Last night, the Trojans provided no protection against those hard-driving 'Cocks and Jacksonville State beat Troy, 17-13. Trojan QB Goose Crowder got shook up after a 14-yard rush during Troy's second possession of the game and went off to the sideline. A couple possessions later, Goose gamely returned to the field for one drive in the second quarter that resulted in a field goal, but that was it for him: Troy's Goose was cooked, backup QB Tucker Kilcrease had to finish the game, and the Gamecocks won, 17-13. I had picked Troy, so now I'm 1-1 on my picks so far this season.
But that's all in the past now. Today is The Cure Bowl, named, obviously, for Robert Smith's long-running goth-rock band (I've been making variations on that joke for ten years now). This year, the game pits the Old Dominion Monarchs (9-3) of the Sun Belt Conference against the South Florida Bulls (9-3) of the American Athletic Conference. Neither team is ranked. The starting QBs for both teams have opted out of this game and both teams will be starting redshirt freshmen in their place, so anything can happen.
I picked the Bulls in this game as 6-point favorites because last year I lost betting against them in the Hawai'i Bowl. The Bulls were 2½-point underdogs against San Jose State that year, but won the game by two points, 41-39, after a totally insane five OTs. After that game, I told myself to never bet against South Florida again - we'll see how that vow works out for me today.
(For what it's worth, two years ago I picked Old Dominion as 2½-point favorites over Western Kentucky in the Bahamas Bowl (RIP) and they lost, 38-35. Fool me once, etc. Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.)
There's another game, the 68 Ventures Bowl, starting at 8:30, but I'll post about that one later.
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