Tag Archives: Tennessee Volunteers

New Year's Eve Bowl Games: Free College Football Picks

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The amount of college games on the docket right now is a little overbearing, so I’m going to go ahead and write a little less about each game, include them into one article, and cut down on the amount of computer hours I’m putting in these last few weeks. Don’t worry, I’ll still have some of the bigger games of the College Bowl season with bigger write ups, so keep checking in. And don’t feel like I’m ripping you off, the same amount of research goes into these picks as any write up I do for any other pick I do all year. Here goes Thursday’s Bowl Games…

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Air Force Falcons @ Houston Cougars (-4.5): The quick little bit of information I gave on this game in my weekly newsletter still has me liking the Cougars to pull it out over the Falcons. I said the Falcons have been blistered by elite passing attacks, and in their last 3 losses they were out-gained through the air by 550+ yards. I think the Cougars have a chance to do that again.

Stanford Cardinal (+10) @ Oklahoma Sooners: I know the Pac 10 has been brutal, and I know the Cardinal are without their freshman sensation at running back, but something in me just trusts Jim Harbaugh to get his team prepared for this big game. Since he got on campus as the head man at Stanford, he’s had his kids ready to play better than expected, especially against elite opponents. They have a stellar rushing attack, and not just at running back, their offensive line is one of the best in the country. That should be worth a 10 point cover.

Navy Midshipmen (+7) @ Missouri Tigers: Navy has out-rushed their opponent in 8 of their last 10 games, winning 7 of those match-ups. Missouri was out-gained on the ground in 4 of their last 8 games, and in all four they recorded the loss. It’s not as good as gold, but with a touchdown to play with, I  sure like the consistent and disciplined Navy Midshipmen.

Iowa State Cyclones (+3) @ Minnesota Golden Gophers: Neither of these teams really impress me, but I know what I think about the Big 10, and while the Big 12 is a little overrated, they are much better than the Big 10. Both teams were terribly inconsistent, playing with Top 25 talent one week while getting beaten up other weeks – the one thing keeping me with Iowa is that Minnesota gives up lots of rushing yards, and Iowa State has shown the ability to win when they can run.

Tennessee Volunteers @ Virginia Tech Hokies (-4.5): The SEC really embarrassed the ACC toward the end of the year in some inter-conference match-ups, but I don’t see that happening here. Tennessee has gone through to stuff with some trouble within the program towards the end of the season, and while they played well in some games down the stretch, I think all that attention hurts them a bit against the Hokies. Va Tech won 4 straight to end the season, never giving up more than 13 points and out-scoring their opponents 132-35 in those games. Your can run on Tennessee, and the Vols don’t throw the ball real well – both those statistical advantages look to really favor the Hokies in this one.

South Carolina Gamecocks vs Tennessee Volunteers Pick

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South Carolina Gamecocks (+6.5) @ Tennessee Volunteers Pick: I know that I always take the unranked favorite over the ranked dog, but this one is going to be different. Favoring the Vols here is based solely off their ability to play close to top ranked teams, without ever winning of course. Well, despite what people have chosen to believe, these Gamecocks can play ball. At 6-2 they’ve lost a close one at Georgia and another tough one on the road at Alabama. Now, the Vols beat up on Georgia, but the Bulldogs were working against themselves in that one, Tennessee just had to show up to take advantage. Despite that one game, Tennessee hasn’t shown the offensive explosion to be a 6.5 point favorite against a solid team, especially not one with a powerful defense. Expect the Gamecocks to cover in Tennessee. I do.

DIRECTV – ESPN GamePlan Free NCAA Picks: Week 8

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Wake Forest Demon Decons @ Maryland Terrapins (+2.5): I like Wake, but they are bound to lose one of these close games. Every single one of their games (except one) has been tight. Maryland likes to lose games their supposed to win, but an underdog at home in this one, I like the Terps.

Western Michigan (-1.5) @ Central Michigan: I like CMU QB Dan Lefevour, but I thin Western Michigan’s defense is a little better. Defense wins rivalry games, and it’s not like Western Michigan’s offensive production is a joke QB Tim Hiller already has 2046 passing yards and 23 touchdowns. But defensively I like the road team in this one.

Miami (OHIO) Redhawks (+10) @ Bowling Green Falcons: The Falcons have allowed as many points per game as they’ve scored, and that’s never a good thing. These two teams have a nice history, and that usually ends up with Miami taking the game against the Falcons. I know Bowling Green is the better team, but in games like this things usually stay close.

