Thursday night football
South Florida (-1.5) at Rutgers – Who would have guessed a few months ago that this would be quite possibly the biggest game of the week in college football. With a win, South Florida takes charge of the Big East. They lose and the whole thing is a big mess.
The biggest thing that I keep hearing that South Florida needs to be concerned about is Rutgers running back Ray Rice. While he is unquestionably talented, and he torched the Bulls last year, I am not buying it. Rice has big numbers this year, but they aren’t consistent. Both Maryland and Cincinnati were able to limit Rice to under 100 yards and just one touchdown. South Florida has a better run defense than Maryland, and if they could limit Rice to something in that range then they would be thrilled.
Ultimately, I think that South Florida wants it more. They are undefeated, and they absolutely crushed Central Florida last week. Rutgers dropped back to back games and don’t seem to have the hunger that they had last year. The crowd will be crazy, but it was in Auburn, too, and that didn’t seem to bother South Florida. Pick: South Florida.
UPDATE: Well, so much for that theory. Both teams made mistakes at key times, and neither quarterback was particularly efficient, but Ray Rice was effective and Rutgers won 30-27. The intriguing thing that jumps out of the stats to me is that Rutgers had three lost fumbles and lost the turnover battle by two yet they still won. That doesn’t happen very often.
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