College Football Highlights, Week 14
by Joshua Fairbanks - 12/06/2006
Each week of the season Doc's Sports will look at some of the most important college football highlights that took place over the previous weekend. This is where to look to find out who covered in the big games, where the important line moved occurred as well as which teams were hot against the total.
No. 10 Oklahoma Defeated No.18 Nebraska Saturday, 21-7.
Oklahoma came out of this game the same way most analysts expected them to - by basically dominating the entire game in all facets. Nebraska played tough the entire game, but costly turnovers and penalties really hurt the team's chances. It's interesting to note that since the loss of Adrian Petersen, Oklahoma has become noticeably better. Since Oklahoma's loss to Texas, the Sooners finished the season 7-1 ATS. Oklahoma also finished 1-8 covering the total in their last eight weeks. The loss of Petersen seemed to unite the team in the latter part of the season. If Boise State thinks that they can beat Oklahoma, they're in for a serious reality check.
No. 2 Florida Defeated No. 8 Arkansas Saturday, 38-28.
It's not often that I toot my horn when it comes to betting trends, but I really nailed this game. If you read my SEC championship preview article, I spoke about how these two teams combined to be 6-3 against the total when playing high competition. The game started out a little slow, but picked up tremendously in the second half blowing out the total. Florida almost covered the total by themselves. The Gators also finally covered the three-point spread this game finishing the season 4-9 ATS. Yes, the Gators continue to win close games, which, this week, finally worked out, for bettors. Will this one-game hot streak ATS continue for Florida? Only time will tell.
No. 16 Wake Forest Defeated No. 22 Georgia Tech Saturday, 9-6.
This game was nothing like I thought it would be. After a very slow game for Reggie Ball last week, I expected him and Johnson to light up Wake Forest's secondary. Of course, as you can tell by the total, this was not the case. Wake Forest's dominant defense finished the season 1-4 covering the total. Wake also finished 8-4 ATS for the season. If bettors had the faith in the cinderella Demon Deacons this year, they were in for one nice ride. GT, on the other hand, finished season on a poor note. The Yellow Jackets' offense seemed to cool down, finishing 1-4 against the total. Although Georgia Tech had a great defense, offensive production was something that seemed to derail at season end.
No. 15 West Virginia Defeated No. 13 Rutgers Saturday, 41-39.
This was one of the most exciting games that took place this weekend. It took West Virginia 3OTs to finally take down Rutgers in this match-up. The sole difference in this game turned out to be a missed two-point conversion. Although West Virginia won this game, the only thing that the Mountaineers accomplished was destroying the Rutgers feel-good season. Instead of Rutgers playing Wake in a BCS game, Louisville lucked out and consequentially, the TV audience will be smaller. West Virginia finished the season 1-4 ATS. The strong play for the Mountaineers this season was clearly their offense. At season end, West Virginia finished 8-3 covering the total. As for Rutgers, they did finish the season a strong 3-1 ATS. Even though the Scarlet Knights fell in the end, they did a nice job for their bettors.
No. 7 Louisville Defeated Connecticut Saturday, 48-17.
Who says that Louisville can't cover a nice fat 29-point spread? To the Cardinals, this kind of spread is something they have seen all year. Louisville finished the season 8-4 ATS and 7-5 covering the total. The only reason Louisville's total covers this season were so low was due to the fact that sports books took advantage of this team. Week after week the totals for Louisville seemed to shade higher and higher. Yes, Louisville can cover, but their underrated defense prevents teams from getting the points needed to surpass the given totals.