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Wednesday’s 6-pack
Six more interesting pointspreads for this week’s college football:
— North Carolina @ Wake Forest (-3)
— Kansas State @ Mississippi State (-7.5)
— Maryland (-7) @ Temple
— Pittsburgh @ Penn State (-17)
— Eastern Michigan @ Illinois (-8)
— Akron @ Central Michigan (-3)
Quote of the Day
“That’s my priority. My agents just have to do their job.”
OF Marcell Ozuna, talking about re-signing with the Cardinals
Wednesday’s quiz
Which two prominent actors were the little kid’s chess mentors in the excellent movie Searching for Bobby Fischer?
Tuesday’s quiz
Oakland Raiders are only NFL team that shares their stadium with a major league baseball team; when the Raiders move to Las Vegas next year, there will be none.
Monday’s quiz
Matt Prater holds record for the longest field goal in NFL history, a 64-yarder in 2013.
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Wednesday’s List of 13: Mid-week musings…….
13) ESPN football analyst Brian Griese is very good; Monday night he produced an old set of notes he had as a player, when his coach was Jon Gruden, back when he played for the Buccaneers in 2004-05, 08. Gruden would hand-write the notes and distribute them to players.
Griese said “…..I never felt more prepared as a player than when I played for Gruden” which is obviously high praise from a guy who spent 11 years playing QB in the NFL, and whose dad was also a really good QB in the NFL.
12) Virginia is -7 over Florida State in Charlottesville Saturday; since 1997, Seminoles are 11-2 SU vs Virginia, 8-5 vs spread— FSU was favored in all 13 games, eight times by 12+ points. 10 of their 11 wins over the Cavaliers were by 14+ points. Teams haven’t met since 2014.
11) Actor Matthew McConaughey is apparently the Texas Longhorns’ new Minister of Culture, which means that he is a prominent celebrity booster who helps pump people up when it comes to all things Texas Longhorn. People are impressed by celebrities.
From The Athletic: “McConaughey once thought he would be a college or pro athlete — he jokes he only gave up the dream about eight years ago — and he believes if he hadn’t found the acting thing, he might have become a coach. Now he has the chance to speak with, influence and encourage college kids.”
Four years ago McConaughey started teaching a course at Texas, Script to Screen, in which film students receive a script from a film he’s working on and follow through all of its edits and iterations until production. The Moody College of Communications named him a professor of practice last week.
10) Carolina RB Christian McCaffrey had 29 touches for 209 yards in the Panthers’ 30-27 loss to the Rams LW; great production if you have him in your fantasy league, but Carolina better find some other weapons, because 29 touches a week isn’t sustainable, especially in a week like this one, when the Panthers are playing on three days’ rest.
9) Sunday afternoon in Queens, the Phillies had Andrew Knapp at bat with two men on and the pitcher (reliever Mike Morin) due up next; the Mets walked Knapp intentionally to get to the pitcher’s spot, because they wanted Morin out of the game, either that or they didn’t think the Phillies would hit for him. This strategy had one glaring problem.
Bryce Harper wasn’t in the game yet, so they walked Knapp to pitch to pinch-hitter Harper, and strategy does not get much dumber than that; it is baseball malpractice. Harper walked to force in a run. Philly won the game 10-7.
8) Mets’ P Noah Syndergaard doesn’t want to throw to catcher Wilson Ramos; he pleaded his case to pitching strategist Jeremy Accardo, manager Mickey Callaway, and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, then got annoyed when word of the private conversation became public.
7) Mets’ bullpen has a 7.62 ERA in 80.1 IP in Jacob deGrom’s starts this season.
In totally unrelated news, Milwaukee star OF Christian Yelich fouled a ball off his knee Tuesday night and fractured his kneecap; he is done for this season.
6) Cleveland Browns had 19 snaps on 1st-and-10 Sunday; on 15 of those 19 plays, they were penalized and wound up with 1st or 2nd down and more than 10 yards to go. Not good.
5) Kentucky QB Terry Wilson is out for the season after hurting his left knee last week.
4) Jets signed K Sam Ficken and cut K Kaare Vedvik, who has been traded twice, cut once in the last six weeks. Vedvik missed a PAT and a field goal in Sunday’s 17-16 loss to Buffalo.
Jets also acquired WR DeMaryius Thomas from New England for a 6th round draft pick.
3) Houston Texans released veteran CB Aaron Colvin, just over a year into a 4-year, $34M contract; he gets $7.5M this year- that was guaranteed.
2) If you live in the Albany area and like pro wrestling, you will be interested to know that Ric Flair is doing an appearance at Colonie Center Sunday, at a hobby shop that is upstairs by the food court. They’re expecting a big crowd; get there early.
1) Patriots at Dolphins opened at New England -14.5, but as I type this, it is up to -18.5 or -19. Takes lot of onions to back a Dolphin squad that lost 59-10 last week, while New England was killing the Steelers, but Patriots have lost SU in five of their last six visits to south Florida.
CG Technology got a $55,000 bet Tuesday on the Patriots (-18) to cover; if that person read this site, he/she would know that over the last decade, Week 2 teams who won by 28+ points in Week 1 are 1-10 vs spread in their Week 2 game. We’ll see what happens.
