Point spreads Week 9

[Catfan73]

Been a busy week but better late than never, right?

Arkansas travels to Ole Miss (-3)...Ole Miss lost QB Patterson for the season but are still favored over the Hogs after the spread opened with the RebelBearLandsharks favored by 4. This game and their finale against Mizzou look to be Bielema’s only shots to get an SEC win this year and it’s looking like he may not get another year. They’ll have to wait a little longer as OM wins this by 4.

Louisville (-2.5) is at Wake Forest...this one opened with U6 as a 6 point favorite, so its dropped 3 1/2 points, something you don’t see very often. Last year Wake led after 3 quarters before getting blown out in the playbook scandal game. This year U6 fans have their QB Jackson believing it was WF coach Dave Clawson that made the anonymous ‘he’ll never play QB in the NFL’ remarks even though Clawson denies it was him that spoke the obvious truth. Regardless of the off the field storylines it looks to me like the Deacons are just better this year. Wake Forest by 6.

Georgia (-13.5) vs. Florida...the moonshine melee kicks off in Jacksonville at 3:30. Florida’s last five games: win on a Hail Mary, 1 point win, big win over Vandy, 1 point loss, 2 point loss. Georgia’s last five games: well, no need to go into detail. They were all blowout victories. Strange things can happen in this rivalry game but these are two teams going in different directions. Georgia by 21.

Vandy at South Carolina (-7)...I don’t call them Vanderbilt because it drives their fans crazy when you call them Vandy and because Vanderbilt is our basketball player’s name. This game looks a lot like a SC win, who’s shaping up as a threat to knock us out of Outback Bowl contention and down to the Belk/MCB/Liberty level. Probably where both belong anyway. Does Vandy have a chance? In 2014-15-16 when the Gamecocks were losing to UK they still beat Vandy each year. SC by 13.

Missouri (-13.5) is at UConn....If Mizzou has any bowl game aspirations they probably need to win this game. The same could probably be said about the Huskies however and they’re at home, coming off two straight wins for Randy Edsall. The Tigers can be explosive on offense but something tells me this one ends up pretty close. Missouri by 4.

Mississippi State (-2) at Texas A&M...This game actually opened with the agriculture and mining boys favored by 1 1/2 so the line on this one has moved by 3.5 just like the U6-WF game. Sounds like some bettors were impressed with the Bulldogs’ blowing UK out in the second half but how much of that was MSU and how much of it was UK? No doubt a little of both but I think this game makes it evident it was mostly UK. A&M by 3.

Tennessee at Kentucky (-3.5)...The spread on this one has dropped from 5 1/2; not as much as I was expecting but UT’s starting RB will be sitting this one out. The Vawls have dropped three games in a row and come into Kroger Field at 3-4 but still have a good shot at making a bowl. If they lose today and decide to terminate Butch Jones immediately afterward those chances might dry up. That price might be okay with most of Rocky Top however. UK has a chance to get back on track for an 8 or 9 win regular season but they’re going to have to figure out how to score some points in what looks like is going to be some ugly weather. It’s going to be an ugly game; the weather might as well be ugly too. I’ll be there but I’m kind of dreading it TBH. We’d better win lol. Kentucky by 7.

[Catfan73]

Arkansas at Ole Miss...the Hogs pull out a one point SEC win over UK’s next opponent after trailing 31-7 in the second quarter. Arkansas ran 83 plays (53 of them rushes) to only 59 for Ole Miss and had the ball for twice as long. Ole Miss called three time outs in a row in an attempt to ice the Arkansas kicker on the final play, a 34 yard field goal attempt. That never works.

Louisville traveled to Winston-Salem to face karma in the first game between the two schools since a U6 assistant accepted Wake Forest’s playbook from a broadcaster. The Deacon’s quarterback looked like the Heisman winner as he made Louisville’s defense look like Swiss cheese, passing for 28/34 with 5 touchdowns and no interceptions. Louisville QB Jackson got sacked 7 times put still put up very nice stats while continuing his one-man show.

Georgia and Florida faced off in their annual game in Jacksonville. Georgia routed 42-7, which was no surprise, but Florida coach Jim McElwain’s deciding he’d had enough kind of was. AD Scott Stricklin promptly showed him where the door was so it wouldn’t hit him in his ample backside on the way out. Defensive coordinator Randy Shannon will take over as the Gator’s interim head coach for their last four games, seemingly not just what the doctor ordered for their anemic offense.

Another of UK’s remaining opponents traveled to the South Carolina version of Columbia where Vandy came up a touchdown shy of notching their first conference win. Vandy has become very pass-heavy with Schumer at quarterback even though they have a running back that tallied almost 1,300 yards last season. This year senior Ralph Webb has only 116 carries for 439 yards as Vandy has gone from 3-0 to 3-5. SEC schedules can do that to you. They get home games against WKU, UK, and Missouri before finishing at UT. Derek Mason is 5-24 in SEC games. If UK and SC both finish with 3 league losses (both still have to play at Georgia), UK would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker and finish second in the east division, not that it means anything to the SEC.

To be continued....

[Catfan73]

Missouri stepped out of league action to play UConn from the AAC. There are some decent teams in the American like South Florida, Memphis, and UCF, but UConn isn’t one of them. I do like their shade of blue though; always have. The Huskies haven’t had a winning season since 2010 but I thought the reincarnation of Randy Edsall in Storrs might have UConn making a game out of it at home. Then Drew Lock threw for 5 touchdowns in a 52-12 rout for the Tigers. Missouri still has a punter’s chance of making a bowl game at 3-5 with games remaining against Florida and Tennessee at home and on the road at Vandy and Arkansas. It won’t be easy but it’s possible, especially with Lock’s arm. He’s thrown for 28 td’s already this season vs. only 8 interceptions and is the SEC’s top rated quarterback.

Mississippi State ended up favored over Texas A&M by 3 1/2 points and won by 3 touchdowns, making UK fans feel a little bit better about getting blown out by the Bulldogs. And this one was at College Station without the cowbells. Maybe if TAMU had Ole Miss quarterback Ta’amu. MSU outrushed the Aggies 228 yards to 96, with Fitzgerald running for 105 of those, his third game in a row over 100 yards. Kevin Sumlin has posted three 8-5 seasons in a row but it might take a bowl win to get them to 8 this year. His britches have to be getting warm.

And Kentucky closed as a 4 point favorite at home against UT and came the closest to covering since the Florida game, winning by 3 in a game in which the referees decided to make up their own rules. Benny busted out for 180 yards and three td’s and Stephen Johnson looked like Ironman, willing the team to the win after his teammates coughed up four fumbles. The door’s still wide open for the Wildcats to take second in the SEC east while Butch Jones looks for a soft landing somewhere.