2013 Record: 3-9

2014 Las Vegas Season Win Total: 3.5*

2014 Season Win Total Picks NCAA Football: 'Over'

Tulsa's farewell season in Conference USA, a conference it dominated for the better part of the last decade, did not go as planned. The Golden Hurricane struggled to a 3-9 season, its lowest win total since 2002, and now they are working their way into an even tougher league in the American Athletic Conference.

Bill Blankenship's squad won 11 games in 2012 so last year's eight-win drop-off was eye-popping. The trouble was on offense, which was always a major strength under former coaches Steve Kragthorpe and Todd Graham. Tulsa was No. 102 in the country with just 21.1 points per game and six of their nine losses were by 17 points or more.

Tulsa is still very much rebuilding. They are very young on both sides of the ball, with several freshmen and sophomores either set to start or log serious minutes. Their opening month, outside of an exciting home game against Oklahoma, is pretty manageable. But once they hit the road for a stint of five of seven away games we'll see what this team is made of.

I can see Tulsa getting off to a decent start. They get two weak schools, Tulane and Texas State, at home, and they have another winnable game at Florida Atlantic. Three straight games at Colorado State, at Temple and versus South Florida could also yield some W's. This isn't a good team. But I think they can steal enough wins to clear this small number. I would play the Golden Hurricanes to go 'over' 3.5 wins.

2014 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes Schedule

DATE OPPONENT TIME (ET) Location Result

Thu, Aug 28th, 2014 Tulane 08:00 PM Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman S

Sat, Sep 6th, 2014 Oklahoma 12:00 PM Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman S

Sat, Sep 13th, 2014 at Fla Atlantic 07:00 PM FAU Stadium

Sat, Sep 27th, 2014 Texas St. TBA Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman S

Sat, Oct 4th, 2014 at Colorado St TBA Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes S

Sat, Oct 11th, 2014 at Temple TBA Lincoln Financial Field

Sat, Oct 18th, 2014 S. Florida TBA Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman S

Fri, Oct 31st, 2014 at Memphis 08:00 PM Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium

Sat, Nov 8th, 2014 SMU TBA Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman S

Fri, Nov 14th, 2014 at UCF 08:00 PM Bright House Networks Stadium

Sat, Nov 22nd, 2014 at Houston TBA Houston Football Stadium

Fri, Nov 28th, 2014 East Carolina TBA Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman S

All Times EST

*Season Win Total Odds from Raphael Esparza. Esparza was a Las Vegas sportsbook manager for 13 years at some of the largest books on The Strip. He is a proven oddsmaker and this is his projected total.

Robert Ferringo was the top football handicapper in the country last year, earning nearly $8,000 in total football profit in 2013-14 and posting one of the best seasons in America. He hit 62.1 percent for the entire NFL season (95-58) and was amazing down the stretch, closing with 11 of 14 winning NFL weeks and 12 of 15 overall winning football weeks. Robert has posted 3 of 4 winning football seasons, 6 of 7 winning NFL seasons, 30 of 44 winning football months, and 6 of 7 winning NFL preseasons. Also, Robert's proprietary KING College Football Betting System posted another winning season (now 2-for-2) and is 83-58 over the last two years (58.9 percent).

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