Thu, Aug 28: TEMPLE +15.5 at Vandy
Fri, Aug 29: UNLV +23.5 at Arizona
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Temple is a team whose 2-10 record last yr is deceiving. of their ten losses, five were by 7 points or less, and another was by 9 pts and another by 10 pts. what does this mean? they play in close games and do not give up. they do not fold. they have year two HC matt rhule so they are more comfy now in the new schemes and a core of 13 returning starters incl an above avg qb named pj walker who has mobility and is accurate. he does not make many mistakes so he is a good qb to have on the road in game one.
Vandy is a different story. they bring only 10 guys from a team that won 9 gms the past 2 yrs under coach franklin, who has since departed for greener (whiter) pastures of penn state. vandy also loses their starting qb, and two best pass catchers. the new coach mason inherits a much different team than the last two editions. i think it's safe to assume serious growing pains early on especially on offense.
temple can very will win this game straight up as i expect them to be right there until the end with a chance to win in the 4th quarter. 15.5 points is beautiful here.
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Unlv had gained confidence after last year's winning season and has bought into bobby hauck's MO. Even though nick sherry takes over at qb and is inexperienced, he is surrounded by veterans so that helps a lot for the new signal caller.
As for zona they start their 3rd new qb in 3 years and even though Scroggins is talented they are pretty young on offense. Unlv and zona proximity means they recruit some of the same guys and of course zona gets most of them. A lot of rebels wish zona recruited them so this is a bit like when mac schools play the big 10, they are very fired up to beat schools that overlooked them in the recruiting process. it's about pride.
I see a lazy sleepy Arizona win where the new guys on offense are just trying to get their feet wet. I don't see rich rod opening up the play book too much in this one as he has 3 fairly easy opponents before opening the pac 12 season on 9/20 vs cal.
I think 23.5 pts us still a strong play as the margin should be about 13 to 17 pts on the zona win.
UNLV stays within the # and acquits itself of last year's 58-13 home loss to zona in sin city