LOCAL FOOTBALL SQUAD LOOKS TO RADICALLY-MODIFY SCHEDULE
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania (BBC)…Nittany Lions officials declared a Penn State-of-Emergency following a 30-23 gridiron-defeat at Nebraska over the weekend, leaving the hometown club at a win-less 0-4 record and having no shot at a conference-title berth nor a post-season bowl bid, and are feverishly-working to cancel its remaining conference-only slate, which includes, no “gimmes” against-or-at Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and Michigan State (collectively 5-11 outright) and secure agreements to host non-conference opponents for purposes of team-morale and future recruiting-efforts. Proposed are games against 1-7 Syracuse and 1-5 Temple, reminiscent of the old days of Big East football, as well as 1-5 East Carolina and 2-5 Duke. Also under consideration were 0-7 Kansas, 0-8 Louisiana-Monroe, 1-9 Texas State and 1-7 South Florida, but COVID-related travel-restrictions made those contests impractical. State College faithful anxiously-await decisions by the Big 10 Conference and the NCAA.
The bookies didn’t take very kindly to our 5-0 Week 10 tally and put up some resistance, culminating in a 3-2 (26-23, .530) finish fer Week 11. Hopin’ to hit on da’ sweet-spot on...
THE WEBER KID’S 2020 WEEK 12 FORECAST
(Like American soldiers wooing French girls during WWII..."nothin' but nylons”..and chocolate bars!)
SAT. NOV. 21
Kentucky @ #1 ALABAMA (“over 58”): First-clash since 2016’s 34-6 victory by the Crimson Thyme. Week 11’s white-wash of Mississippi State notwithstanding, Tide has granted a minimum of 17 points-against in each of its other contests and stands-in at 4-2 “over” to-date. Wildcats are hanging-up just-shy of 27 points-per-game on the year (tossin’ outlier of 3 vs. D-stars of Joja’), but are also 5-2 “under”. But wait...there’s more! KY gifted 42 to Ohhmmm Missus and 35 last week to the Vandy Admirals, but the Bluegrass Bobtails haven’t lost by more than 16 (at then-Top 25 Auburn in season-opener). ‘Bama beat A&M Aggies by 28, Vols by 31 and aforementioned Rabbles by 41, causin’ us to shy-away from taking 30-points (though we might ask fer a mulligan on that one). Cheering-on both offenses and fadin’ both stop-squads... Elephants 45 KY 24
Indiana (+20 ½) over #3 OHIO STATE: Okay...so we’re about to find out if the Hoosiers are real...or just Memorex! Indy’s triumphs over both-then-ranked Penn State and Michigan, now a combined 1-7 SU, have lost some shine. Nonetheless, given IU’s less-than-stellar 18-19 outright SU record the past three seasons, those wins count for something. Coach Day has posted a 13-6-1 spread-record in his time at the ‘Shoe and has taken last trio in this series by an average margin of almost 31 ppg. Both sides toppled our Alma Mater and Buckeyes edged Rutgers by a half-dozen more at home than Indiana did on Exit 9B of the Jersey Turnpike. State may have been peering forward to this one in light of 22-point victory over said Scarlet Knights and Hoosiers engage in third-roadie in four weeks, but we don’t see enuff evidence to justify passing-up about three-touchdowns...OSU 38 Hoosiers 24
#7 Cincinnati (-5 ½) over CENTRAL FLORIDA: Can’t call this a “signature-win” having already conquered potent SMU and Memphis, granting mere 13 and 10-points respectively, but Golden Knights recently dispatched Tulane, Houston (away) and Temple by combined 133-68 following back-to-back losses to Tulsa and Memphis, and a victory would help Cincy keep a notch-ahead of C-USA's Marshall in race fer that Groupon-of-Five New Year’s (??!!) Six Bowl spot! Bearkats finally grabbed a dubya in the series in 2019 after UCF won three-consecutive years, recording two beat-downs here in Orlando. Gilded Paladins’ scoring-defense has been all over the board in seven outings. UC’s seven opponents have scored no more than 20...Ursine-Felines 41 Guys in Armor at the Round-Table 21
