Vindy's Picks Week 11-2013

CONTRACT END OPENS DOOR TO HIGH SCHOOL, COMIC COMPANY

ELRIA, Ohio (AP)…The National Football League has announced it will sever ties with Riddell (pronounced “Wry-Dell”) as its helmet vendor-of-choice in the wake of ongoing concussion problems and other issues, effective the end of the 2013-2014 season. Players have had head-gear options all along as long as competitors fell within prescribed standards, but other brands cannot be mentioned during broadcasts of the games. Riddell was the only company whose name could legally appear on the nose-bumper and paid for the right to make regular and mini-helmets featuring league logos. The change, however, allows the entry of Rydell High School, featured in the musical Grease, and DC Comics to provide head-gear under the name “Riddler”, which would do so only if a question-mark were to be emblazoned somewhere on the helmets!

We’ll blame last week’s 5-8 (82-79-4, .509) on Vindy sustaining too many blows to da’ noggin…the result of banging his cranium on the casino floor while flopping in efforts to draw penalties against sportsbook employees and gain an advantage for…

THE WEBER KID’S 2013 WEEK 11 FORECAST
(Cuter than Olivia Newton-John’s pom-poms!)

THURS. NOV. 7
#2 Oregon (-10 ½) over #6 STANFORD: Is this Mallards squad akin to the one that routed its three regular-season opponents in 2010 or is it perhaps one of the more recent versions that has muddled thru one tough game each of the last two years? For what it’s worth, the games-in-question for 2011 and 2012 were on Da’ Pond, not on the road (and 2010’s stinker came in 15-13 victory at unranked Cal). The closest margins in Drakes last dozen vs. ranked opponents were 11-point win at USC and 17-14 loss to the Trees in OT, both last season. Ducks are otherwise 10-2 ATS against the Top 25 and have covered 14 of last 17 FBS contests. Cardinal has won 23 of last 25 in Palo Alto. We foresee another big day for Oregon’s O…Quack Attack 42 Stanford 24

#5 BAYLOR (-14 ½) over #12 Oklahoma: Bears 44 Sooners 20

FRI. NOV. 8
CONNECTICUT (+28) over #20 Louisville: After being prohibited from last year’s conference and national tourneys, the Huskies’ hoopsters are back in the mix. Let’s hope they ain’t the same bunch of guys who’ve been taking the gridiron all season in Storrs (0-7 SU/1-6 ATS…1-7 ATS if ya count 15-point loss to AA Towson). Redbirds have little to gain with a rout and do have a home-game with potent Houston club on-deck...Louisville 34 UConn 7

SAT. NOV. 9
#10 Louisiana State (+11 ½) over #1 ALABAMA: True college pigskin fans will already know that en route to winning two national crowns in the last three years (and 3 of last 4), the Crimson Tide has recorded exactly one outright home-loss in each of those years. If that trend continues, it happens now…‘cuz the lone remaining visitor to Tuscaloosa is…FCS Tennessee-Chattanooga! In addition, the previous three margins-of-victory in this annual series were 3, 3 and 4. Even ‘Bama’s win during its undefeated 2009 campaign was still less than double-digits. Ever the BCS-anarchist, Vindy would love to see Bengals take out da’ Elephants. We don’t think that’s gonna’ happen, but maybe LSU’s balanced offense can keep Alabama long enough to make it entertaining. Yes, we acknowledge that whole 21-0 BCS title game win by ‘Bama over LSU after the 2011 season and Manziel hit the covering touchdown with the victory already in Tide’s pocket, but…Tide 27 LSU 19

#3 Florida State (-34) over WAKE FOREST: We won’t mention how many times we changed this pick. State needs to go pedal-to-metal here with ‘Noles and Ducks playing weekly leapfrog game in BCS standings to see who gets whacked by Alabama. Tribe did nice job stuffing Miami’s running game then cruised after Duke Johnson was lost for the season, and Stephen Morris couldn’t carry the ‘Canes alone. FSU is outscoring ACC opponents at about a 3-to-1 clip. Deacs allowing an average of less than a touchdown-against more than points-scored in conference play. It was a 35-30 FSU win the last time the two met in Winston-Salem, though FSU won’t likely turn it over five times in this one. Da’ Forest will remember last year’s 52-zippo defeat and were shutout at Syracuse in Week 10, but…FSU 48 Wake Forest 10

