Stanford Steve and The Bear: Week 12 college football picks, bets, nuggets
"Stanford Steve" Coughlin and Chris "The Bear" Fallica cover the college football season as only they can, offering their top picks, betting nuggets and totals worth wagering on.
Records:
The Bear (Last week: 1-4-1. Season: 20-35-1)
Stanford Steve (Last week: 2-1. Season: 33-24)
Note: All lines are from Caesars Sportsbook.
The Plays
No. 3 Oregon Ducks at No. 23 Utah Utes (-3, 59)
Fallica: I love the Ducks here. Thought about doing the old Swami trick and making this a 16-star game to get me over .500! This is a matchup in the trenches, and I love the Oregon OL and DL. Expect a lot of QB run from
Anthony Brown, and the Oregon defense to slow down a Utah offense that won't have an easy time moving the ball.
Pick: Oregon +3
UCLA Bruins (-3, 65.5) at USC Trojans
Fallica: I'm really surprised this line is as low as it is. Unless SC has found some defensive players up front that can stop the run, it's a bad matchup. I see this a lot like the Notre Dame game where they just couldn't stop the Irish. And there's no
Drake London for SC here. Have to think the way UCLA lost last year to USC has been gnawing at Chip Kelly and the Bruins ever since and they are eager to beat the Trojans, like they should have last year.
Pick: UCLA -3
Stanford Steve: The best uniform game in all the land. The belief is UCLA comes in with a more buttoned up approach and gets things going early and often in The Coliseum. The Trojans are now without their two best offensive players in
Kedon Slovis and London. UCLA will want payback for last year when the Trojans pulled off an unreal win late and covered the number in the Rose Bowl. We'll lay the points with the Bruins on the road.
Pick: UCLA -3 (UCLA 34, USC 20)
No. 21 Arkansas Razorbacks at No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide (-21, 58.5)
Stanford Steve: I understand Arkansas runs for over 230 yards per game, but I don't see them running the football on this improving Alabama defense. The expectation is Nick Saban will want to come out and try and run the football since they only rushed for 6 yards versus LSU in their last conference game. I also see Arkansas' "drop 8 defense" slowing down the Tide passing game early, as it will be the first time
Bryce Young has seen it, and it was pretty effective last year against that great Tide offense led by Mack Jones, who only threw for just over 200 yards. We'll take under the total.
Pick: Under 58.5 (Alabama 31, Arkansas 17)
Auburn Tigers (-7.5, 44.5) at South Carolina Gamecocks
Fallica: Even without
Bo Nix, I think Auburn should do enough good offensively with
TJ Finley at QB and outside the flukish offensive output versus Florida. The Gamecocks aren't the strongest offensive unit out there. I think this number too has come down because of the iron Bowl next week. But I'll lay it here.
Pick: Auburn -7.5
No. 9 Oklahoma State Cowboys (-10, 56.5) at Texas Tech Red Raiders
Fallica: Potential lookahead spot for the Cowboys with Bedlam on deck? Yes. But at the same time, Mike Gundy can get his team's full attention by showing it last week's final score. I also have total trust in the Cowboys' defense, which hasn't allowed more than 24 points all season.
Pick: Oklahoma State -10
Arizona State Sun Devils (-3, 59) at Oregon State Beavers
Fallica: The only reason ASU escaped Seattle with a win last week was because of the complete ineptness of the Washington offense. While Oregon State is nowhere near as good defensively as UW, offensively the Beavers are light-years ahead of it. Arizona State has not been a good road favorite under Herm Edwards, and I expect the sloppy play and penalties to continue in what could be bad weather.
Pick: Oregon State +3
Virginia Cavaliers at No. 18 Pittsburgh Panthers (-14.5, 66)
Stanford Steve: Virginia signal-caller
Brennan Armstrong is back, and that's all I need to hear. I'll take the points with the road team.
Pick: Virginia +14.5 (Pitt 34, Virginia 31)
Washington Huskies (-6.5, 43) at Colorado Buffaloes
Fallica: CU has shown some life over the past few weeks, notably beating Oregon State in Boulder. Now, the Buffaloes get a Washington team that, well ... I don't know where it goes from here. The Huskies' coach was just fired, they just lost to one of their biggest rivals at home and they gave away a game to Arizona State. Now, they have to go to Boulder and play a team that will be very hard to get motivated for.
Pick: Colorado +6.5