Beans' Weekly Winners: Week 1

Saturday, August 30, 2008

llinois vs. Missouri (-9), at St. Louis, Missouri, 8:30pm
Expectations have never been higher for these Mississippi River rivals as they each ended their 2007 campaigns in the BCS. Missouri returns Heisman Trophy finalist and Weekly favorite Chase Daniel behind center along with five other offensive starters who hung 40 points per game on opponents last year. The QB/WR combination of Daniel and super-soph Jeremy Maclin is spectacular and can rival any such duo in the nation. Although Missouri's 2007 leading rusher Tony Temple is going to be tough to replace, the big hole at running back comes from the orange side of the field. Illinois got hit hard with graduation, losing Big Ten MVP Rashard Mendenhall and defensive anchor J Lehman. We know all about how great WR Regis Benn is going to be, but the absence of Mendenhall will hurt this team more than people think. Look for Chase Daniel to get his 2008 off to a fast start as Tigers walk out of St. Louis with a big opening day win.

Alabama (+4.5) vs. Clemson, at Atlanta, Georgia, 8pm

Clemson is the favorite to win the ACC. QB Cullen Harper is coming off a fine season, the backfield is loaded with two top RBs in CJ Spiller and James Davis, the defense reloaded by adding one of the top DE recruits in the nation with Da'Quan Bowers. Everybody is high on Clemson, and why not? But there are plenty of reasons why The Weekly is skeptical. Year in and year out Boston College proves that Clemson is a pretender, even though Clemson's "skill" players are immensely more talented than BC's. The reason BC beats Clemson is because of line play. It all starts in the trenches people! Clemson loses 3 starters from an already bad offensive line. Put that together with the fact that both Spiller and Davis are coming off of years where their yards per rush and touchdown totals dropped and The Weekly isn't sold on these Tigers. On the other side of the ball Alabama returns an All-American to anchor their offensive line in OT Andre Smith, while also bringing back veteran QB JP Wilson and the top recruit in the country in WR Julio Jones. When it comes to coaching we think that giving Nick Saban a full summer to gameplan for Tommy Bowden is just not fair. The Tide roll out of Atlanta with a win.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Fresno State (+5) at Rutgers, 4pm

"Anybody, any time, anywhere." Pat Hill's Fresno State Bulldogs personify their motto. After a 4-8 rebuilding year in 2006 the Bulldogs came out and had a soild 2007, going 9-4 and beating Georgia Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl. This is the year that Fresno State has been building towards as they are the favorites in the WAC and have BCS-buster aspirations. In order to achieve their lofty goals they'll have to get through a trip to Piscataway. Rutgers returns QB Mike Teel and two 1,000 yard recievers in Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt. Much like Illinois, Rutgers will be missing the straw that stirred the drink. Ray Rice's 2,000 rushing yards have moved on to the next level and he leaves a gaping hole in an otherwise talented offense. Two returning 1,000 yard recievers, minus one 2,000 yard rusher probably equals two 1,500 yard recievers and a few more losses for the Knights. A down year for Rutgers will start on Labor Day, as Teel throws three picks which will be the key to a Fresno win.

Good luck to all. Many hundos.