#4 Ohio State: IDLE (next @ Illinois)

#7 Auburn (-7) over TENNESSEE: We kinda’ understand the short line given the Vols’ close loss to Joja’ and home-win over Da’ Chicken Coop in Knoxville, but Tigers have been rolling since two-TD defeat in Baton Rouge. Auburn blames a prankster graduate-assistant or a network-employee watching “Wildcats” with Goldie Hawn for sending the wrong tape to Arkansas prior to last week’s Tigers-Razorbacks tilt. The Volunteers took no chances and found the necessary footage on YouTube and Netflix! It won’t be enough to prevent...War Eagle 31 Rocky Top 20

#8 Clemson: IDLE (next vs. Georgia Tech 11/14)

#9 Missouri (-14) over KENTUCKY: Tigers 34 KY 14

#11 TEXAS A&M (-20) over Mississippi State: Aggies 48 MSU 24

#13 South Carolina: IDLE (next vs. Florida)

Virginia Tech (+7) over #14 MIAMI: UPSET ALERT #1. The loss of RB Duke Johnson for the duration by Miami levels the playing-field and points will be at a premium for a pair of slogging offenses. First call is “under” 45. After that…”Canes 17 Hokies 14

#15 OKLAHOMA STATE (-31 ½) over Kansas: Okie State 52 Blue Birds 19

#16 Ucla (-1 ½) over ARIZONA: LOCK OF DA’ WEEK. While missing the cover, Bruins did register an appropriate three-score victory over the Buffaloes last week following consecutive away losses at Oregon and Stanford. UCLA will have made adjustments based on those games. Both squads are trying to keep pace, each a game behind the Pitchforks, but ‘Cats have fattened-up recently on Colorado and Cal (beating the Bears by just 5 last week). AZ had won five straight years in this series until 66-10 win by UCLA in 2012. ‘Cats were belted by only ranked-opponent (Washington…31-13) so far…UCLA 35 AZ 27

WYOMING (+10) over #17 Fresno State: Cowboys were one of the few ‘dogs we quickly jumped on initially this week. Up 24-7 at the half, it looked like the rout was on in Fresno’s visit to San Diego State, but as feared, a second-half defensive lapse let the Aztecs cover. Cowpokes had an off-week to contemplate their own failure to stop the opponent after taking a 1st Quarter 16-0 lead, only to fall at San Josie. FSU West is now just 1-6 against the line facing I-A clubs, including 5-point victory earlier at Hawaii…Fresno 41 Wyoming 38

#18 Michigan State: IDLE (next @ Nebraska)

Houston (+10) over #19 CENTRAL FLORIDA: UCF 37 Cougars 31

Brigham Young (+7 ½) over #21 WISCONSIN: UPSET ALERT #2. A non-conference contest that will mean more to the Independent Coogs than to da’ Big Tenor Badgers. Wisky sucks in first of consecutive home games. Mormons would really like to have loss to Virginia back! We’ll favor an “under” here first. BYU finished within a touchdown of Ohio State and have been a reasonably-strong spread-team in the second half of the last three seasons. Varmints, currently 6-2, started out 2012 winning 6 of first 8, then lost three of last four (all in extra-frames!). We’ve already seen Michigan and Miami both narrowly-dodge upsets to lesser teams than BYU and if we were pickin’ an upset of da’ week, this would be it…UW 34 Brigham Young 31

#22 Northern Illinois: IDLE (next vs. Ball State 11/13)

