Cross-Country Looks
By Judd Hall
You already know how important it is to schedule the right opponents and about a couple of non-conference plays to profit on. What is equally important in terms of the scheduling is trying to stay as close to home as possible.
Bettors and fans have no doubt noticed that the upper tier teams tend to play things close to the vest…or close to home rather. Rarely will you see a Florida, Penn State or Florida State venture outside of the cozy confines of their home stadium or home state for a game.
This year’s early slate of college football games has just 11 contests where teams will be making a good sized trip away from home…at least a two time-zone difference. Here are a pair of Week 2 matchups that could prove interesting for gamblers this September.
Colorado at Toledo – Sept. 11, 9:00 p.m. EDT
A lot of people will look at the Rockets and see a team that has been mired in scandals and discipline problems for the past few season. Then you see that they’ll be facing a Big XII school like Colorado and think they’re done for in this contest.
What people aren’t thinking about is that Toledo is bringing in a solid head coaching prospect in Tim Beckman. For those of you that don’t know too much about him, Beckman has helped run the defenses at Bowling Green, Ohio State and Oklahoma State. His experience should no doubt improve a stop unit that gave up 31 points per game last season.
The Rockets will be running a high octane attack similar to what Oklahoma State runs. That should work extremely well with senior quarterback Aaron Opelt running an offense with eight returning starters.
Toledo’s new attack will also get the benefit of taking on a depleted Buffs’ defense. Colorado led the Big XII on pass defense, allowing 215.3 yards per game through the air in 2008. The problem for the Buffaloes is that they’ll be starting a brand new secondary this season. In fact, the Buffs have just two returning starters on defense total (Defensive end Marquez Herrod, Linebacker Jeff Smart).
Things get a little bit better for Colorado on the attack with Cody Hawkins leading a unit that brings back six starters. Well…they get better except for the fact that the Buffs were 102nd in the nation in scoring offense with 20.2 points per game.
Bettors should also know that the Buffaloes have gone 1-4 straight up and 2-3 against the spread in their last five trips out east for non-conference games. The ‘under’ is just 3-2 in those contests. Still, it’s good info to have when hitting the betting shops.
Stanford at Wake Forest – Sept. 12, 12:00 p.m. EDT
There haven’t been a lot of things to cheer for in Palo Alto for a while, but it looks like Jim Harbaugh is turning the tide for the Cardinal. Stanford went 4-8 in his 2007 inaugural season at the helm, two of those wins coming against California and a stunner over Southern California at the Coliseum. Last year didn’t have any of those statement victories, but the Cardinal did improve to 5-7.
Stanford looks to have some improvements on the offensive side of the ball with a young, but inexperienced side. It appears that Harbaugh will be starting redshirt freshman Andrew Luck under center instead of incumbent Travita Pritchard. And they’ll be implanting another pair of freshmen in the wide receiver corps with Jamel-Rashad Patterson and Jemari Roberts.
The Cardinal really has no choice but to start youngsters since they’ll be doing some ironman football on defense. Wideouts Richard Sherman and Michael Thomas will be pulling double duty in the secondary as cornerbacks to give the “D” some depth. They need the help on that side of the ball since Stanford gave up 27.4 PPG and next to last in the Pac-10 on pass defense with 226.7 YPG.
That lack of depth against the pass will no doubt work to Wake Forest’s advantage. The Demon Deacons have one of the best QB’s in the ACC in Riley Skinner. Wake’s gunslinger completed 63.9 percent of his passes for 2,347 yards and 13 touchdowns. Skinner also has one of the most talented wide receiving corps in the league headlined by Marshall Williams and Devon Brown.
The Deacs should also be able to pound the ball down here with a veteran offensive line making room for a triple threat of Kevin Harris, Josh Adams and Brandon Pendergrass. That trio rushed for 1,106 yards, which isn’t a lot. But you must remember that Wake Forest tried to use a spread attack for the first part of the 2008 campaign.
Stanford hasn’t fared too well when heading over to the East Coast. You can tell that as the Cardinal are 1-5 SU and 2-4 ATS in the last six trips. Wake Forest is 3-2 SU, but 1-4 ATS when at home against non-conference foes.
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