Friday, September 23, 2005

The Wizard and Week 4

The man stands at 13-7-1 (65% against the spread) entering play. He's fired up! Click on the comments tab for his seven selections.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arizona State (minus 6.5) — There’s no such thing as a sure thing, but if the Sun Devils don’t cover, this must have been designated the mob game of the year. Why don’t they let me know these things beforehand so I can pass it along to you, the reading public? If you get the Wizard’s drift, he feels very strongly that the good people in Las Vegas have a bad line here. Expect a lot of points, but most of them should be scored by ASU against an inexperienced Oregon State secondary. LSU couldn’t cover Derek Hagan, so why should I expect the Beavers to have any success stopping him? ASU is No. 2 in offense and No. 3 in passing offense. Oregon State is 99th in pass defense and 101st in scoring defense. I could go on and on, but rather than risk getting 15 yards for piling on, let’s move on. …

Illinois (plus 10) — I won’t bore you with numbers. Let’s just say this: Michigan State plays poorly after beating Notre Dame. And the Spartans play host to rival Michigan next week. This is a trap game, pure and simple. Give me the 10 points and give me a winning ticket.

Ohio State (minus 7) — Ohio State has been having trouble scoring, but against what is viewed to be an unsettled defensive front for Iowa, we like the bigger boys from Columbus to push the Hawkeyes around and put up enough points to cover. Iowa historically plays poorly at Columbus.

Virginia Tech (minus 11) — It was bad enough that Georgia Tech quarterback Reggie Ball just battled viral meningitis. Now they ask him to battle this nasty, snarling and snorting defense of Virginia Tech. We will give the points here. The Hokies are an elite team.

Notre Dame (minus 13.5) — Let’s toss out all that emotional crap about Willingham and his former team. Washington is getting too much respect here. The Huskies lost to the last real team they played, California, 56-17, in Week 2. Notre Dame should be able to pass (19th nationally) at will on Washington (92nd pass defense).

Wisconsin (plus 2.5) — The Badgers historically have trouble against Michigan, but this is the first road game for the Wolverines and Lloyd Carr’s troops are physically beat up. Wisconsin can run (No. 6) and stop the run (No. 4). Stopping the pass is where the Badgers have trouble, but Michigan isn’t any great shakes throwing the ball. Take the points and the rowdy Camp Randall crowd.

Louisiana State (minus 7) — Although the Volunteer defense has played well, the offensive line will have its third different starting lineup in three games. The quarterback situation has been unsettled, too, but something says Tennessee is walking into an ambush Monday night. Although LSU’s defense ranks 117th, consider who it played (Arizona State, see first selection).

Anonymous said...

Sorry, no NFL. The Wizard devotes his time and resources to one thing and one thing only: college football.