Friday September 1 Sheet

Tulsa at North Carolina (-17) - 3:00pm Pacific
Chapel Hill is a home of renewed football excitement this year. The Tar Heels are coming off of back to back disappointing seasons. Last year they were devastated by injuries and at one point lost 7 straight games. North Carolina is not getting much publicity yet but there are obvious reasons for optimism this year. They found a way to win their final two games of the season and saved the job of nice guy head coach Carl Torbush. The defense finished strong and did not give up a touchdown in the final 10 quarters of the season. That same defense returns no less than 10 starters, including three time Butkus award nominee senior LB Brandon Spoon who was lost for the season after just the second game in 1999. They also add a very highly touted redshirt freshman CB Michael Wadell who has been compared favorably to former Tar Heel great Dre Bly. Two sport star Julius Peppers in the stud of the defensive line. This defense is loaded and some are expecting it to resemble the great Tar Heel defenses of 96 & 97. On offense UNC welcomes back QB Ronald Curry who was lost for the season in the 5th game in 1999 and followers say is finally ready to show his real ability this year (by the way, he has tons). The Heels return their top three rushers from last year, and their leading receiver Kory Bailey, as well as a 1st team ACC tight end in Alge Crumpler. The offensive line is new, but very capable. Well liked former NC State coach Mike O'Cain is the new offensive coordinator and should be able to do a good job here. This offense could not ask for a better first game tune up opponent than Tulsa. The Hurricanes did not rank higher than 97th in any single defensive category last year. They return 13 starters but 8 have found themselves as backups this year under new head coach Burns (formerly def coordinator at Arkansas). They will again be badly undersized on the defensive line and will start a true freshman at one cornerback spot. On offense Tulsa loses their top running back, top two receivers, and two OL starters from last year. The Hurricane only beat two teams last year, Division II SW Missouri State and UTEP in which they benefited from 6 Miner turnovers. They could not even beat UL Monroe, losing to them at home. Tulsa was only 2-8 ATS in 1999 and the oddsmakers seem to still not have caught on. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on UNC head coach Torbush to not just win, but win impressively here. They head into this game amazingly 100% healthy. The Tar Heels lost their last two season openers on last second field goals. They will be more than ready for this one and will have their way with a horrible Tulsa team. Tar Heels roll.  North Carolina  1 UNIT

Arizona (+3) at Utah - 6:00pm Pacific
Sticking with our early season Pac-10 theme here (into Saturday Pac-10 teams are already 2-0). The Wildcats are coming off an embarrassing year in which they were picked in the top 5 in the nation in the preseason but failed to even make a bowl game. Arizona never did recover from their season opening debacle at Penn State and they were killed by turnover woes all year (-12 ratio for the year). Head coach Dick Tomey has a history of coming back strong after off years and this season should be no different. Intensity has been high in fall practices as Tomey ordered an unheard of full out, full pads scrimmage on the first day of camp! That set the tone and the teams attitude and approach has reportedly never been better. Senior QB Ortege Jenkins has been waiting for three hears to have the QB job to himself and now he finally gets it. Jenkins worked hard all summer on his short to mid range passing and visited offensive guru Homer Smith (former UA assistant) to further ripen his skills. He looks ready for a monster season. He loses star WR Northcut to the NFL, but coaches feel the receiving corps will be deeper and better overall as a group. The offensive line is being touted as one of the best in the nation as they return 4 starters from last years strong unit and add some top notch newcomers. They will pave the way for a pair of talented young running backs. This offense will score a lot of points. The Arizona defense will be led by a strong defensive line that returns all 4 starters. They have all looked great in the fall. The Wildcats must replace two talented LB's but coaches really love sophomore Lance Briggs (a former fullback) calling him a "natural". The secondary was a big question mark going in to camp, but coaches were on the money predicting this years unit would be deeper and talented than last years. Reportedly, these guys just love to make big hits, which is a big difference from last years group. This years Wildcat defense will resemble 1988's version (18.2ppg) a lot more than 1999's (30.3ppg). There is a lot of hype in Utah this year, the Utes return 14 starters from a 9-3 bowl winning team and even are ranked in the preseason top 25. We are not buying in! The Utes only played 3 teams with winning records in the regular season last year and went 1-2. They were beaten soundly by both Wyoming and Colorado State and just got by BYU. Besides the Mountain West having an off year, the Utes played a very soft non conference schedule. Sure, their offense scored 31.7ppg and their defense only allowed 17.5ppg, but most of that damage was done against the likes of Utah State (38-18), UL Monroe (42-0), UNLV (52-14), and New Mexico (52-7). On top of that, the Utes benefited from a +9 turnover ratio in 1999. This year they lose their top RB Mike Anderson (1231 yards last year despite missing two games) as well as two key offensive lineman, Joch Cochran (3 year starter) & Luis Park (1st team Mt West). They will be missed on offense. The defensive line loses not only one, but two players to the NFL! The key loss being John Franks (career sack leader, Mt West Def Player of the Year), the heart and soul of their defense. We expect Arizona to come out with loads of intensity here. The difference makers will be QB Jenkins and the play of Arizona's offensive and defensive lines. The Wildcats should control both sides of the line of scrimmage. These lines have been going against each other in practice and should be able to feast on their lesser talented opponents come gameday. Dick Tomey is an impressive 23-14 ATS as an away dog in his tenure at Arizona. We believe the wrong team is favored here. Football is still important in Tucson. Wildcats win straight up. Arizona  1 UNIT

