Week 9 Weekday Musings

Very quickly, I'll get these out. I'll get to the carnage that was week 8 in the full complement, which will come later. Safe to say that I was afraid of the possibility of a 4-8 week. I just hoped that for once a couple wrong sides would cover. What a hillarious proposition. On to the weekday stuff.

1. Virginia +14 @Miami(FL)(Thursday!!): If this was a regular Saturday noon game, I'd be even more excited about the play, but I think this sets up very nicely. Virginia has shown quite a bit of improvement this year, defensively they've been tough, ranked 14th in the country in yards per play against, and they've done enough offensively, at least with the running game to be dangerous. Last week, however, coming off a nice win over Georgia Tech, they laid an egg offensively at home, losing in disappointing fashion. The reports are that the team has really bought in to coach Mike London's schemes, so chances are they will deliver a good performance coming off that clunker.LOn the other hand, Miami is coming off their 3rd straight good performance, yet another game in which Jacory Harris kept his mistakes to a minimum. They did a great job on Georgia Tech last week...and I conveniently ignored that they've had a good history in doing that since Johnson has been at Ga Tech. However, they are still giving up better than 4.5 a pop on the ground even after holding down Tech, and UVa has run it effectively. After coming within a whisker of winning in Blacksburg, beating UNC in Chapel Hill and blasting Georgia Tech last week, there is little chance that Miami is at all impressed with the prospect of Virginia coming to town, even though the Cavaliers beat them last year. Virginia is good enough defensively that they will have to be firing on all cylinders in order to score adequately. I think there's a chance for the outright for Virginia here. That's assuming their QB doesn't bobble a snap, have it bounce off his knee into an on-rushing defender's hands for a 78 yard TD.

2. BYU +13 v TCU(at Jerry's World) FRIDAY: After looking for ways to fade Jake Heaps led BYU earlier this year, I've been looking for ways to back Riley Nelson led BYU now. I've found one here. Since Nelson took the controls in the 2nd half of their comeback win at home against Utah St a few weeks back, BYU has gone from 100+ in yard per pass attempt to 12th in the country during that span. Nelson's combination of running and passing ability has completely changed their offense, and I think he matches up well against TCU's defense. TCU has improved their numbers since their bad start defensively, but it's mostly because they've been playing the New Mexicos of the world. They are struggling to stop the pass, still ranked 90th. Defensively, BYU is better than most of the teams TCU has played. Throw in the fact that this one is not being played at TCU, but at Jerry's Worls, and I think 13 is way too much. In my opinion, these teams are very evenly matched. I'll definitely take the points here. Hopefully BYU won't muff a punt for a TD, or fumble a couple kickoff returns for scores.

That's it for now. More to come later. Hopefully, I'll have some sort of clue this week.