ReconPicks

Georgia Tech would fly up into the national rankings if they beat Clemson this evening. The Yellow Jackets run the difficult to stop triple-option offense. If it’s rolling, there is little a defense can do to stop it. Defenses already know what’s coming, but some have a heck of a time trying to stop it. Georgia Tech’s win over Vanderbilt might not look like much, but if you look closely it was an impressive victory. While Vanderbilt hasn’t had an offense to lean on since Jay Cutler’s been in town, they’ve had an excellent defense. Because of their anemic offense, there defense has never been able to get the credit they deserve. Nevertheless, Vanderbilt always possesses one of the top defenses in college football.

Georgia Tech was able to make quick work of them, putting up 38 points in a 38-7 win. The Yellow Jackets mixed up the pass and run beautifully, throwing for 2 touchdowns and another 3 on the ground. Along with Georgia Southern, they can make this offense look like poetry in motion. The Yellow Jackets held Vanderbilt to just 149 yards passing and held BC to 119 yards in their opener. The Yellow Jackets have a major strength in the secondary. I’m just going to ignore Mercer, but they shut them down as well. On the season, they have allowed an average of 10 points per game. While you might be expecting Clemson to finally explode on offense, this may not be the defense they are going to do it against.

The short week should play in Georgia Tech’s favor in this matchup. A triple-option like the Yellow Jackets employ is a tough one to prepare for. Add in a short week and it should present an additional challenge for the coaching staff. There a few reasons for the big spread here in this game. First, like I mentioned earlier, Clemson has done well against Georgia Tech, but only at home which is something for us to note. Second, Clemson has the brand name that the public will gravitate to. Everybody knows they were just in the National Championship. Lastly, there are expectations of them breaking out of their slump any week now, especially against an unranked team like Georgia Tech. I think the Yellow Jackets are better than their unranked status states, though. Catching double-digits at home looks like a must play on Georgia Tech here. The Jackets should look like a team inspired to knock Clemson off on their home turf, where they have historically played Clemson tough.

Despite being without Brady, the Pats have still thrived with Garoppolo. Now, with New England onto their third-string quarterback Thursday night, the question is whether or not rookie QB Jacoby Brissett will be able to fit right into Bill Belichick’s system. My prediction for Thursday evening is that Brissett will definitely be fine. Let’s not forget that Belichick got Matt Cassel to lead the Pats to an 11-5 record a few years back. Brissett in fact, is likely of a higher calibre than Cassel. This is a skilled, third-rounder, and he showed some solid traits in pre-season action. One of which being is great mobility to scramble around and extend plays. Going against a tough Houston front seven, the ability to move should prove quite useful. Look for Brissett to turn in a solid game and keep the Pats in this Thursday nighter.

On the defensive side for New England, one big boost to the Pats is the fact that linebacker Dont’a Hightower is expected to be in the lineup against Houston. With their first two options at QB out, and a banged up offense overall, look for the Pats to pick up their scoring unit with solid defensive play. Look for Hightower to be a big boost in limiting Lamar Miller’s effectiveness and forcing Brock Osweiler to throw in unfavourable situations. New England has been good at getting pressure on opposing QB’s, and Belichick does have a history of getting to Osweiler before – going back to his Denver days. Houston has a particular weakness along the left side of the O-Line and look for New England to be able to exploit this on Thursday night.

As iffy as backing the Pats may be with a third-string rookie quarterback, with New England and Bill Belichick, it’s all about adhering to the system. With Gronkowski back, the offense will be fine with an athletic Brissett at the helm, and their defense will be all over Osweiler. There is something weird about seeing New England as home underdogs, and Houston has yet to face a calibre of team like the Pats. Beating the Bears and Chiefs shouldn’t warrant being favoured in Foxborough, and you can bet New England will be motivated to prove the doubters wrong. Put your faith in the Belichick-system to put you in awe once again, and look for New England to win with yet another unknown quarterback on Thursday night.

Arizona State had one of the best offenses to deal with last night. This week they’re going to be switching gears, against one of the worst offenses in college football is. The Roadrunners have been trying to figure it out by trial and error thus far. UTSA has gone with Dalton Sturm at quarterback, this being his second season in a starting role. Last season he threw for 13 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, with 361 yards rushing and a touchdown on the ground.

In college football today, your team better have one really good defense if that’s what you’re working with at the quarterback position. Strum has been adequate through the first two weeks of action, throwing for 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He has yet to play a decent defense, though. Also, he shouldn’t get much help from his defense in this contest.

The Roadrunners should struggle against the Arizona State ground game tonight. UTSA is ranked 94th in the country against the run, after allowing 220 yards to the Rams last week. Note that they’ve only played Alabama State and Colorado State and are 94th in the nation against the run. I expect that number to get even worse for UTSA following games against better team, starting today against Arizona State. The Sun Devils ran all over Texas Tech last week for 301 yards. Quarterback Manny Wilkins looked much better than the previous week, passing for 351 yards and 2 touchdowns. It was a nice confidence boost for Wilkins, who is in his first season as the starter in the Sun Devil offense.

The only way to compete with Arizona State is to have a high-powered offense with an adequate defense. An average defense would do it against them, but Texas Tech definitely didn’t fulfill that requirement a week ago. Nor do I see the UTSA defense slowing the running attack down this week. UTSA does not have the horses on offense to keep this a close game, like Texas Tech did. It’s a chalky evening for me on Friday night, but this looks like a winning selection.

Arizona st -20.5

Baylor will continue to put up the points in 2016. Despite all of the negative attention on the team, Baylor will have an offense that can explode at any moment. Back at the helm is quarterback Seth Russell who is the clear-cut starter on this Bear’s team. There are a lot of teams juggling between quarterbacks, but Russell is the main guy at Baylor. He has thrown for 6 touchdowns and 2 interceptions on the year, with another touchdown on the ground. Russell was one of the better quarterbacks in college football a year ago, passing for 29 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions. Baylor has a run game to complement him, so they are not a one-dimensional unit.

Rice on the other hand would like to find a component quarterback. The play from under center has been horrid at best, along with the entire offense. Starter Tyler Stehling has passed for 3 interceptions and only 1 touchdown. This wasn’t against elite competition either, this being Western Kentucky and Army. Over the first two weeks, they scored 14 points in each, while allowing 38.5 points per game.

The Owls should find issues moving the ball on Baylor. If SMU, who actually have a pretty nice offense, couldn’t manage to do anything, Rice is going to be in for a world of hurt. Also I don’t think Baylor was too happy with how they started last week. They didn’t wake up until the second-half opened. I expect Baylor to come out guns a blazing, jumping out to a quick 14-0 lead and pretty well sealing the fate for Rice on Friday night. Baylor should be able to control the line of scrimmage and game throughout. This is a lot of points, but I think the odds makers are 4 or 5 points too short of what the correct line should be. Baylor rolls Rice tonight in a big way.

Baylor-30.5