#14 Oklahoma State (+7) over #18 OKLAHOMA: UPSET PICK OF DA’ WEEK. Lotsa’ other folks support our spread-pick given the opening-line of 10. Sooners have taken the last trilogy, though not with style-points until 2019’s win by 18 when State returned only 11 starters. Last meeting in Norman was Oklahoma’s 2018 48-47 scoring-soiree. This is prolly the best offense State has faced and the best defense OK has lined-up against. Both of which make a call on the total (60) iffy. Dust Devils limited OU to 30. Sooners piled-up 124 points the past two weeks, but those came against next-to-last-nationally scoring-D Kansas (48.4 ppg, ahead of only the MAC’s Bee Gees [fitty-plus]) and 11th-worst points-allowed Texas Tech (38 ppg). First ‘dog-role fer the Cowpokes, who did concede 41 in loss to Texas on Halloween, but we like...OKSU 37 Circling the Wagons 31
Appalachian State @ #16 COASTAL CAROLINA (“under 48”): A bit of a gamble here and definite selection fer “Wish We Had It Back” criteria behind above-mentioned Kentucky @ ‘BAMA choice. Line opened at 51 ½. ‘Eers, 6-0 “under”, show just a trey of contests that ended below this total. Riverside Roosters show 4-2 “below” the total, with only two of those (though both being in past three outings) doing likewise. Mountaineers are defending-Shun-Belt champions, two-years-running and the hat-trick goes thru Conway, South Carolina. Chants, who’ve been kind to us, are in retaliation-mode fer 2019’s 56-37 defeat, and two losses prior to that. Apparition State has placed 30 of last 34 in the outright win-column, despite bringing back just 5 starters on the defensive-side. Mountaineers have also has covered 5 of last 6 getting points outside Boone, NC. Imploring both defenses to “git ‘er done”! …Howard Cossell Carolina 24 ‘Eers 17
BETWEEN THE HASHMARKS
BTW, said one anonymous assistant coach in Not-Even-Being-Close-To-Happy Valley...”We’ve been playing like the ‘Keystone State Cops’.” In related news, we’d apply a similar-label to the Philly Beagles following Sunday’s NFL demise vs. the New York Giants!
On a serious-note, we wonder why in the world the Alma Mater, seriously-missing top-defender Micah Parsons, who opted-out to get ready for the ‘21 NFL Draft, is currently-listed as a small fave (and climbin’?!) going into 2-2 Iowa this weekend. Hawkeyes crushed Michigan State and Minnesota ahead of 1-point loss vs. now-#19 Northwestern!
If a commonly-heard phrase on South Park meets a certain Bluegrass State college football team, would we hear... ”Oh, no! They killed Kentucky! Those bastards!”
In April, Alabama's use of Apple watches to track players generated some backlash. BTW, Vin sent similar-wrist-wear to members of his preseason forecasting strategy team around the same time, to make sure they didn’t wander outside da’ “bubble”!
We took notice of the following headline in Tuesday’s newspaper...”Over 2,500 uncounted Ga. votes found”. Gotta’ figure the folks in Athens are still doin’ da’ happy-dance knowin’ da’ Bulldogs have just jumped into the #1 spot in the AP Poll!
Notable trends to-date: Appalachian State 6-0 “under” (as mentioned above), BYU 7-1 ATS, Kansas 1-6 ATS & 7-0 “over”, Navy 6-1 “over”, South Alabama 7-1 “under” and South Florida 6-1 “over”.
With the Masters Tournament recently-completed, we ask if a certain lizard-represented insurance company meets a certain famous golfer, would we hear...”Hey you Woodchucks...quit chuckin’ my Tiger Woods!”?? If the contest-in-question meets a college basketball coaching-legend, is it...”Hey you Woodchucks...quit chuckin’ my John Wooden!”???!!!
Black Shirt: This week’s Awesome Apparel goes to Herd WR Willie Johnson fer seriously-nifty toe-drag while reeling-in a back-of-da'-corner-of-da’ End Zone 23-yard TD-reception with 1:48 left, sending Marshall (-23 ½) to the predicted-cover vs. Middle Tennessee! Honorable-mention to Western Kentucky LB Kyle Bailey fer absorbing 15-yard unsportsmanslike-conduct hankie that pushed Sudden Miscellaneous to Hilltoppers’ 27, assisting SoMiss’ only-score in 10-7 loss, but supporting our “Best Bet”-call of “USM plus-4 ½’!
Vindy’s Week 12 Best Bets: Last Week: 2-0 (two others got canned before Saturday’s kick-off) Season: 25-9 (.735). A couple of our early choices got zeroed-out courtesy of the COVID, so, we offer...a box of chalk...ARMY –4 over Joja’ Sudden, San Diego State –1 ½ over UNR, Joja’ State –3 ½ over SOUTH ALABAMA and...Joja’ State @ SOUTH ALABAMA “under 58 ½” (A rare double-call, but Navy @ USF and Houston @ SMU fell off da’ schedule!)
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