Who Will Be College Football's Most Surprising Teams
With the 2006 college football season just a few weeks away, everyone has their own opinions about who will be this year’s most improved team. Here’s my take on some programs that could be poised for successful seasons: The Washington State Cougars return 14 starters from last year’s disappointing 4-7 team and are a trendy pick for a bounce-back year. A closer look into their seven losses last year and I see that five of them were decided by four points or less. WSU suffered numerous injuries during their 1-7 conference slate, but was still able to move the ball offensively. They ranked No. 5 in the Pac-10 in yards-per-play and return QB Alex Brink, who threw for over 2,800 yards last season. Brink also notched 28 touchdowns while tossing just 13 interceptions. Since the offense remains mostly intact it will be up to the Cougars defense to step up and make plays. The Illinois Fighting Illini is a team right in our backyard that should see improvement in Year Two of Ron Zook’s tenure. Illinois was a very young team in 2005 and started only four seniors. They return 19 of 22 starters, and that experience should pay huge dividends in the rugged Big Ten. The Illini beat a talented Rutgers team last season, and with quarterback Rim Brasic completing over 60 percent of his passes the offense should be able to put points up on the board. For Illinois to be successful the defense will have to improve. Defense is Zook’s specialty, and he also brought in a new defensive coordinator in Vince Okruch. With a favorable home schedule and several winnable road games this team could end up bowling for the first time since 2001. An intriguing team with a second-year coach out west is the Arizona Wildcats. Led by coach Mike Stoops, the brother of Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops, this team should continue to progress. The Wildcats joined the Pac-10 in 1978 and are the only team that hasn’t represented the league in the Rose Bowl. With 17 returning starters and the USC Trojans in rebuilding mode this may be Arizona’s best opportunity in years. The Wildcats will rally behind quarterback William Tuitama, who took the reins midway through last season and went on to tally nine touchdowns to only five interceptions. Tuitama enters the fall as the No. 1 guy but he may receive some competition from Kris Heavner. What sticks out in my mind about Arizona in 2005 is their game against UCLA, in which the Wildcats mauled the Bruins 52-14. That marked, by far, the most points put up by the Cats in 2005 and they’ll need more scoring outbursts like that if they plan to reach a bowl game in 2006. With a wealth of experience coming back they need to believe that game wasn’t a fluke and that they are capable of matching up with the best teams in the conference. Finally, my choice for this year’s Most Improved Team in college football is the Arkansas Razorbacks. They certainly have to be excited in Fayetteville with Coach Houston Nutt entering his ninth season at the helm. Arkansas went 4-7 in ’05 but had to be the most snake-bitten team in the country. For example, they had Vanderbilt on the ropes in their second game – leading by 11 points late before eventually losing a four-point decision. Arkansas rushed for nearly 2,400 yards last season, which is a blueprint for success. A productive running game allows the Razorback offense to chew up the clock and lets its defense rest. Arkansas didn’t see a drop-off in conference play either as they rushed for nearly 400 combined yards in tough losses against Alabama and Auburn. To put an end to a very disappointing season, the Razorbacks missed two field goals and two PATs in a 19-17 defeat at the hands of LSU in the season finale. But the 2006 schedule sets up very well for the Razorbacks. They only have to leave the state in four of their 12 games. They are also tied for the most returning starters of any team in the country with 19. Also, 18 true freshmen gained valuable experience playing last year and should contribute again this season. I expect the Razorbacks to give USC all they can handle in the season opener, and they should easily cover the nine-point line set by the oddsmakers. Could Arkansas pull off the first major upset of the season? My crystal ball says, “Don’t be surprised. It certainly has the smell of bacon.”
