college football opinion (more than likely wrong)
This week's marquee matchup will be Utah @ USC
USC initially opened as a 10 1/2 point favorite and that number was quickly knocked down to 10, now 9 1/2 and 9 at some books. The reason for the Utah love is easy to see, as USC opened pretty uninspiring against an inferior Minnesota team, and won by just 2 (full disclosure I took the 24 1/2 points last week, way too many). Also, Utah has perennially been a pretty strong team, at least when you look at their overall won/loss record. But, in the now famous tag line of Lee Corso, not so fast my friend. Utah has enjoyed beating the lesser teams of the MWC over the past few years and now moves into a much tougher Pac-12. Utah has some decent talent, but are predominately under sized/under speed against the higher quality opponents. One game that sticks out in my mind from last year was when TCU rolled into town and thumped them like a red-headed step child, 47-7. Now, last year's TCU team was very good, but they absolutely flat out dominated them at Utah. Final result could have been much worse than it actually was, and it just goes to show what better athletes can do against mediocre teams. Jordan Wynn is not necessarily a world beater back there at QB, and the best player, second best player, third best player and probably 4th and 5th best player on the field are all going to be on USC's side. Matt Barkley has really rounded out to be a pretty decent quarterback and the boys from troy are bolstered with the return of suspended starting RB Marc Tyler. Now I'm not going to say last week's game vs Minnesota was basically a look ahead game for USC, but let's face it, Minnesota wasn't very good last year (USC went there and thumped them pretty good) so they may not have been quite as inspired as they should have been. The one thing working against USC's favor, imho, is the fact that Lane Kiffin is a ####### ### clown/buffoon. He goes for two point conversions like a #######, his clock management is piss poor at best, and his team management is horrendous. But, he has a tremendous defensive line, a decent secondary and I think they will easily control both lines of scrimmage with their superior athletes. If Coach Pete was at the helm, this would be an easy play at -17 or better. Even without, this should be a nice prime time victory for the Trojans.
The play here USC -9.5
(yes, I have been ice cold posting plays in here of late, so this is tremendous fade material for you)
g'luck