I'm starting my thread a little early because there a couple Big 12 lines that are sitting at a nice number right now. And I don't see them getting much better... It's good to be back fellas. I hope everyone starts out the season on a good note. All lines this season will be through Bookmaker unless otherwise indicated. And I'm sticking to my star system for grading the strength of my plays. There probably won't be a whole lot of Big 12 games for me to play in this first week. I see a lot of low hanging fruit outside of the conference that to me looks ripe for the picking.. Plus half the teams in the Big 12 will either be playing Division 2 teams or breaking in new coaches and staffs. And these are always tricky games to bet on early in the year.
** Small Play
*** Medium Play
**** Large Play (Best Bet)
Oklahoma State vs Washington State...Game will be played in Seattle. OSU will be going in with pretty much a veteran team with 20 starting juniors or seniors. As they showed this spring and summer, they'll have an improved defense, which is crucial for them winning their games on the road. They'll have a veteran O-Line (one of the best in the Big 12) and an experienced QB in Robinson.
They'll be playing a WSU team with a first year coach, new QB and offensive system. WSU also has a banged up WR corp with projected starter Anderson being out for a month and missing the opener. And another projected starter Blackledge will be questionable for the game, and missing some crucial practice time.. I think the Cougs are going to have some early problems with their new no-huddle. Especially considering the QB has had to work with one or two backup WR's. WSU should have a decent running game behind a good O-Line. But OSU will too. And whatever WSU runs, OSU should run it better in their own version of the no-huddle. Even if we call the defenses a wash here, I still don't think WSU's new offense is going to be able to match OSU score for score. One important intangible here: Gundy said he learned alot from last season when he took his young OSU team to Georgia in their opener to play between the hedges. The team got in late and never entered the stadium until it was filled up with 85,000 loud screaming Dawgs fans. So he said they had that little bit of a deer in the headlights look when they came in. And never really got over the shock..OSU started the game out bad. And it went downhill from there. Gundy said he won't make that mistake again. He's bringing the team in a day early to get assimilated to the stadium. And he says they'll be much better prepared for this game. Plus in my opinion WSU loses some of their advantage by this game not being played in their home stadium. I'm still not a big fan of betting for the Cowboys when playing on the road..Especially as favorites. But after losing to georgia and troy early, in the second half of last season this young team started to grow up a little and for the most part played better on the road. Including a blowout win over Nebraska in Lincoln and in their bowl game. So I think they should be ready to give it their best here...Taking OSU (-6) over Wash. St. **
Colorado vs Colorado State...I look for further improvements out of the Buffs in the third year of the Hawkins era. Especially on the offensive side of the ball. I saw marked improvements by their offense in the last few games of last season. Especially against Nebraska and then Bama in their bowl. The O-Line should continue to improve. They'll have a very good running game that will include VHT freshman Scott. They'll have a speedy group of WR's. And QB Hawkins, who as a freshman did a decent job against tough competetion last season after he was pretty much thrown to the wolves. He should be much improved this year in cutting down on mistakes. The defense still has a few question marks in their back seven. Their young, but they have some VHT players back there..The veteran defensive line will be the strength of the defense.
CSU will have a new coach, new offensive system and a new QB who will be taking the place of longtime starter O'Connell, who will be playing in the NFL this season. We're talking about losing a 3,000 yard passer from last season.. CSU will also have just 12 starters coming back from a 3-9 team. But the thing that I've been hearing the most is what a bad hire they made in Steve Fairchild. He was the OC in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and the Rams (2003-05), And I don't recall either of those teams ever having a great offenses while he was there. And he's got no previous head coaching experience. The big intangible here is I think this is a HUGE coaching mismatch. When Sonny Lubick was at CSU they kept this series and the games close every year. But these trends tend to get derailed when you have coaching changes as drastic as this. And I think it will show throughout the game. I see another 3-9 season coming for CSU. And after having a couple excellent nationally ranked recuiting classes, i see Colorado going nowhere but up. Two teams going different directions. Taking Colorado (-11) over Colorado State ***
** Small Play
*** Medium Play
**** Large Play (Best Bet)
Oklahoma State vs Washington State...Game will be played in Seattle. OSU will be going in with pretty much a veteran team with 20 starting juniors or seniors. As they showed this spring and summer, they'll have an improved defense, which is crucial for them winning their games on the road. They'll have a veteran O-Line (one of the best in the Big 12) and an experienced QB in Robinson.
They'll be playing a WSU team with a first year coach, new QB and offensive system. WSU also has a banged up WR corp with projected starter Anderson being out for a month and missing the opener. And another projected starter Blackledge will be questionable for the game, and missing some crucial practice time.. I think the Cougs are going to have some early problems with their new no-huddle. Especially considering the QB has had to work with one or two backup WR's. WSU should have a decent running game behind a good O-Line. But OSU will too. And whatever WSU runs, OSU should run it better in their own version of the no-huddle. Even if we call the defenses a wash here, I still don't think WSU's new offense is going to be able to match OSU score for score. One important intangible here: Gundy said he learned alot from last season when he took his young OSU team to Georgia in their opener to play between the hedges. The team got in late and never entered the stadium until it was filled up with 85,000 loud screaming Dawgs fans. So he said they had that little bit of a deer in the headlights look when they came in. And never really got over the shock..OSU started the game out bad. And it went downhill from there. Gundy said he won't make that mistake again. He's bringing the team in a day early to get assimilated to the stadium. And he says they'll be much better prepared for this game. Plus in my opinion WSU loses some of their advantage by this game not being played in their home stadium. I'm still not a big fan of betting for the Cowboys when playing on the road..Especially as favorites. But after losing to georgia and troy early, in the second half of last season this young team started to grow up a little and for the most part played better on the road. Including a blowout win over Nebraska in Lincoln and in their bowl game. So I think they should be ready to give it their best here...Taking OSU (-6) over Wash. St. **
Colorado vs Colorado State...I look for further improvements out of the Buffs in the third year of the Hawkins era. Especially on the offensive side of the ball. I saw marked improvements by their offense in the last few games of last season. Especially against Nebraska and then Bama in their bowl. The O-Line should continue to improve. They'll have a very good running game that will include VHT freshman Scott. They'll have a speedy group of WR's. And QB Hawkins, who as a freshman did a decent job against tough competetion last season after he was pretty much thrown to the wolves. He should be much improved this year in cutting down on mistakes. The defense still has a few question marks in their back seven. Their young, but they have some VHT players back there..The veteran defensive line will be the strength of the defense.
CSU will have a new coach, new offensive system and a new QB who will be taking the place of longtime starter O'Connell, who will be playing in the NFL this season. We're talking about losing a 3,000 yard passer from last season.. CSU will also have just 12 starters coming back from a 3-9 team. But the thing that I've been hearing the most is what a bad hire they made in Steve Fairchild. He was the OC in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills and the Rams (2003-05), And I don't recall either of those teams ever having a great offenses while he was there. And he's got no previous head coaching experience. The big intangible here is I think this is a HUGE coaching mismatch. When Sonny Lubick was at CSU they kept this series and the games close every year. But these trends tend to get derailed when you have coaching changes as drastic as this. And I think it will show throughout the game. I see another 3-9 season coming for CSU. And after having a couple excellent nationally ranked recuiting classes, i see Colorado going nowhere but up. Two teams going different directions. Taking Colorado (-11) over Colorado State ***
ope:
