Runway Challenge Week 4

Guess there wasn't much meat to the Thursday teleconference with Randy Edsall. I was running a few minutes late, logged onto the call at approximately 1:05 p.m. (five minutes after its scheduled start) and it was already over. Granted, the Thursday call never goes very long: 15 minutes tops, but a four-minute call? That's quick. Checked in with Leigh Torbin in the UConn sports info office to see if I had the wrong number for the call or it was changed to a later time. Nope. It went that fast. About all the info was Ryan Henegan has been practicing with the second team. Nothing on Dan Ryan (no one asked, Leigh said) and no big changes for Saturday.

And with that, we move on to the Runway Challenge. I noticed Syracuse was a 37-point underdog to Louisville this week, and began wondering about big point spreads. What was the largest ever in a college game? Who was the biggest underdog to win outright? Has anyone ever won after being 37-point dogs?

I found this info isn't easy to research, but here's what I found. In 1985, Oregon State was a 38-point underdog (the lines ranged from 36-38) against Washington and pulled out a 21-20 victory for what is widely considered the biggest point-spread reversal ever: even bigger than Appalachian State-Michigan (which was 27-points on a certain Internet sports book).

Nothing concrete on the largest single point spread, but Southern Cal was recently favored by 46.5 over a Pac-10 opponent. And this week Hawaii is favored by 52 points (52!!!) over Division I-AA Charleston Southern. That's like spotting them seven touchdowns and a field goal. Sadly, Hawaii could have that covered by halftime. If anyone knows of a bigger spread in any game, let me know.

Game 1: Syracuse (+37) over LOUISVILLE: Cards defense has too many holes (they gave up 42 to Middle Tennessee State, for Pete's sake). Have to think 'Ville will need to score 60 to cover. And, again, it could very well happen. How sad is Syracuse?

Game 2: SOUTH FLORIDA (-13.5) over North Carolina: Bulls jump into AP top 25 despite not playing last week. Coach Jim "Mr. Excitement" Leavitt celebrated by switching from Sanka to decaf. He also indulged in a dish of unflavored ice cream (his favorite).

Game 3: WEST VIRGINIA (-24.5) over East Carolina: Noel Devine's stats against Maryland last week...five carries, 136 yards, no touchdowns. That's an average of 27.2 yards per carry, raising his season total to 15.1 yards per carry. With Slaton and White, that's scary.

Game 4: MICHIGAN (+3) over Penn State: Combined age of Joe Paterno and Lloyd Carr? 142.

Game 5: Kentucky (+7) over ARKANSAS: Kentucky's Andre Woodson quietly turning into one of the SEC's best quarterbacks. Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick still has the worst-selling team jersey in the nation.

Game 6: Connecticut (+10) over PITT: Huskies go from 31-point faves to 10-point dogs in a week. By the way, Dave Wannestedt's moustache posted on the blog a couple days ago and wanted to know why I've been mocking him. Got nothin' against you, Dave Wannestedt's moustache. In fact, I'm extending the olive branch by growing my own Wannestache, which I'll be sporting for the game in Pittsburgh Saturday night. Hope that squares us, Dave Wannestedt's moustache.

Game 7: CINCINNATI (-24) over Marshall: Bearcats and USF will give Big East five ranked teams very shortly.

Game 8: ALABAMA (-3.5) over Georgia: Tide will roll.

Game 9: WISCONSIN (-8) over Iowa: Hawkeyes had trouble with Northern Illinois and lost to Iowa State. Oh, they also pummelled Syracuse. Not exactly a promising start.

Game 10: Washington (+7) over UCLA: Huskies burned me last week. I'll give 'em one more chance.

Game 11: Central Connecticut State University (+26.5) over WESTERN MICHIGAN: My alma mater gets a taste of Division I-A competition. They might win this one outright.

Here are the results from last week
1. vinny from east haven 9-2-1
2. seano's ghost: 8-3-1
ian 8-3-1
4. chip 7-4-1
5. kooch 6-5-1
sturge-rock 6-5-1
will L: 6-5-1
alex 6-5-1
9. dan 5-6-1
detroittigershater 5-6-1
sean o: 5-6-1
sammy 5-6-1
13. caleb 4-7-1
14. kevin 3-8-1

overall standings through three weeks
1. DetroitTigersHater 21
Ian 21
SeanO's Ghost 21
4. Chip 20
5. Sammy 19
Vinny from East Haven 19
7. kooch 18
8. Kevin 14
9. sturge-rock 12
10. Wil L 11
11. Caleb Mandrake 10
12. Alex 10
13. pete 9
14. Steve P 8
15. dan 5

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