Syracuse Orange (+24.5) @ South Florida Bulls: Syracuse has received my ire more than a few times, and early in the season they were a pretty safe bet against – but they have played better of late, and they are relatively healthy. They don’t score much, but their group of young defenders have proven to be resilient at least. South Florida isn’t a point machine, and they’ve played a lot of close games. I’ll take 3 touchdowns and a field goal plus a half point in this one.

Vanderbilt Vandals (+15) @ Georgia Bulldogs: This game was close in ’06 and close in ’07 and this Vanderbilt team is better than they’ve had in a long time. Georgia is a very good football team, but they aren’t a “blow you out” group by any means. They’ve had trouble playing close with their opponents, and a complete upset here wouldn’t surprise me. They only beat Tennessee by 12, Arizona State by 17 and South Carolina by 7 – Vandy is better than all three of those schools. Close game here, that’s my bet.

Army Black Knights @ Buffalo Bulls (-10.5): After barely losing to Central Michigan (2 points) and then getting ousted in overtime to Western Michigan last week, I think the Bulls are ready to come out and win an easy one. Buffalo is a solid team, that’s what has me taking them. I know Army has played some tough games, but Buffalo’s offense is more well rounded and Army has been played with the bounces in each of their last two contests. They’ll stumble a bit here and a good Bulls home team will win easily.

North Carolina Tar Heels (-4.5) @ Virginia Cavaliers: Talk about an up and down Cavs team, goodness. They lost by 45 at home to USC starting the season, and after a joke week they lost back to back games to Connecticut and Duke by a combined 13-76 score. Yikes. But, they fought back lately, beating Maryland 31-0 and East Carolina 35-20. Here’s the problem here, North Carolina plays too tough and though they lost something with Brandon Tate going down for the season, they still have enough talent to take the Cavs out on the road. North Carolina has played well on the road, handling Rutgers then beating Miami four weeks ago. This is a tough call, and not one of my favorite plays, but I like the Heels here.

Middle Tennessee State (+14.5) @ Louisville Cardinals: This one seems easy. Middle Tennessee State has played a lot of close games with a lot of good teams and Louisville just isn’t that solid right now. They’ve been playing better of late, but I’d say these teams are closer to even than two touchdowns apart – I like the Blue Raiders here.

Toledo Rockets @ Northern Illinois Huskies (-8.5): Toledo beat Michigan at the Big House last week… So what? Michigan is terrible, I’d take Northern Illinois over the Wolverines any day of the week and this game is at home. The Huskies have been good all year. I don’t see it, but most “experts” on a pretty prolific site have Toledo in this one. I’ll take the Huskies and be a renegade… Follow who you please.

Mississippi State @ Tennessee Volunteers (-7.5): I would stay right away from this game, but I’ll go with Tennessee to win their 6th straight against Mississippi State. They 7.5 isn’t too scary and while neither of these teams excite me, the Vols might have found a little better play from their quarterback position last week, and that’s what gives me the slight lean, oh, and the home field here.

Idaho Vandals @ Lousiana Tech (-20): Idaho played one relatively not so terrible game this year, and they still gave up gobs of points and lost. That was last game and thus people aren’t quite so against them right now, but they are terrible. You can do whatever you want to their defense, and I think the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs will.

Week 6 College Football Picks Review: 2007

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Umm… Yeah, 0-5 in my free picks. If you happened to be the guys who purchased my Elite Picks, you went 4-1 on the week. But if you just took my free picks, and wagered on them, like I did, then you probably came out with some bruises and a hatred for this guys’ college picks. Ah, that guy is me. Here’s a review of the worst of weeks for my free picks.

LUCKY LESTER’S Free NCAA Football Picks

Georgia Bulldogs (+1) @ Tennessee Volunteers:
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

This was the worst week every, and it doesn’t help that I won 1 pick in my free section last week. In this game in particular, I looked like an absolute dumby. The Bulldogs were dominated in every phase of the game, and Eric Ainge looked like Peyton Manning picking apart the Bulldogs’ defense. I sucked this week.

Stanford Cardinal @ USC Trojans (-39.5):
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bet-Jam)

This was the worst week every, and it doesn’t help that I won 1 pick in my free section last week. Not only did USC fail to cover that huge spread, but the Trojans just flat out lost to the Cardinal. I didn’t think that USC had one of the best defenses in the country, like everyone else thought, and last weeks game at UW worried me a little bit. But I thought they’d come back strong and beat a terrible Stanford team whose coach, Jim Harabaugh, had been talking a little too much about USC all summer long. I was dead wrong – but at least #2 got upset, I always love that!

