Saturday Primer – Week 11
Published on Friday, 11/7/14, at 5:15 p.m. Eastern.
—My Alabama-LSU preview for VegasInsider.com with plenty of SEC Nuggets at the bottom.
—My weekly Read-Option article over at The Linemakers.
—My take on this week’s SEC games over at SaturdayDownSouth.com.
—My column about this week’s second release of rankings from the College Football Playoff selection committee.
–Texas A&M is in its biggest underdog situation of Kevin Sumlin’s tenure, as it is a 23.5-point underdog Saturday night at Auburn. The Aggies have only been double-digit ‘dogs twice on Sumlin’s watch. Both of those instances came in games at Alabama. In 2012, Texas A&M won outright, but it took a 59-0 shellacking at Bryant-Denny Stadium this year.
Texas A&M has failed to cover the number in five consecutive games.
–Texas A&M is mired in a 0-5 ATS slide. Making matters worse, it will be without starting OT Germain Ifedi for the rest of the season. In addition, the Aggies’ best player in the secondary, Deshazor Everett, is ‘doubtful’ at Auburn due to an elbow injury.
–Vandy is 5-1 ATS in its last six games.
–Georgia, a 10.5-point road ‘chalk’ Saturday at Kentucky, is 10-7 ATS as a road favorite since 2009.
–Kentucky is 5-1 ATS at home this year, 2-0 ATS in a pair of home ‘dog spots.
–Baylor’s streak of being favored in 21 straight games will end Saturday at Oklahoma. The last time the Bears were underdogs was at the 2012 Holiday Bowl where they smashed UCLA by a 49-26 count.
–Texas lost another offensive lineman this week when Darius James went down with a season-ending injury. This leaves the Longhorns with only six healthy o-linemen going into Saturday’s home game vs. West Va. The Mountaineers are three-point road favorites.
–Kansas St. owns an incredible 13-1 spread record in its last 14 games as a road underdog dating back to November of 2009.
–Florida has gone 3-4 ATS as a road favorite during Will Muschamp’s tenure.
–The ‘over’ has cashed at a 6-1 overall clip for the Gators this season.
—Nation’s Best ATS Records:
1-Ga. Southern and Western Michigan (8-1)
2-TCU and Utah (7-1)
3-LSU, UMass, Arkansas and La. Tech (7-2)
—Nation’s Worst ATS Records:
1-SMU (1-6)
2-Old Dominion, South Carolina, Akron, UCLA and Toledo (2-7)
–The ‘under’ is a perfect 8-0 in San Diego St. games.
–Oklahoma has seen the ‘over’ hit in seven of its eight games.
–If you’re an Ole Miss fan or recently lost a parent, this column from Alex McDaniel will undoubtedly be worth your time. She filed this column earlier this week — A heartbreak like no other: On love, loss and Ole Miss Football.
