The MMQ : The FMQ Week #10 - The Jug and The Picks

It’s November…

I’m pretty sure that a lot of the best memories I have of college football happened in November. I mean, yes, there’s a lot of Domer memories from September, but the big ones are from November. Why?

Stakes.

It all matters NOW. If you’re undefeated, you’re debating whether or not you can run the table. If you’re not perfect, you’re trying to see a way to take down an arch rival and ruin their season…Which happens a lot.

I think that’s why we love November football! The surprises and upsets are that much better. The plays have names that will quickly take you back in time…

“Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary”

“Kick Six”

“The Heisman Pose”

If you can’t remember where you were when any of those or countless other “Say These Words” moments happened, well, you’re not a College Football Fan!

How Loud?

Harbs was on a radio interview with Jamie and Stoney and had some interesting takes and further comments on Peters main issue: How loud he communicates.

On how they’ve worked on helping Peters get louder: “We started as a freshman, talked to a few professionals on campus and then just finally, ‘You’ve got to be a lot louder here. You’ve got to be real loud. This is how loud it’s going to be.’ He had a big inflection point during training camp where, that’s good, now, let’s get a little better. It’s been a process. I think he’s really at a good level, cadence-wise, etc. Communication is key in football, did well Saturday, let’s come back and put an exclamation on it in practice this week and look forward to the ballgame Saturday.”

In addition, he talked about the CFP and why he thinks the 16 team model works (as its already done at the FCS level).

“I would change it to 16 teams,” Harbaugh told “Jamie and Stoney.” “FCS, they’ve got a great system. It’s been in place for many years. My dad won the national championship at Western Kentucky when they were I-AA in 2002. I think that’s the best system.

“If you look at every other sport, they have a playoff at every level and every other college sport does as well. It’s not a four-team. Basketball goes from 64 to the Final Four. I think that’s the way it should be done to have a national champion like they do in gymnastics, like they do in basketball, men’s and women’s, lacrosse, every other sport you can think of. And you already have the format with the FCS.”

Kind of makes sense. Either 8 or 16. And would be a financial windfall for a lot of conferences, and you can include one team from the non-power 5 conferences. (UCF this season).

The Jug

I always think “The Battle for the Little Brown Jug” is a great piece of College Football History and it’s a real shame that it’s no longer played for each and every season. One of the earliest Michigan Football memories I have are the 1970’s team hoisting it over their heads in victory after the games. And I remember the first time losing it in 1977 when an undefeated Michigan went up to the Twin Cities and got blanked by the Gophers, 16-0. That one hurt. And again, in 1986, when those pesky gophers came into the Big House and shocked an undefeated Michigan team led by QB Jimmy Harbaugh. Who later in the post-game presser “Gauranteed” the victory over the suckeyes the following week. The Battle for the Jug is meaningful to both sides.

The oldest Football Trophy has been written about and well documented by Greg over at MVictors.com. I put the link here for the “Jug Lore” page and I find it fun to review the stories and legacy of this piece of clay crockery and imagine what the jug has seen over the seasons.

http://mvictors.com/little-brown-jug/

Mythology 101:

Yost gets a lot of credit for creating the “Battle for the Jug” by supposedly writing a letter stating, “Send us our Jug back!” that had inadvertently been left behind in the Twin Cities after the tie game in 1903 and AD Cooke wrote back, “Come back here and win it back!”

It really didn’t go down like that. Why would Yost care about a $0.39 Jug?

While that “Mythical Legend” about Yost writing to AD Cooke at Minnesota after the tie in 1903 makes for a great story, Yost didn’t even know about the jug and the painted-on score until 1909. This is where the jug was when Yost laid eyes on it for the 2^nd time. Hanging from the ceiling in Cooke’s office, the two decided that the winner would take the jug back to their own school as the prize.

As Paul Harvey would say, “And that’s the rest of the story…”

THE FMQ

Question: Why don’t you post your Win-Loss record?

Because I really don’t care about that. I vary my bets based on what looks like coin flips (min bets) up to locks (max bets). And because I vary, my win-loss record could look really bad, but I may be ahead on the money. It’s been established that being better than 0.500 on the W-L is pretty difficult so betting a steady amount on each game doesn’t make sense. (Think of it as varying your bets in Black-Jack when you believe you have an edge in the Count).

Tighten up the chin straps. It’s November when losing bettors try desperately to get even and winners can sit back and relax and look for the real opportunities. Last week didn’t turn out so good as some of the larger spreads were not covered and other spreads were. In fact, when 2 out of your 3 best bets that are in the parlay go the wrong way…. Its going to be a tough weekend.

Loser again…

This week, we’ve got seven games pitting two teams ranked in the top 25, easily the most this season. Oklahoma at Oklahoma State is a national title eliminator. You could sort of say the same about Virginia Tech at Miami. Clemson at NC State is for the ACC Atlantic lead. Arizona at USC is for the Pac-12 South lead.

