UConn vs. Temple pick: Follow the money

The late great Hal Holbrook had a great line in the movie “All The President’s Men.”
“Follow the money,” he told Woodward and Bernstein, played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
Follow the money.
That’s pretty much how I feel today.
I never bet Temple games. There’s too much heart involved and not enough head.
In a perfect world, where all the refs and the replay judges were robots and not hired by conferences, I really believe Temple would win today, something like, 28-21.
This is far from a perfect world, this college football thing. When you have BCS schools controlling the fate of non-BCS schools, that’s corrupt. When conferences take their “own” officials on the road with them, that’s corrupt.
So college football is, in large part, corrupt.
Too many strange decisions are made on the field by people who are supposed to be robots.
Follow the money.
This line opened with UConn giving 4 1/2 points. It ballooned to 6 1/2 points in a day or so.
Do the bettors know something we don’t?
I wouldn’t put it past them.
So I think this game is going to go UConn’s way, maybe 24-17, with a Temple touchdown or two called back by Big East refs. Maybe Temple will get called for breaking the huddle with 12 players (when it has a no-huddle offense).

Some fair games to bet on:
(favorites underlined)
North Carolina will cover the 1 1/2 over visiting Georgia Tech
East Carolina will cover the 19 1/2 at Virginia Tech
Alabama will cover the 24 at Duke
Central Michigan will cover the 10 at Eastern Michigan
Toledo will cover the 3 1/2  at Western Michigan
Troy will cover the 3 1/2 at Ala.-Birmingham

Maybe something else highly questionable will happen.
This is one game that begs for a Mountain West crew, but the Big East and its damn corrupt self will be here.
If Temple wins, it restores my faith in humanity.
If Temple loses without any touchdowns or big plays called back, I can accept that and will tip my cap to the Huskies.
If Temple loses with question marks, I will raise my postgame glass to the late Hal Holbrook and say, “you were right, pal.”
Or, in his case, Hal.

2 thoughts on “UConn vs. Temple pick: Follow the money

  1. They did it temple 30 uconn 16 revenge was sooooooooooo beautiful!!!!!! Im sitting on the edge off my seat waiting for the next blog!

  2. I had a bad feeling about this game for a couple reasons. One is the possibility of an emotional letdown after winning two close games and beating the defending MAC champions last week. The other is that UConn has an overall talent advantage and was bigger and stronger than Villanova or CMU. This was bound to be a tough game in which UConn could match up in the trenches against Temple and make it hard for them move the ball offensively. Temple was going to need to play mistake free football to win and, that's what they did. Temple was barely penalized and they only turned it over twice. The second turnover was the Green fumble which had no bearing on the game because of the time and score, even if UConn had been able to capitilize on it (which they didn't) it probably wouldn't have mattered. The first turnover was the result of the fake punt attempt that came up short, but that was a calculated risk and a very smart risk because of the game situation and field position. With Temple's stout defense, you can take a chance like that every now and then. The thing that really impressed me was how much energy Temple had in the 4th quarter. They really whipped UConn at the end, in every phase of the game. That was a display of superior toughness which is the sort of brand of football that I know Al Golden has been teaching. In the end it didn't come down to which team was bigger, it came down to which team was tougher: Temple. I also thought Temple's gameplan was perfect. All the misdirection plays and passing on running downs early in the game kept UConn from crushing them at the line of scrimage and kept Chester Stewart out of too many big pass rush situations. Matt Rhule showed the appopriate respect for UConn's blitz rush because they do have a beastly front line and probably had the advantage physically.Also, I was unimpressed with UConn's quarterback. He's not bad, but he's not as good as the UConn QBs Temple had to go against the last few times they lined up. He didn't seem capable of making plays to beat the Owls and by the end of the game I felt pretty safe that Temple could stop the UConn passing game. So, all in all this was a great win. Even if Temple loses at Penn State, they can start the season 3-1, and already in the lead in the MAC. What a great way to start the season.

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