FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Right- that's the Needham (MA) Rockets, my hometown high school football team, not Toledo (though there's nowhere for those Rockets to go but up after this season's sad 3 and 9 record) or Houston, for that matter.  No, my friends, I'm speaking of Needham, Massachusetts, a very liveable, boring place to grow up (which I appreciate now but not while I was growing up there, bored out of my skull with the endless liveability of the place).  Believe it or not- and a lot of folks don't, for whatever reason- Needham High and neighboring Wellesley (home of the hated Raiders) play in the nation's oldest Thanksgiving rivalry.  That's right, folks-  and this year the Rockets hosted the Raiders in the 121st edition of the contest.  So that's that, I just wanted to give a little boost to my hometown Rockets here in my tiny corner of the blog-o-verse.

What's that, you ask?  Who won Thursday's game at ?  I'm sorry; I completely forgot...but since you asked:  A sizable crowd assembled in the early-morning mist shrouding Memorial Field to witness this most venerated of Thanksgiving football traditions.  The Raiders kept it interesting in the first half, putting 7 on the board to match the Rockets' early TD.  Other than that, the Wellesley Defense managed to keep Needham's Offense in chek for much of the first half.  After the break was another story, however, as Rocket tailback (and senior captain) Jean Baptiste exploded for an eventual 237 total yards (including a ridiculous 67 yard breakaway TD) and two scores on the day.  And in the end, that was the difference in this one, as the Rockets prevailed 26-7 over the visiting Raiders, for whom it must have been a long bus ride indeed back down Rte 135 (aka Great Plain Ave). 

So, just as Needham (and all the thousands of high school teams around the nation) closed out their season on the occasion of Thanksgiving Day, we, too, have now come to the end of another year of college football (well... in truth, we have a few more games yet to come, namely 27 conference championship games and then one hundred and one bowl games- with a 3 week break after the regular season ends, but any sort of playoff system would never work because it would extend the season length and- sorry, that's another story altogether, isn't it?).  

You can see how I'm rambling today (I think I'm just excited because we're heading out later this morning to get The Tree- we may be cutting our own this year!), so let me refocus, toss out a few picks, and let everyone go about their business.  The first of today's many intrastate battles that catches my eye is UVA at Vtech.  Now, the Cavaliers are talented but (in keeping with the ACC tradition of late), inconsistent as I don't know what.  On the other side, you've got the Hokies, whose offense has kinda been in MIA, picture-on-the-milk carton mode since there was a Vick on the depth chart.  The number I saw yesterday was Virginia Tech -8, though this morning I see it's eased down to 7 and a half.  I don't care: I still like Virginia catching a touchdown plus from a team that needed 60 minutes to come up with 14 points against Duke.

In a slightly more high-profile Civil War- and a line moving a tad in the other direction- The visiting Sooners have gone from a 7 point to a 7.5 fav at Stillwater.  This is an example of the Man trying to hedge his own interests (as any line is, I suppose);  You don't want to give the host too much of a head start in a pure rivalry- especially with the always dangerous Cowboys, who've proven on multiple occasions that they can play late-season spoilers and dash the Sooners BCS dreams.   But I don't think this is one of those years, especially after the clinic Sam Bradford and his mates staged against what we thought was the best offense in the land last Saturday night.  I think that if Oklahoma beat TTU 65-21, there's no reason they won't beat State by 3 or more TD's.  Give the points.

Okay, then, a couple more ideas.   Staying with the state war rivalry theme, the Yellowjackets visit Athens in a few short hours.  And what do I like here, you ask?  Not the Dawgs giving 7 and the hook... but I also don't like Tech getting those points.  Lemme 'splain:  The total here is 49.5 points, and one think I've noted over the years of sweating out this game is that it tends to go low in the points department.  Could it be a shootout?  Well, yeah, but it just usually isn't.  I like a cap of 7 tds plus a half point in this one, and I say let's play a lower total.  And on to the Iron Bowl, where top-ranked 'Bama meets the Auburn Tigers.  The total here is 40.5, and I'm a sucker for a low o/u- so I say let's just take it.  If Auburn kind of shows up on defense, I still say the Tide puts 31 on the board... so assuming Auburn blunders into the end zone once and gets a chip shot field goal late in the first half- well there's your over, son.  One more total?  I don't know why I do this to myself, but let's also take the over in the Vandy/Wake Forest matchup (over/under 37.5.  I know, I know- there's a reason for some college o/u's to be this low.  I can't help it though; I know neither of these teams has spent any quality time in the red zone this year, but they're playing out of conference today... that sometimes produces an anomolous shootout between two otherwise-anemic offense.  (Translation: you might see a 27-21 final in this one).

And one more: Those aforementioned Red Raiders of Texas Tech are hosting the not-as-Godawful-as-they-used-to-be Baylor Bears, and the line is TTU -22.5.  Now I really like this one, ya'll!  I say the only reason Texas Tech doesn't win by 6 td's is if Mike Leach
decides to right the ship by going to the triple option.  So those are my ideas on this (essentially) last regular season Saturday of college ball.  Good luck, and thanks for reading.