It's a by-product of success. Every time you win a big game, it makes the next game even bigger and adds more pressure to the coaches and players. It's not like this week wasn't going to huge to begin with. For the last 4 years the winner of the Missouri/Nebraska game has won the division and the right to be the sacrificial lamb in the conference championship game. Well, make it # 5 with a bullet. Mizzou travels north and puts their 7-0 record on the line against the 6-1 Huskers. The Tigers will be without their best defensive tackle, Dominique Hamilton who suffered a broken ankle in Saturday nights 36-27 win over # 2 ranked Oklahoma. The hicks bounced back from a home loss to Texas to out gun Oklahoma State 51-41 in Stillwater. Corn nation has actually fared better on the road the last couple of years and some of their players, Nyles Paul in particular, not to mention head coach Bo Pelini have made disparaging comments about their fans. Nebraska opens as an 8 point favorite in this one and I don't buy it for a minute. The game opened at 7 but apparently money has been pouring in on the nubs. I'm guessing a lot of farmers have suddenly taken out loans on their combines. Despite the fact that I've admitted to being a shameless homer, I just have no idea what the odds makers and betters are thinking. I'm taking the Tigers to not only cover, but to win outright. MU 31-21.
Columbia wasn't the only program that was celebrating homecoming last weekend. A few miles to the west of here the jayhawks were taking on Texas A&M, Missouri's victim the week before in College Station Saturday night in larry. While the crowd may not have been quite as large as the one in CoMo, there's something to be said for the ability to sit most anywhere you want. This week the Crimson and Blue wrecking crew travel north to face Iowa State who pulled the upset of the week, and maybe the year last Saturday in a 28-21 win over Texas in Austin. There hasn't been a line established for this game as of Tuesday. I don't know if it's because of some Iowa State injury I haven't heard about of if the gamblers just plain forgot this game was being played. At any rate, I'm going to predict the beaks fall to 0-4 in the conference as the Cyclones win 38-13.
In Austin, the bowl eligible Bears from Baylor visit the not yet bowl eligible Texas Longhorns. It's like we've entered some sort of parallel universe as the whorns sit at 4-3 and suffered that home loss to Iowa State. Texas fans being Texas fans, there has been some rumbling that Mack Brown may have lost his edge and they might need to replace him. Mack himself has told his assistants that their jobs could be in jeopardy if they can't get the team playing with more emotion. The fact that Texas was in the NC game last year doesn't really mean much to UT fans. The athletic department at UT rakes in over 120 million a year and they aren't really familiar with the term rebuilding. Texas opens as a 7 1/2 point favorite and I'm thinking they get off the 2 game home skid Saturday and win 38-24. If Baylor was to pull off the upset here, and I certainly believe they're capable, we'll be hearing some major bitching from the Longhorn not so faithful.
Speaking of coaches and hot seats, Dan Hawkins makes his last trip to Norman to face a pissed off Sooner team in his farewell tour. Expect the Hawk to be terminated before the last fan leaves the stadium in their final game, and really why wouldn't he be? Meanwhile the Sooners will still be smarting from their nationally televised loss at the hands of my Tigers last weekend and you just know that Bob Stoops and company are going to take it out on someone. Big game Bob has no problem running the score up on an over matched opponent as they try to get back in the national championship picture. Oklahoma opens as a 24 point favorite in this one and they may cover that before the 1st quarter ends. Pick OU in a rout, 59-7. They will have one less rabid fan following the game this week so maybe they can dedicate the game to him.
Boomer Sooner.
Over in Manhattan the 5-2 K State Wildcats have another opportunity to get to bowl eligibility this week as they host Oklahoma State. The Cowboys dreams of an unbeaten season were shattered last week in a 51-41 loss to hick nation. Early Tuesday morning they got more bad news when star receiver Justin Blackmon was arrested for speeding and suspected driving under the influence as he was returning from the Monday night football game in Dallas. The Cowboys open as a 6 point favorite in this one and I'm really tempted to call for the upset. However, the Wildcats just aren't very good yet and I'm not ready to call for Carson Coffman to pull off a Taylor Martinez performance this weekend. Look for the Cowboys to rally and win 41-24.
The week wraps up in College Station as the Aggies play host to the Red Raiders from Texas Tech. Both teams should be feeling better about themselves after wins last week over perennial powers Colorado and kansas. A&M opens as a 7 point favorite in this one and the winning coach will feel the temperature of the seat he's on to cool a bit, but just a bit. I'm going to take the Aggies to win, but fail to cover 24-21.
That's all I have for this week. It should be a beautiful weekend in Kansas City and my honey do list is long. I'll probably have to DVR the Missouri game and just catch some scores during the afternoon while I go out and mutilate some bushes in the yard. Have a good weekend folks and we'll talk next Sunday.
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