Stanford at Washington State (+2) - 7:15pm Pacific
Excitement is high in Pullman right now as the Cougars dawn a new field surface, new uniforms, new training facilities, coaching offices, and locker rooms for the 2000 season. There is a new sense of optimism as well despite back to back 3 win seasons. Everyone seems to love QB Jason Gesser. Gesser started only once last year as a redshirt freshman but he was able to lead the Cougs to a road win over bowl bound Hawaii in the season finale. He is both elusive and accurate and brings a whole new attitude to the offense with his leadership ability. Amazingly he is the first sophomore ever to be voted a team captain by the players. WSU faithful expect to reap the rewards this year for playing so many young players the last two seasons. The offensive line has been a big question mark, but both offensive coordinator McDonnell and head coach Price have expressed their happiness with the line play this fall. On the line they finally have the talented Raymond twins healthy, both in their senior year, Reed will start and Ryan is expected to see some action. Sophomore RB Deon Burnett (HM Pac-10 last year) almost topped 1,000 yards last year as a freshman and is reportedly stronger this year. WSU is deep at receiver and can potentially cause major matchup problems with their size. The Cougars have 5 receivers who are listed at 6-4 or taller and the Cardinal starting corners are listed at 5-11 and 5-8! The Cougar defense will be solid with seven returning starters plus 2 key players who missed last year. Price says he can go 12 deep on the defensive line, so improvement can be expected there. The LB corps will get back James Price (no relation to head coach) who was the teams leading tackler in 98 before redshirting last year. The secondary looks superb with the return of senior Chris Martin (ineligible last year), their best cover guy, which makes 3 of 4 starters all conference candidates. Stanford does return 7 starters from last years high powered offense, but all 4 of the losses were 1st team Pac-10 performers and NFL draftees! QB Husak was the key to Stanford's success last year with his quick release and great accuracy and WR Troy Walters (Pac-10 player of the year) was simply brilliant. They also lose their top two offensive lineman from last year, one of which was center Mike McLaughlin who had made 46 consecutive starts! These 4 guys will be sorely missed. Backup QB Joe Borchard decided to take up the White Sox on their offer and is now playing pro baseball which leaves the QB job in the hands of unproven and inexperienced junior Randy Fasani (threw only one pass last year). The Stanford defense suffered heavy losses of its own losing all 6 of their top tacklers from last year! They gave up 30.3ppg as it was last year and their back 7 particularly is suspect again this year. Stanford beat WSU last year 54-17 in one of the most misleading final scores of the year. Stanford scored 28 points off turnovers and blocked a punt for another TD (35 points total) all in the first half alone! WSU actually outgained the Cardinal 366 to 319 and had 10 more first downs! Stanford head coach Willingham is 2-5 ATS as a road favorite during his 5 year tenure. There has not been this much anticipation for a season opener in Pullman for sometime and it is plain to see that the Cougars will be an improved football team. Meanwhile, it is also easy to figure that Stanford will take a step backwards from their magical (+10 turnovers for the season) Rose Bowl run of a year ago. This is really a huge game for WSU. They want this win more than their opponent. Cougars can and will do it. Washington State  1 UNIT

Weekly Recap

North Carolina dominated throughout.  The Tar Heels fumbled twice inside the 20 in the first half to keep the game close but pulled away in the 2nd half.  Tulsa scored on a 78 yard pass play after a UNC defender slipped and fell for their only TD, 30-9 was the final.  Arizona was held scoreless in the first half but their defense was superb throughout and set them up for two decisive TD's in the 3rd quarter as the Wildcats won straight up 17-3.  Washington State played with emotion but could not recover from an almost flawless 24 point 2nd quarter by Stanford and fell 24-10.