Thursday Night Vindication

Big ups to Andy Gresh in yesterday's ESPN U College Football Insider Podcast for calling out the disrespect to Boise State after their coming-out season last year.

Quoth Gresh: "... and finally in the Top 25, Weber State at #24 Boise State. I hope Boise crushes, I wanna see them win a ton of games this year because I think it's disrespectul that Boise State, off of last year's finish, is #24 in the country.... Maybe I'm honking out for the small conferences, but I don't care: HOW can Boise State only be ranked 24th!!?!?! How can that happen? It's embarrassing!!"

And 'crush' they did. In fitting style last night they pummeled (admittedly I-AA) Weber State to the tune of 28 first quarter points en route to a 49-0 tally at half time, before calling off the dogs big time and crusing to a 56-7 victory. In any case they lived up to Gresh's call and made a fine statement going into next weekend's contest up in Seattle.

But signs of vindication were everywhere last night. Rutgers and LSU also lived up to the hype making their opponents look inept in convincing, cruise-control victories that also happened to safely cover the enormous spreads set in both games.

It was an auspicious evening for me, if not the Vegas bookies, and a great way to set the tone for this weekend's gambling picks which will be forthcoming later in the day.

Mainly, I'm torn on the Cal/Tennessee game. I bought into the West Coast hype last year and am still feeling the burn. Switters ran into the UT Vols in an Oakland hotel last night and confirmed that they are big and wear a lot of orange. So they're going to show up. Stil Ainge has a broken pinkie finger in his throwing hand. A sign of the apocalypse for the Vols? Thoughts? Advice? I'm ruminating.

The Season is ON!

Well, we've officially made it through the desert of the off-season as four of the top 25 teams in the country take the field tonight to kickoff the 2007 season.

LSU @ Miss. State
Buffalo @ Rutgers
Weber State @ Boise State
Murray State @ Louisville

As it's the first flight of games of the first week of the season my sense on betting these games is a little underdeveloped. But oth I-A only games have seemingly tempting lines and it's been so long my need for a fix is overwhelming, so here's my initial inkling:

*Earlier this week when the spread was 21.5 I was thinking 'LSU's a defensive team this year since I can't name their starting QB or RB off the top of my head and a defensive end is hogging the pre-season hype.' Given that double-digit home underdogs are generally good bets against the spread and it's crunch time for Sylvester Croom, I was liking Miss State to beat the initial spread in a valiant home loss against the Tigers. But something magical happens when a spread slips under the three-touchdown barrier and the #2 team in the land is involved. I'm taking the Tigers to cover 19.5

*Buffalo is the worst team in 1-A and facing off against a Rutgers team ready to prove that last year was no fluke. Ray Rice rocks and rolls tonight and Rutgers covers the enormous -31.5 riding on their head.

Going large on big spreads, here goes nothing...