Six more interesting pointspreads for this week’s college football:
— North Carolina @ Wake Forest (-3)
— Kansas State @ Mississippi State (-7.5)
— Maryland (-7) @ Temple
— Pittsburgh @ Penn State (-17)
— Eastern Michigan @ Illinois (-8)
— Akron @ Central Michigan (-3)
Quote of the Day
“That’s my priority. My agents just have to do their job.”
OF Marcell Ozuna, talking about re-signing with the Cardinals
Wednesday’s quiz
Which two prominent actors were the little kid’s chess mentors in the excellent movie Searching for Bobby Fischer?
Tuesday’s quiz
Oakland Raiders are only NFL team that shares their stadium with a major league baseball team; when the Raiders move to Las Vegas next year, there will be none.
Monday’s quiz
Matt Prater holds record for the longest field goal in NFL history, a 64-yarder in 2013.
************************
Wednesday’s List of 13: Mid-week musings…….
13) ESPN football analyst Brian Griese is very good; Monday night he produced an old set of notes he had as a player, when his coach was Jon Gruden, back when he played for the Buccaneers in 2004-05, 08. Gruden would hand-write the notes and distribute them to players.
Griese said “…..I never felt more prepared as a player than when I played for Gruden” which is obviously high praise from a guy who spent 11 years playing QB in the NFL, and whose dad was also a really good QB in the NFL.
12) Virginia is -7 over Florida State in Charlottesville Saturday; since 1997, Seminoles are 11-2 SU vs Virginia, 8-5 vs spread— FSU was favored in all 13 games, eight times by 12+ points. 10 of their 11 wins over the Cavaliers were by 14+ points. Teams haven’t met since 2014.
11) Actor Matthew McConaughey is apparently the Texas Longhorns’ new Minister of Culture, which means that he is a prominent celebrity booster who helps pump people up when it comes to all things Texas Longhorn. People are impressed by celebrities.
From The Athletic: “McConaughey once thought he would be a college or pro athlete — he jokes he only gave up the dream about eight years ago — and he believes if he hadn’t found the acting thing, he might have become a coach. Now he has the chance to speak with, influence and encourage college kids.”
Four years ago McConaughey started teaching a course at Texas, Script to Screen, in which film students receive a script from a film he’s working on and follow through all of its edits and iterations until production. The Moody College of Communications named him a professor of practice last week.
10) Carolina RB Christian McCaffrey had 29 touches for 209 yards in the Panthers’ 30-27 loss to the Rams LW; great production if you have him in your fantasy league, but Carolina better find some other weapons, because 29 touches a week isn’t sustainable, especially in a week like this one, when the Panthers are playing on three days’ rest.
9) Sunday afternoon in Queens, the Phillies had Andrew Knapp at bat with two men on and the pitcher (reliever Mike Morin) due up next; the Mets walked Knapp intentionally to get to the pitcher’s spot, because they wanted Morin out of the game, either that or they didn’t think the Phillies would hit for him. This strategy had one glaring problem.
Bryce Harper wasn’t in the game yet, so they walked Knapp to pitch to pinch-hitter Harper, and strategy does not get much dumber than that; it is baseball malpractice. Harper walked to force in a run. Philly won the game 10-7.
8) Mets’ P Noah Syndergaard doesn’t want to throw to catcher Wilson Ramos; he pleaded his case to pitching strategist Jeremy Accardo, manager Mickey Callaway, and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, then got annoyed when word of the private conversation became public.
7) Mets’ bullpen has a 7.62 ERA in 80.1 IP in Jacob deGrom’s starts this season.
In totally unrelated news, Milwaukee star OF Christian Yelich fouled a ball off his knee Tuesday night and fractured his kneecap; he is done for this season.
6) Cleveland Browns had 19 snaps on 1st-and-10 Sunday; on 15 of those 19 plays, they were penalized and wound up with 1st or 2nd down and more than 10 yards to go. Not good.
5) Kentucky QB Terry Wilson is out for the season after hurting his left knee last week.
4) Jets signed K Sam Ficken and cut K Kaare Vedvik, who has been traded twice, cut once in the last six weeks. Vedvik missed a PAT and a field goal in Sunday’s 17-16 loss to Buffalo.
Jets also acquired WR DeMaryius Thomas from New England for a 6th round draft pick.
3) Houston Texans released veteran CB Aaron Colvin, just over a year into a 4-year, $34M contract; he gets $7.5M this year- that was guaranteed.
2) If you live in the Albany area and like pro wrestling, you will be interested to know that Ric Flair is doing an appearance at Colonie Center Sunday, at a hobby shop that is upstairs by the food court. They’re expecting a big crowd; get there early.
1) Patriots at Dolphins opened at New England -14.5, but as I type this, it is up to -18.5 or -19. Takes lot of onions to back a Dolphin squad that lost 59-10 last week, while New England was killing the Steelers, but Patriots have lost SU in five of their last six visits to south Florida.
CG Technology got a $55,000 bet Tuesday on the Patriots (-18) to cover; if that person read this site, he/she would know that over the last decade, Week 2 teams who won by 28+ points in Week 1 are 1-10 vs spread in their Week 2 game. We’ll see what happens.
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