Week 7 Upsets to Watch Out For
Posted by deaconcat08 on October 14, 2009
I was 4 for 7 in my upset picks last week with another close call on the longshot game. Not too shabby I’d say. This week there are actually lots of dogs I like, many of which are playing at home. These are ordered from smallest underdog to largest, and the value in each parentheses represents the number of points by which each team is currently an underdog according to the World Sports Exchange.
Indiana (+2.0) vs. Illinois- The Hoosiers have definitely lost a lot of their swagger ever since they got screwed out of a victory at Michigan. However, they are playing at home against an Illini squad that has gotten blown out in every conference game they’ve played so far.
Florida Atlantic (+2.0) vs. North Texas- See my analysis on this game in my picks of the week entry below.
Iowa (+3.0) vs. Wisconsin- See my analysis on this game in my picks of the week entry below.
Georgia Tech (+3.0) vs. Virginia Tech- Until the Hokies win a big game on the road, then I’m not buying all the VT hype. So far, their only two games away from Blacksburg have resulted in a loss to Bama and a scare by Duke.
Maryland (+3.5) vs. Virginia- Both of these teams looked like two of the worst in all of the BCS conferences a couple of weeks ago. Now, after Maryland’s upset of Clemson and UVA’s win at UNC, these teams have their sights set on a bowl game. Both teams also have head coaches sitting squarely on the hot seat. Groh probably needs this one more, but I’ve got to go with the Terps since they’re playing at home.
UCLA (+3.5) vs. Cal- There may not be a more unpredictable game in the country than this one. Both of these teams, especially the Golden Bears, have looked amazing in some games and horrible in others. No one knows how Cal will react after their two disgraceful losses to Oregon and USC, but I certainly wouldn’t want to try to resurrect my season by going into the Rose Bowl and playing a solid Bruins team.
South Florida (+3.0) vs. Cincinnati- We’ve seen this story before: Leavitt’s upstart Bulls win a big weekday home game against a top 10 Big East opponent and start getting national championship hype as a result. I think we may be able to add another chapter to this tale tomorrow night, as USF probably has the most underrated defense in the country.
Longshot of the Week: Texas Tech (+10.5) vs. Nebraska- I’m really surprised this line has shot up from 6.5 to 10.5 throughout the week. We all know that Leach’s squad always plays better in the underdog role, and other than Nebraska’s 2nd quarter vs. Virginia Tech and 4th quarter last week vs. Missouri, they haven’t proven a lot.