  Clayton Geathers had one of his best games in his UCF career as his interception led to an early 7-6 lead that UCF would not relinquish again.  The senior made numerous key tackles in the first quarter preventing UCF from getting in a big early deficit.

The Bad:  Justin Holman had a a night to forget.  With a mere 100 yards passing, Holman made all UCF fans realize that we still face uncertainty at the QB position.   The bulk came from a 52 yard touchdown pass to Breshad Perriman which was a direct consequence of Houston's inept secondary tackling.  The Knights were a mere 5-14 on third down and held the ball for five minutes less than Houston on offense.  Considering our conservative style of play, that is a major problem. UCF also had an uncharacteristically undisciplined game as we had 10 penalties for for 90 yards.

Moving forward:  If UCF is to succeed this season in conference play, we will do so on the back of our defense.  Our secondary is outstanding as Brandon Alexander, Jacoby Glenn and Clayton Geathers are all playing at high levels.  While UCF is littered with playmakers at wide receiver, our woes at quarterback and offensive line prevent us from getting them the ball. We now face a Top 25 BYU averaging over 37 points per game led by darkhorse Heisman Candidate in Taysom Hill.  If we even have a punchers chance, we must play A LOT better. We were fortunate to beat Houston.  Were it not for a mistake by an overly ambitious backup freshmen quarterback in Greg Ward, UCF loses that game in agonizing fashion.  As good as our defense played yesterday, we were on the ropes the fourth quarter and literally got saved by the bell.   In college football you never apologize for winning, particularly in conference and on the road.  With that said, we leave this game with little joy, a lot of question marks and lots of relief.