Other Football Betting Articles
Las Vegas Sportsbook For many people who enjoy betting on sporting events the place to go is to a Las Vegas sportsbook. Placing a bet with a Las Vegas sportsbook is easy and convenient. You can get the information on betting odds, betting lines, and point spreads instantly and use this information to decide what bets to make and how much to bet. All you have to do i ...2006 Australian Football League - Finishing AFL Premiership Season called Toyota Australian Football League (AFL) Premiership Season of the 2006 Football League for the current year has started during late March this year and presently progressing towards the end and when you will read this report, the Semi Finals will be about to start.This year’s is the 110th season of the Austra ...Inside the Boxscores Week 6 Part 2 Inside the Boxscores is a weekly feature from Matt Fargo that has been widely recognized as the best summation in college football. He takes an in-depth look at each game and pulls out the most pertinent information that will help you handicap games in the future. College football is filled with quirky plays, misleading scores and surprise endin ...NFL Playoffs: Turnover Margin Win the turnover battle, you win the game and probably cover! In theory, it makes a lot of sense. However, it's not easy to gauge beforehand who is going to win the turnover battle. And successful handicapping is about predicting and projecting likely occurrences.Look at the opening week of the playoffs. The Bengals led the AFC with an ou ...The Dish: Being Johnny It's good to be Johnny Drennen.No, not Johnny Damon. Johnny Drennen.If you are Johnny Drennen, you are the centerfielder for the Single-A Lake County Captains. You are 19 years old. You've hit three homers in your brief minor-league career way down deep in the Cleveland Indians farm system. You're not considered a top prospect, at ...English Rugby - Back on Track ? The 2004/5 season was a bad year for English international rugby. Those heady days of 2003 down under and Jonny Wilkinson’s last minute drop goal seemed a long way away as Wales completed a marvellous year by beating us 11-9 in the final match of the six nations.It started well enough, business as usual in a 70-0 walloping of the Canadian ...League One Betting Review - 23 April 2006 Southend’s promotion celebrations were postponed after they slipped to a 1-0 home defeat against Doncaster. The Shrimpers needed a win to book a place in the Championship next season but James Coppinger spoiled the party a minute after the break to set up an unexpected 5/1 away win.Colchester crept into the automatic promotion spot after ...Online Casino Slots What can online casino offer to fans of slot machines? Well, practically everything, that real halls can, plus something more than that. But before we look into online slot machine halls, let’s give a meaning to several notions. “One-handed gangsters” have been divided into two categories called slots and video slots (meaning a slot of a coin-re ...Play Texas Hold’em Online In the past, if you wanted to play Texas Hold’em, you had either to round up a group of friends or visit a casino poker room. But today, you can play Texas Hold’em online any time you want!There are many poker web sites that offer you the option to play Texas Hold’em online. After you register for a free account and in some cases, downlo ...Why Do Rugby Players Scrum and Maul at Such Different Body Heights? Scrums and mauls are the two great dominance contests within the game of rugby. Marked superiority in either of these forms of engagement can affect the morale of both teams in a way that a corresponding supremacy at say the lineout does not.Forward packs spend countless hours developing scrum technique but very much less attention is giv ...Premiership Season Preview 2006/07 - Newcastle United Newcastle UnitedOdds: 150/1Last Five Seasons 2005/06 - 7 (Premiership), 2004/05 - 14 (Premiership), 2003/04 - 5 (Premiership), 2002/03 - 3 (Premiership), 2001/02 - 4 (Premiership).2005/06 Cup Progress Intertoto Cup Semi Final vs Deportivo La Coruna - lost 4-2 on aggregate. FA Cup Sixth Round vs Chelsea (a) - lost 1-0 ...Spanish Football - Matchday Atletico Madrid in the Vicente Calderon It is said that Football in Spain comes a very close second behind Catholicism as the national religion. If this is true then it can be said that, in Madrid, Atletico Madrid come a very close second behind Real Madrid as the capital city´s favourite sporting attraction.Whilst the history of Real Madrid is one of European championships an ...Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy - Poker Tournament Fundamentals This is the second in the Texas Holdem Strategy Series, focusing on no limit Texas Hold’em poker tournament play and associated strategies. In the first installment, we examined a real-world tournament scenario and how to handle a particular class of difficult players – the "maniacs", aggressive, wild players that are commonly encountered in to ...Oklahoma Casinos The state of Oklahoma is widely known for the outdoor recreation and recreational activities it can offer residents and visitors. The state boasts beautiful lakes, mountains and camping areas as well as first-class museums and cultural events. Oklahoma is rich with culture, too. With several Native American reservations, the State of Oklahoma is ...Success Tips from the Master What are the steps to making your casino one of the most successful? What do the experts say about entertainment, buying power… etc? Here in this report the CEO of Ceasar’s Entertainment gives his biggest tips on how his casino became one of the most successful in the world using the FIVE FORCES MODEL.The first aspect of the Five Forces ...Winning Poker Hands Do you like to play poker? If so, you have something in common with the millions of other Americans who have caught “poker fever.” Thanks in large part