On to this week’s picks:

Baylor @ Kansas (+7.5): Battle for the Big iiX Basement. Two teams that are suffering their worst seasons in history meet up to settle the worst team in the Big iiX dispute. I’ll take lay points here as Baylor has hung with people.

Take Baylor and lay the 7.5 for $25

Gatorland @ Mizzou (-1): Interesting spread. Randy Shannon is the interim head coach for Gatorland, but Mizzou is surging right now. They’re going to go back to Zaire this week, also, and I have no idea if that will help an offense that’s just plain bad. If this game was down in the swamp, I might see it differently. Mizzou weather could be a factor.

Take Mizzou and lay the 1 for $30

Wiscy @ Indiana (+12.5): Indiana is GOING TO WIN a B1G Game…at some point. I don’t know if it’s this weekend, but they should be able to hang with Wiscy in the range of 1 score. At Home. This is kind of a coin flip though...

Take Indiana and the 12.5 for $25

PSU @ Sparty (+12 open. Today +9.5): ELIMINATOR? If Sparty can pull off the upset, yes. When this line opened, I jumped immediately. This should be a perfect game for Sparty to do “Sparty” things. Sparty isn’t that bad and this is the “Let Down” game for the Nittany Lions. This spread scares me as the only thing the Nittany Lions can do is clobber people to impress the committee as their non-conference victories are awful.

Take Sparty and the 12 for $35

Illini @ Purdue (-13.5): Brohm’s offense should have a field day in this game. It may be an eliminator game also, as in, if Lovie’s team doesn’t look competitive, he or some of his staff may be eliminated.

Take Purdue and lay the 13.5 for $50

Wake Forest @ Domers (-13): ELIMINATOR? The Domers can’t afford to lose a game and may be knocked out of the CFP by a leap-frogging Conference Champion. Like PSU, the Domers need to viciously knock the snot out of people, but Wake’s Defense may be up to the challenge – or they might catch the Domers drinking rat poison or peeking ahead.

Take Wake Forest and the 13 for $25

Northwestern @ Nebraska (-1): 1 point spreads are meaningless. I figure that someone somewhere decided that it was a pickem game but then looked and said, “Yeah, the huskers are a point better!” Seriously? I like the kitties here for some reason…I guess because the Huskers needed lots of help from Purdue last week to win.

Take the Purple Kitties and the 1 for $25

Clemson @ NCSU (+7): TD Dog at HOME? This is the team that missed a field goal last season that would have doomed Clemson. Ahhhh, a deeper look and it appears NCSU lost its leading rusher, putting all the weight on to the very able QB Shirrefs shoulders, but not being able to run the ball may doom the Wolfpack.

Take Clemson and lay the 7 for $25

Suckeyes @ Iowa (+18): I hate to always ask…What does Vegas know??? The suckeyes are coming off a huge emotional win. This was circled as a potential trap game for them all season, I get that. But Iowa in Kinnick is a different team. Ferentz will have this team ready. I’m calling this a gift…

Take Iowa and the 18 for $40

Okie State @ Oklahoma (+3): ELIMINATOR!!! I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Oklahoma is getting points at home, is ranked AHEAD of Okie State by the College Football Committee, and is somehow the “next team in” at #5. Problem is: When both of these teams are ranked, Laters are 14-1. And the Laters are 8-2 in the last 10. Okie State has an Oklahoma problem. Maybe it changes?

Take Okie State and the 3 for $25

Va-Tech @ Miami (-3): Miami has been winning with smoke and mirrors. Their defense is not good. Their offense doesn’t show up till somewhere in the 2^nd half. Yet they’ve won every close game they’ve been in. Va-Tech should easily expose these guys.

Take Va-Tech and the 3 for $50

LSU @ Bama (-21.5): This line hasn’t budged...and they added a hook today meaning there’s a lot of people betting Bama. But I’ve GOTTA believe the wise guys want the points in this one. Neither one of these teams passes the ball… 21.5 in a rivalry game is just too many points. I get that Bama can still probably cover this in the 4^thquarter, but I’ll take the dog for a min bet in case they don’t.

Take LSU and the 21.5 for $25

Gophers @ Michigan (-15.5): Does vegas ever watch any of these games? The Gophers and Michigan play for the oldest trophy in College football. This game has recently been close. Emotional College Kids love trophy games and running around afterwards hoisting them for all to see. However, Michigan’s resurging run game, Peters passing to open guys in a depleted Gophers secondary (that will have a frosh corner starting his first game) may prove to be too much in the end and the boat rowers will give up covering the spread on a late TD.

Take Michigan and lay the 15.5 for $30

PARLAY!

3 Bet/Team Parlay: 6-1

Iowa – Va-Tech - Purdue: $50

Etc.

JV Gets a Ring

I knew it was coming, but I really wasn’t ready for it. Watching JV hoist that Commissioner’s Trophy and not being in a Detroit D was tough on Wednesday night. Very mixed emotions starting with, “What the hell is wrong with the Detroit Tigers” to “Atta Boy!”