Drew Gordon
Today's Games...
1. 400,000♦ Texas Tech
2. 50,000♦ Air Force
1. Texas Tech- You want to talk mismatches? Well, today's match up between the high-powered Red Raiders offense and the Wildcats paper mache defense, may go down as the biggest mismatch of the week!
Guys, over the last two weeks we've seen the true face of this Kansas State D, getting totally exposed by Louisville and then UL Lafayette the following week, allowing a whopping 75 points combined in those contests! Sure, they looked great against the likes of North Texas and Montana State, but once they started to play some real competition (and UL Lafayette is hardly "real" competition) we saw what this unit was capable of, and it ain't much!
Enter Graham Harrell and this Red Raiders offense, which averages almost 46 ppg on 426 passing yards per contest! They've been downright nasty in winning all 4 games this season, and in their only real road test, at Nevada, they passed with flying colors, beating the Wolfpack 35-19 for the easy win and cover! Not only that, but Texas Tech comes into this game off a bye, which means they should be especially prepared to exploit the weak-ass Kansas State defense in this one!
On the flip side, once calling himself the "best QB in the Big 12" Josh Freeman looked anything but at Louisville, and while he had a great game agaisnt a sorry-ass UL Lafayette defense last week, he'll be tested once again this afternoon by the Red Raiders young, but solid stop-unit. Again look for coach Leach to have his defense ready with an extra week to prepare, and with an improved D-line thanks to a slew of transfers (allowing only 100 rushing yards per game on 3.2 yards per rush) and a ball-hawking secondary (10 picks) this Red Raiders defense is more than capable of slowing the Wildcats attack.
Bottom line, huge mismatch here, as the Red Raiders offense can and will shred a Wildcats stop-unit which hasn't been able to stop anybody the past two weeks! On the other side of the ball, while K-State will score points, it won't be nearly as consistently as they need to keep pace with the Red Raiders. Coming off a bye, look for Graham Harrell and company to drop the hammer on this Wildcats team Saturday afternoon.
Take Texas Tech over Kansas State as your top-rated play of the day.
2. Air Force- Interesting match up here, as Navy has owned this series of late, and coming off big-time wins in back-to-back weeks over Rutgers and Wake Forest, you'd think they'd be the play here... Think again, as Air Force has the two biggest factors in this match up in their favor - Revenge & an extra week to prepare!
Clearly, the Falcons hold the strong revenge edge, incl. losing 31-20 to Navy last season on the road. But its not only that, as they're final game before the bye was a tough home loss to Utah, where they were held to an embrassaing 53 rushing yards on 42 carries (or 1.9 yards per rush). You know damn well coach Calhoun used the extra week to work on his offense, and they should run the ball far more efficiently against a much smaller Navy defense in this one.
Navy on the other hand, could be in for a major letdown here, coming off a huge upset win at Wake Forest last week. Clearly the Demon Deacons were in a big-time letdown spot themsleves, and that's exactly what happened. Playing their 4th away game in 5 weeks, and facing a team coming off a bye, is a recipe for disaster as far as I'm concerned.
Finally, did you know the Falcons have covered 10 straight regular season games?! They've been a cash-cow at home for a long time now, and coming off a tough home loss to Utah, I expect they'll come out fired up in this one. In the end, the Falcons have the motivational, situational, and preparational edges necessary to both win and cover this contest, and that's exactly what they'll do!
Take Air Force over Navy in afternoon college football action.
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Good luck today all!
My personal plays -- PSU, OhioSt, TTech, USC, and Florida