#23 Arizona State (-6 ½) over UTAH: Sun Devils 37 Utes 27

#24 Notre Dame (-4 ½) over PITT: This nearly got the “lock” label. Ahead of last week’s contests, Pennsylvania banned the touching of pregnant bellies without first getting the okay to do so! Penn State disguised its ball-carriers as expectant mothers while hosting Illinois and won, but didn’t cover. The Panthers, who lost badly to the Bees out-of-state last Saturday, will need to pay someone at Auburn to send the wrong game-tape to Notre Dame this week! (And Temple’s gotta’ know Central Florida will be hip to that kinda’ trickeration long before kicking off its match in Philly with Da’ Owls two weeks from now!)…Irish 24 Pitt 9

Kansas State (+2 ½) over #25 TEXAS TECH: MINOR UPSET PICK OF DA’ WEEK…KSU 27 Raiders 24

BETWEEN THE HASHMARKS

Da’ whole box of ‘”chalk”…AGAIN????!!!....If yer scoring at home, we show faves in games featuring at least one Top 25 club winnin’ da’ spread-money 24 times in 33 tries (72.7%) across the last two weeks! The public is doin’ the happy dance! The ‘books and “sharps”?? Not so much! In all honesty…we struggled to identify ‘dogs we liked this week too!

Last month, NY Jets coach Rex Ryan considered having QB Geno Smith wear a wristband showing color-coded plays…red, yellow, green…for “conservative”, “cautious” and “aggressive”, respectfully. Vindy’s contemplating a similar bracelet for bettors making wagers with his picks!

With da’ World Serious and the Major League Beisbol season at an end, we simply wonder…”Bat-boys, bat-boys…whatcha’ gonna’ do…whatcha’ gonna’ do…when dey come fer you…Bat-boys???!!!”

The NBA opened its regular-season last week. During the Presidential Inauguration broadcast shortly after the New Year, George Stephanopoulos misidentified Bill Russell as Morgan Freeman. We always loved Bill in Shawshank Redemption, Seven and Batman!

With college hoops opening this week, we note President Obama challenged his Ohio State audience, last May, “to do better…dream bigger.”. Bold words to a Buckeyes team that lost in the Elite Eight to #9 Wichita State and… uh…oh wait!!!

Vindy takes a bow for actually having Louisville as national champion in his bracket, but fully acknowledges there was so much wrestling going on during scrums to grab rebounds in the title-game that referees were awarding points for take-downs, pins and reversals! In fact, “high-post” was apparently thought to be something related to players slamming each other’s heads into the turnbuckles! Come to think of it, tag-team rebounds was a category in the box-score!

Is it just Vindy or does anybody else out there look at “handicap” tags on the cars in front of them and wonder “just how many points is the driver getting anyway?!!!!”

Black Shirt: Is gift-wrapped and sent postage-free this week to Joja’ State QB Ronnie Bell for tossin’ a 20-yard scoring pass with under two minutes left to let the Panthers (+19 ½) finish with a 16-point loss and verify one of our “best bet” selections vs. Western Kentucky! Kudos to Jerry Kill…and his Mork-n-Minny Gophers for beating Indiana on the road as nearly-double-digit dogs, bringin’ a second “best bet” choice to fruition!

“Locked in a Box?”: Maybe it oughta’ be Lox of Da’ Week….’cause Vindy’s selection of Wazzou (+11) over Arizona State got schmeered!!! And our most-preferred choice among Top 25 games is now floundering on 0-6-1 death spiral (3-6-1, .333 season)

Shoppe Talk: We’re mounting Wolverines on the wall of Ye Olde Taxidermy Shoppe this week with Big Blew at 2-5, but on 0-5 slide! We’re walkin’ the dogs off short-piers as Fresno State and Northern Illinois come in at 0-4 each!

Vindy’s Week 11 Best Bets: Last Week: 5-5 Season: 31-19-1 (.620…though just 10-8-1 last 3 weeks)
Vanderbilt +10 over FLORIDA, Texas -6 ½ over WEST VIRGINIA, EAST CAROLINA -16 ½ over Tulsa, Southern Methodist +9 over CINCINNATI (and currently OFF, but if it comes back on da’ board… NORTH TEXAS -7 over Texas-El Paso)