Mike Neri
USC
Stanford
Alabama
Oklahoma
C Mich
Joyce Sterling
10* Buffalo +5
Akron
Missouri
Dave Malinsky
5* Top of the Ticket
West Virginia
Coach Ron Meyer
20*Tennessee +14½
Scott Rickenbach
10* (TOP PLAY) TCU Horned Frogs (-) @ Brigham Young
Some will be looking to play the “revenge card” here but it’s just not the right match-up for the Cougars to get their revenge. Many will remember that TCU ended BYU’s run for an unbeaten season last year when the Horned Frogs crushed Brigham Young in their match-up at Texas Christian University. However, the problem for the Cougars here in terms of avenging that loss and trying to do to the Frogs what they did to them last season is that we’re going to see a similar problem for BYU that we saw earlier this season when they hosted (and got crushed by!) Florida State. In that game against the Seminoles we saw what team speed did to the Cougars and we will see a repeat of that here. The Horned Frogs have great team speed and they fly to the ball on defense. That can cause a lot of disruption to an offense and it can also cause turnovers. As good as Max Hall is at QB for Brigham Young, the Cougars have had turnover problems this season. Also, their defense was totally exploited by the Seminoles in that home loss last month and we foresee more struggles for the Cougars on that side of the ball in this match-up.
The weather is expected to be favorable for this game and that’s bad news for the Cougars. A big reason that the Horned Frogs had a recent stretch where two of their three wins were tight games had a lot to do with the weather. Rain was an issue at Clemson and versus Southern Methodist. Then, it was icy with chilly breezes in a tight win at Air Force. Next up was a home date with Colorado State and the Frogs routed the Rams by 38 points. Four of the Horned Frogs wins have come by an average margin of 28.5 points per game. The two tighter wins were in rain against Clemson and ice against Air Force. Now in the ideal weather that is expected in Provo, Utah by Saturday at game time, we expect the Horned Frogs offense to have the Cougars defense struggling to match their speed. Note that last year TCU outgained by a margin of 240 yards to 23 yards on the ground. Even though the Cougars threw for 274 yards in that game, Hall was sacked six times and he only completed about half of his passes and turnovers were an issue for BYU in that game as well. Additionally, Andy Dalton of the Horned Frogs is having a fantastic season as has been at it is best in the second halves of games. That shows just how clutch the junior is and his numbers in the second half show amazing completion percentages. He’s able to lead the team down the field when it counts the most and while Hall of BYU is certainly a phenomenal talent in his own right, note that the Cougars only returned three other offensive starters this season.
The group surrounding Hall is not as talented or experienced as the one that did last year. This means Hall is at a big disadvantage going against a stellar Horned Frogs defense while TCU’s Dalton has the edge of going against a Cougars defense that has shown it can be quite porous at times. As noted in the intro above, BYU certainly wants to avenge last years loss and they certainly still have a talented offense. However, their defense, is just not on par with that of the Horned Frogs and we saw how TCU dominated in this game last season. If TCU was in a flat spot or not focused on this game they could be in trouble. But that is absolutely not the case under head coach Gary Patterson as he has this team fully prepared and the players are geared up to prove themselves (again) on the road and stay undefeated. It’s not only the BCS aspirations that motivate this team. Keep in mind that they want to prove they belong at the top of the MWC. They already were very sharp in defeating a physical Clemson team on the road four weeks ago (we used them in that spot) and their physicality and speed is going to combine to wear down the Cougars in this spot. Play TCU minus the short number as a 10* Top Play selection.
ATS
8 units Louisville
8 units Stanford
6 units Iowa St
6 units Tulane
5 units Okla
5 units Miss St
2 unit parlay Lou/ Stan
Adam Meyer
Illinois +11 6 Units
West Virginia -7.5 6 Units
Duke -4 6 Units
LSU -7.5 6 Units
Executive
650% Ole Miss
400% ASU
300% Virginia
300% Pitt
Gameday
4* Bama
3* W Va
3* Syra
2* SC
2* ND
BIG AL
5* Kansas State
JIM FEIST
4* Utah st
5* Mich
Inner Circle Auburn
Inner Circle Wash
Platinum Virg.
Platinum Stanford
SEABASS
30 S Florida
30 UCLA
30 Stanford
50 Washington
50 OK St
100 BYU
100 Kansas
200 UConn
300 SMU
400 Colorado
20 LA Angels
100 Steam VA
Savannah Sports
4* Oregon St +21
3* Texas Tech -22
Eric Degarde
3* Washington +9.5
3* Virginia +8
LT Profits
5 Units Maryland
The Boooj
100 Illinois
30 Stanford
20 Nevada
10 TCU