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USC/Fresno St.:
I was initially on USC, but I shifted my focus after really divulging myself into this. Much of the talk is placed on the coaching carousel of USC and bettors/fans are curious how the team will react after the players favorite, Orgeron, rightfully resigned once he was overlooked for the HC job. A lot of people think they'll be disinterested given the schools stature relative to this bowl game and considering the coaching situation. I disagree. What I did was place myself back in college and thought about how myself and my team would react to sometihng like this. Happy? No. However, college kids are resilient and these are athletes, so they're competitive by nature. There's draft positioning for those planning to leave for the NFL and Sark will be watching in the booth to see who really wants to be there. On top of it all is the sheer talent level that USC has. They can run and pass and I highly doubt Fresno St. can shut these guys down. Another key I found here is with interim coach Clay Helton. With Kiffin around, he probably didn't have much offensive opinion. The second the defensive minded Orgeron took the reigns, the offensive duties were squared solely with Helton and what we saw as a huge boost in production that matched the talent level of the Trojans. Now this same guy is running the ship and he's auditioning for an OC or possible HC job in this one. With only 7 practice days due to finals, I expect the play calling to be fun and loose and the Trojans have the talent to pull off putting tons of points on the board against this D.
On the other side, it's rather simple for me. Fresno just missed on a BCS berth. I still don't buy a disinterest. They get a chance to play a big brother in the state of California and they have one of the best Q's in the nation leading the way. They have offensive weapons and should be able to score. I felt if I went USC I would see a backdoor cover by Fresno, so I'm going with my instincts here and saying that we see a shootout at some point and if USC pulls away then the number should still be reached with garbage points.
Over 63
I was initially on USC, but I shifted my focus after really divulging myself into this. Much of the talk is placed on the coaching carousel of USC and bettors/fans are curious how the team will react after the players favorite, Orgeron, rightfully resigned once he was overlooked for the HC job. A lot of people think they'll be disinterested given the schools stature relative to this bowl game and considering the coaching situation. I disagree. What I did was place myself back in college and thought about how myself and my team would react to sometihng like this. Happy? No. However, college kids are resilient and these are athletes, so they're competitive by nature. There's draft positioning for those planning to leave for the NFL and Sark will be watching in the booth to see who really wants to be there. On top of it all is the sheer talent level that USC has. They can run and pass and I highly doubt Fresno St. can shut these guys down. Another key I found here is with interim coach Clay Helton. With Kiffin around, he probably didn't have much offensive opinion. The second the defensive minded Orgeron took the reigns, the offensive duties were squared solely with Helton and what we saw as a huge boost in production that matched the talent level of the Trojans. Now this same guy is running the ship and he's auditioning for an OC or possible HC job in this one. With only 7 practice days due to finals, I expect the play calling to be fun and loose and the Trojans have the talent to pull off putting tons of points on the board against this D.
On the other side, it's rather simple for me. Fresno just missed on a BCS berth. I still don't buy a disinterest. They get a chance to play a big brother in the state of California and they have one of the best Q's in the nation leading the way. They have offensive weapons and should be able to score. I felt if I went USC I would see a backdoor cover by Fresno, so I'm going with my instincts here and saying that we see a shootout at some point and if USC pulls away then the number should still be reached with garbage points.
Over 63
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