to the explosive popularity of such big-money televised poker tournaments like the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Open, the game of poker is fast becoming a top sport. Texas Holdem is ...Poker Playing Errors – 5 Common Ones Which Will See You Lose The poker playing errors below are common and made by many novice players entering the exciting world of poker playing.They believe winning at online poker is easy and these errors are caused by the fact they are trying to hard to win and the poker playing errors they make guarantee they lose.These poker playing errors are very com ...Pai-Gow Poker - Have Fun & Win! Pai gow poker is one of the easiest games to play, and is one of the fastest growing casino games today, its fun and the casino edge when you are the banker is just 1%, making it a good game to win big pots!Pai-Gow Poker played, using a 53-card deck made up from the standard deck of 52 cards plus a Joker.To play the dealer will dea ...Football Playoffs Football Playoffs season is full of entertainment. This is the time in the year when things start getting hot on NFL football. Teams are training hard their strategy and people will start to get more relax and enthusiastic.During football playoffs the betting activity also increases. Offshore Sportsbook start getting a rain of calls and w ...The Dubious Immorality of Online Gambling The recent back-door legislation which outlawed online gambling in the USA has been championed as a moral cause. This is in direct opposition to a Gallup Poll taken earlier this year which found that 60 percent of adults believe gambling is morally acceptable.Chief sponsor Jim Leach (R-Iowa) has called it one of the most important pieces ...Choosing Your Type of Online Gambling Website When you hear the words "online gambling," chances of you think of casinos and games like poker, Blackjack and slot machines. But there are lots of different types of online gambling websites. When you're ready to choose one, make sure you pick one that fits your needs.ONLINE CASINO: Online casinos are, basically, the counterparts of real ...Jacks-or-Better Video Poker Machines - Five Simple Tips to Win More Money If you are playing video poker, then Jacks-or-Better is a great machine to play and you can increase the odds of success dramatically by learning five simple tips.You don't need to spend a long time learning these tips; they're simple, quick, and easy to learn. Jacks-or-Better video poker is fun anyway, but even more so when you're winnin ...Learn to Play Blackjack – Basics For Success So you want to play blackjack?It’s a great game, and exciting, and you can win money as consistently if you play blackjack with the correct methods and attitude.First you have to understand the game, and then we will show you some basic tips to play blackjack that will help you play and win so lets get started.Blackjack Rule ...Online Poker Is Not A Practice Run Poker has been around for a long time but the truth of realising that champions of the World Series of Poker were conceived virtually changed the game beyond expectation. Texas Hold’em became the game to play any time the heart had a twitch for it and not just in a boozy Friday night session. The online explosion means there is a game to be foun ...How to Read an Online Poker Review: Part 2 of 2 In part 1 of this 2 part series, we began to lay out for you exactly what online poker reviewers look for when evaluating an online poker room, using the poker review template from our own poker portal at Poker-Ranking.com.In part 1, we explained in depth the following sections: Software and Graphics, Game Variation and Limits, and Traffi ...Poker Affiliate Programs Make money from home by promoting online casinos and poker rooms is easy and fast, you just have to join one of the poker affiliate programs that are out there and share in the success of a poker room. Nowadays, poker affiliate programs represent one of the web's fastest-growing business segments in the web.In fact, poker affiliate progra ...The Dish: Can a 16-seed top a #1? This is it. This is the year.Princeton me no Princetons. Murray State me no Murray States.This year, for the first time ever, a 16-seed is going to topple a 1-seed. Mark it down.In a topsy-turvy world where the U.S. looks doomed in the World Baseball Classic, where George W. Bush's voodoo has apparently worn off on the natio ...Tips for Sports Betting The following are some tips that can help you to earn big payouts from your sports bets online. Before placing a bet, collect as much information as possible. The best way to win as many bets as possible is to prepare in advance. Gain as much knowledge as you can of the sport you are betting on. Always look for updates on personnel changes, coac ...What In The World Does Arbitrage Sports Betting Mean? If you’re like me when you first saw the term “arbitrage sports betting” you just said, “huh?” You may even be reading this article because you were wondering. It is a relatively little method that can actually allow you to make money no matter who wins or loses. Kind of like heads I win, tails I win!If you are a novice gambler you probab ...Games That Cost You A Fortune Besides the obvious fact that some online casinos (an estimated 30%) will never pay their customers one red cent either because you will never win or they fail to pay out if you do, there are some “bad bets” no matter where you play. This article looks at some of the games that will cost you a fortune if you don’t change your gambling ways. ...How to Beat Roulette with A Simple 3 Point System Many players try to beat roulette by buying a “sure fire” roulette system for money. These systems promise consistent gains and to make the buyer rich and beat roulette consistently. Of course, the reality does not match the hype and these systems are ALL doomed to failure.You can beat roulette, but it does not involve buying a system, mo ...
|