Virginia Cavaliers (-10.5) @ Middle Tennessee State:
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

This was the worst week every, and it doesn’t help that I won 1 pick in my free section last week. The Cavs thought this was a gimmie just like I did. I don’t really get it, as I’ve never gone into a game taking it easy on a team. However, it looked like Virginia came to play the Bad News Bears, or I guess football’s version, the Little Giants. Well, Mid-Tenn ran The Annexation of Puerto Rico on the Cavs, and almost came out with a win. The 23-21 score was too close for me to pull out of Tennessee with at least one victory. Dang!

Ohio State Buckeyes @ Purdue Boilermakers (+7):
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

This was the worst week every, and it doesn’t help that I won 1 pick in my free section last week. Purdue didn’t do anything against Ohio State, and the 23-7 score actually wasn’t that close. I expected a lot more out of a decent Purdue defense and a passing attack that had put up 16 touchdowns before the Ohio State game. I expected too much. Damn it all to hell.

Oklahoma State Cowboys @ Texas A&M Aggies (-6.5):
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

This was the worst week every, and it doesn’t help that I won 1 pick in my free section last week. My last hope was Texas A&M, and naturally, they let me down. A few weeks ago they led me off with a huge disappointment loss to the Miami “Lost to North Carolina this week and sucked in the process” Hurricanes. This week, they finished off my winless free picks, and now I hate them even more. Yeah, they won the game in the end, but they needed a late surge to do so. Down 17-0 at half (what I didn’t predict), A&M came back and put up a 24-6 2nd half (what I actually thought would happen in this one) for the one point win. Nice win! (Sarcasm)

Free College Football Picks Week 6 – 2007

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Just to let you guys in on my lines, I put the place I picked them up this week. After a tough one-win week in Week 5, I’m sure to rebound with a solid overall performance this time around. Check out my Elite Picks for a small fee! Hope you enjoy and win off my free picks for Week 6 in NCAA Football.

LUCKY LESTER’S Free NCAA Football Picks

Georgia Bulldogs (+1) @ Tennessee Volunteers:
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

Tennessee has already volunteered to lose this one. The home team in this match-up has lost each of the lat 4 and 5 of the last 6 games. Georgia has made easy work with their opponent 3 times this year, beat Alabama in a close one, and lost 12-16 to South Carolina. Overall, they are much improved offensively, and the Bulldog defense is their confident and powerful self. This game seems to be split across the board, but recent history and the fact that Tennessee has been sieved like on defense has me taking the road team.

Stanford Cardinal @ USC Trojans (-39.5):
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bet-Jam)

Here’s the deal: Stanford is riddled by injuries, they aren’t nearly as good as USC, and their head coach was giving a very unforgiving Pete Carrol a lot of shit throughout the summer, talking about him leaving his post at USC soon, and just causing lots of media driven problems. Pete isn’t the type to take it easy on opponents, especially those who make life more frustrating for him. USC played terribly last week against Washington. All these things combined make me Captain Planet – err – I guess they make me take the Trojans in a landslide just powerful enough to cover that monstrous spread.

Virginia Cavaliers (-10.5) @ Middle Tennessee State:
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

This seems like a gimmie to me, which makes me wonder. Middle Tennessee has put up some nice point totals over the first 4 games of the season, but their 1-4 record isn’t bad luck. After a Week 1 loss, the Cavs have stormed to a 4-1 record by running through some mediocre ACC teams and dominating Pitt last week at home. Middle Tenn is coming off a blowout win over Florida International, 47-6, but prior to that they lost to Florida Atlantic and Western Kentucky, while also losing to Louisville and LSU. I understand that this game is a road game for Virginia, something they have won just once in the last 10 games, but I imagine they’ll be up and ready for this contest.

Ohio State Buckeyes @ Purdue Boilermakers (+7):
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

I don’t think its ever a good thing when a solid defense plays 5 games before playing a true passing attack. I think Purdue is a solid To 25 team, not great by any means, but they can throw the ball, and against a defense that has gotten use to defending the run and worrying very little about getting beat deep or 1st and 2nd down routes – I just think they have a nice chance to pull a big upset here.

Oklahoma State Cowboys @ Texas A&M Aggies (-6.5):
(Line: Tuesday, 2:00am EST: Bookmaker)

I like Texas A&M to continue on their rebound from their huge loss to Miami a couple weeks ago. Last week the obliterated Baylor, and this week they go up against OK State, a team that will demand a good game if the Aggies plan to get the W. I like A&M and thing their one down game against Miami helps the line to drop a little. Take advantage of that.