Ahmad Hardy is what makes the Mizzou offense go It’s a day full of college football with eight games starting at 11:00 with Pitt vs East Carolina and ending with a 9:16 kickoff for Houston vs LSU.
Here are my favorite picks:
Missouri -4.0 vs Virginia – You got to wonder how good Virginia really is. They were playing for a spot in the CFP. All they had to do was beat an unranked average Duke team in the ACC championship game and they were in. They failed.
Missouri will be without starting QB Beau Pribula but backup Matt Zollers has three games as a starter under his belt. And it wasn’t Pribula that made the Tiger offense go. That would be star RB Amhad Hardy. Hardy is 68 yards away from the all time Mizzou rushing record. Expect the coaching staff to feed him the ball to get the record.
Hardy forced 86 missed tackles this season which sets up well against a Virginia defense which struggles with broken tackles,
Missouri won games behind a defense that was border line elite and should easily contain the Cavaliers offense.
Missouri is bigger, deeper, and better than Virginia. The Tigers are also 9-1 against the spread under Drinkwitz when playing as favorites of 3.5 to 10 points. I’ll take the Tigers to cover.
Here are my favorite picks:
Missouri -4.0 vs Virginia – You got to wonder how good Virginia really is. They were playing for a spot in the CFP. All they had to do was beat an unranked average Duke team in the ACC championship game and they were in. They failed.
Missouri will be without starting QB Beau Pribula but backup Matt Zollers has three games as a starter under his belt. And it wasn’t Pribula that made the Tiger offense go. That would be star RB Amhad Hardy. Hardy is 68 yards away from the all time Mizzou rushing record. Expect the coaching staff to feed him the ball to get the record.
Hardy forced 86 missed tackles this season which sets up well against a Virginia defense which struggles with broken tackles,
Missouri won games behind a defense that was border line elite and should easily contain the Cavaliers offense.
Missouri is bigger, deeper, and better than Virginia. The Tigers are also 9-1 against the spread under Drinkwitz when playing as favorites of 3.5 to 10 points. I’ll take the Tigers to cover.
Bert Emanuel Jr was pitiful at CMU San Diego State Team Total Under 21.5 vs North Texas - North Texas capped off a historic season with an American Championship appearance and winning 10 games for the first time in program history. And with success comes turnover as HC Eric Morris departed for Oklahoma State, DC followed Morris to Stillwater and OC Jordan Davis was hired by East Carolina.
When former Kent State HC came to San Diego, expectations were that he would implement a high scoring Flash Fast type offense. Quite the opposite. SDSU went 9-3 behind a run heavy offense and Mountain West leading defense. And that success led to Aztec DC Rob Aurich getting poached by Nebraska.
The SDSU pass offense was dreadful finishing in the bottom 25. Now starting QB Jayden Denegal will be out with a season ending injury handing the reins to former Central Michigan QB Bert Emanuel Jr. Emaunuel has a pitiful career record with a completion rate of 53.3% for his 60 career pass attempts despite appearing in 32 games. Emanuel is also dealing with a leg injury that kept him out of the season finale against New Mexico.
There’s little in this matchup to keep North Texas defenders honest. Expect UNT to play downhill and force the ball into Emanuel’s hands.
Over the last 6 weeks of the season, SDSU has averaged 19 points per game and now faces the best defense yet without its starting QB. They will struggle to get over 21 points today.
The day ends up with a night cap game of:
When former Kent State HC came to San Diego, expectations were that he would implement a high scoring Flash Fast type offense. Quite the opposite. SDSU went 9-3 behind a run heavy offense and Mountain West leading defense. And that success led to Aztec DC Rob Aurich getting poached by Nebraska.
The SDSU pass offense was dreadful finishing in the bottom 25. Now starting QB Jayden Denegal will be out with a season ending injury handing the reins to former Central Michigan QB Bert Emanuel Jr. Emaunuel has a pitiful career record with a completion rate of 53.3% for his 60 career pass attempts despite appearing in 32 games. Emanuel is also dealing with a leg injury that kept him out of the season finale against New Mexico.
There’s little in this matchup to keep North Texas defenders honest. Expect UNT to play downhill and force the ball into Emanuel’s hands.
Over the last 6 weeks of the season, SDSU has averaged 19 points per game and now faces the best defense yet without its starting QB. They will struggle to get over 21 points today.
The day ends up with a night cap game of:
Michael Van Buren will lead the depleted LSU roster Houston -1.5 vs LSU - It was a disastrous season for LSU, which now awaits the Lane Kiffin Era. LSU’s lineup looks nothing like the team we saw all season, LSU’s roster is depleted. This isn’t an exaggeration. The Tigers are missing most of their defensive corps.
The Tigers will be without their two best players in the secondary (Mansoor Delane, AJ Haulcy), three impact linebackers (Whit Weeks, West Weeks, Harold Perkins), and the top pass rusher (Jack Pyburn).Add to that, starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is out as well. The Tiger offense will rely on backup QB Michael Van Buren Jr., who’s making only his fourth career start.
LSU is also missing receivers and offensive linemen who played important roles. With the starting quarterback out, key receivers missing, a shuffled offensive line and most of the defense replaced, it’s tough to imagine a worse situation for a bowl game.
Houston’s defense is mostly intact after ranking in the mid 20’s in most metrics. This gives them a big edge against a backup quarterback, makeshift offensive line and limited skill players.
That’s not even considering the other big mismatch, which is LSU’s defense against Houston’s offense. Houston’s offense will be full-go with quarterback Connor Weigman looking to build momentum after announcing his return to the program in 2026. The Cougars racked up at least 400 total yards in three of their last four games and are capable of scoring against a depleted LSU defense.
And don’t forget, Houston will playing in their home city in the NRG dome. Place should be rocking with Cougar faithful.
I went 2-1 last night (the lone loss was in OT) bringing the season record to 29-28
The Tigers will be without their two best players in the secondary (Mansoor Delane, AJ Haulcy), three impact linebackers (Whit Weeks, West Weeks, Harold Perkins), and the top pass rusher (Jack Pyburn).Add to that, starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is out as well. The Tiger offense will rely on backup QB Michael Van Buren Jr., who’s making only his fourth career start.
LSU is also missing receivers and offensive linemen who played important roles. With the starting quarterback out, key receivers missing, a shuffled offensive line and most of the defense replaced, it’s tough to imagine a worse situation for a bowl game.
Houston’s defense is mostly intact after ranking in the mid 20’s in most metrics. This gives them a big edge against a backup quarterback, makeshift offensive line and limited skill players.
That’s not even considering the other big mismatch, which is LSU’s defense against Houston’s offense. Houston’s offense will be full-go with quarterback Connor Weigman looking to build momentum after announcing his return to the program in 2026. The Cougars racked up at least 400 total yards in three of their last four games and are capable of scoring against a depleted LSU defense.
And don’t forget, Houston will playing in their home city in the NRG dome. Place should be rocking with Cougar faithful.
I went 2-1 last night (the lone loss was in OT) bringing the season record to 29-28
