By Nevada Sharpshooter
The 10-2 Golden Hurricane of Tulsa will host the 8-4 East Carolina Pirates in the Conference USA Championship game. Tulsa’s high powered offense features QB David Johnson who has thrown an amazing 42 TD passes compared to just 13 interceptions. His main targets are possession reciever Damaris Johnson with 44 receptions and 9 TDs and deep threat Brennan Marion, 39 catches and 8 TDs. On the ground the Hurricane rely on RB Tarrion Adams who has almost 1200 yards rushing while averaging 6 yards per carry. Adams has also crossed the goal line 9 times. Defensively though Tulsa has struggled giving up over 30 points 5 times this season.
By Dark Horse Sports
The crisp, cold air of November is here, but it wouldn’t truly feel like November if conference championship hopes weren’t on the line. Luckily we get a real dose of November football, as Georgia Tech and Florida State meet on Saturday with ACC Championship Game dreams on the line.
The Georgia Bulldogs travel to LSU to face off against the Tigers. LSU is coming off a hard fought win over South Carolina. This was a game that saw the LSU running game wear out the Gamecocks late leading to a come from behind 24-17 win. Look for running backs Keiland Williams and Charles Scott share the load on the ground. The game plan will be similiar in this matchup vs the Bulldogs. Keep the game close and take control late with the power running game.
Georgia on the other hand will use a much more balanced attack. QB Matthew Stafford will be in charge of the offense with help from WR A. J. Green, while running back Knowshon Moreno will carry the load on the ground. The Bulldogs have been dominating in the stats but not on the scoreboard. They had over 400 yards of offense vs both Tennessee and Vanderbilt. While they won both games they couldn’t get to 30 points in either.
I like Georgia’s balanced attack and a defense that gave up only 1 yard rushing to Tennessee to come away with a road win. Take Georgia +2 over LSU.
By Nevada Sharpshooter
The South Carolina Gamecocks travel to Kentucky to square off against the Wildcats. South Carolina will rely on QB Chris Smelley, who had 327 yards passing and 3 TDs at a good Mississippi team last week. The win was the first in conference for the Gamecocks and brings there SEC record to 1-2. The Gamecock defense is also playing well and was ranked #1 in the country going into last weeks game vs Miss.
By Dark Horse Sports
Ohio State versus Wisconsin is one of the biggest games on the Big Ten schedule annually. Extra emphasis will be placed on the match-up this time around. Wisconsin’s Big Ten Championship hopes will suffer a death nail without a win on Saturday, due to last week’s collapse at Michigan. On Ohio State’s side, this is their first true conference test, and they will have to do it against a Wisconsin team that has never lost a home game under Brett Bielema. Look for that trend to come to an end, though, on Saturday.
By Nevada Sharpshooter
The 23rd ranked Horned Frogs of TCU travel to Norman to square off against the 2nd ranked Sooners of Oklahoma. TCU will rely on a strong defense and powerful running game. The rushing attack is led by RB Ryan Christian and QB Andy Dalton who each are averaging about 4.5 yards per carry. When Dalton does throw the ball the target usually is WR Jimmy Young who has 20 catches for 237 yards. Defensively the Horned Frogs have been holding opponents to about 8 points a game.
By Dark Horse Sports
These two have formed an ACC rivalry over the last couple of years that has shown no signs of slowing. After years of bad play Wake Forest has awaken behind the leadership of Head Coach Jim Grobe. With Florida State experiencing a couple of down years as of late, both teams have become excitingly comparable.
The game plan for both offenses will be to run the ball, and after that, they plan on running the ball a little bit more. Two extremely talented rushing attacks will take the field on Saturday, led by two explosive starting running backs, PJ Hill for Wisconsin and the aptly named Darius Marshall for the Thundering Herd.
Apart from the ground game, though, both passing offenses have question marks and both got off to a slow start in Week 1. This game will showcase ball control. Both defenses are talented enough to keep major points off the board, but both ground games are good enough to suck devastating chunks of time off the clock.
Free winner from Dark Horse Sports: Take Marshall / Wisconsin under the total of 51.
By Lee Stevens of Easy Money Sports
We are focusing our complimentary game breakdown this week on the start of conference play in the Atlantic Coast Conference this weekend in Chestnut Hill. Where the Boston College Eagles host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech has a new head coach for 2008, in the form of Triple Option Offensive Wizard Paul Johnson. Johnson has earned that reputation with more than a few overachieving teams in Navy that were propelled by his high octane option attack. Week one was an easy win over a 1-AA Jacksonville State team, however both good and bad signs were evident for the Yellow Jackets. For instance, sophomore QB Josh Nebit gained only 87 yards through the air on 5 completions out of 12 attempts with no touchdowns but added 11 carries including two touchdowns and total of 60 rushing yards. Also looking good was sophomore RB Jonathan Dwyer, who totaled 112 rushing yards on 11 carries and added two more touchdowns on the ground. Also rushing into the end zone for GTech was freshman RB Roddy White with a score to highlight his 3 carries for 61 yards and he added 2 catches for 50 yards as well. But they fumbled six times as a unitand that is obviously way too many, but is also part of learning the time and ready triple option.