SAM'S COLLEGE EDGE...EDGES: HANDICAPPING AND GAMBLING HIGHLIGHTS(LOWLIGHTS?) FROM LAST WEEK

The College Edge recommendation on tonight's Skins-Eagles game at the end of this article, but, for the first time ever, our new feature, Sam's College Edge...Edges:

Sharp Edges: My best recommendation last week didn't win me one dime. What it did, was keep me from losing one dime. In the 3:30p.m. recommendations, I gave out Rutgers. I commented that if the spread was +2.5 points, I would recommend buying the .5 point, making the spread Rutgers +3 against Syracuse. I got a very nice push. Why? Final Score: Syracuse 13, Rutgers 10...I did the same with the South Carolina Gamecocks, buying a half point and making my pick, South Carolina, a +7 recommendation instead of a +6.5 pick. Didn't need the extra point. We won easily...I said on my phone line that I thought Indiana was due to get romped. They had played pretty horribly in their prior two games, but, somehow, kept those games close, and were due to get killed. But, 83-20? Just a note on that game, or, more to the point, on coaches like Bret Bielma of Wisconsin. My non-handicapping side says Bielma was a rotten dude throwing the ball for a TD with a 59-point lead. My handicapping side tells me Bielma will normally not let up when he has a big lead. I might now be more willing to lay big points with Wisconsin, and Bielma, knowing he will be less likely to allow an opponent a chance for a back-door cover. Nice guy, coach Chris Petersen of Boise St., almost cost us an easy win Friday night. He took starting QB Moore out at the end of the third quarter. The new QB almost immediately fumbled a ball into the end zone for a TD, and then, after his continued futility, Idaho almost scored again from inside the 15, with less than a minute in the game, causing heart palpitations from yours truly, and my trusty followers. Where do you fall in the discussion? Do you want your coaches to be ruthless(ala Steve Spurrier when he was at Florida), or gentlemanly(like JoePa has been at Penn St.???

We won both the totals and side recommendations on that clash of the Titans Wednesday night, Miami of Ohio vs. Bowling Green. That game went almost exactly as predicted. The next day, one of my friends who follows me, said I was lucky. If the game wasn't played in the fog, he said, it would've gone way over the total. WHAT A JOKE! Do you have any idea( I'm sure you do), how many games I've lost because of a goofy bounce, or, a goofy call, or, a goofy injury? Win, or lose, I give a completed game a couple of minutes of thought, I consider what I might learn from the results, and I move on. If I was lucky, and I don't agree I was in that game, so what. It just makes up for the times I was unlucky, and lost...I was actually pissed at the audacity of the linemakers posting Michigan as a 13-point favorite in a conference road game at Purdue. And, I'm just as baffled the supposed wise guys didn't drive that line down. On principle, I will recommend against a team that has one of the worst defenses, not only in the Big 10, but in the whole darn NCAA. Okay, the Wolverines did win by 11, making the pick dangerously close to going down, but, I assure you, if I had to do again, I WOULD. Michigan's defense is absolutely atrocious!!!

I left my house early Saturday afternoon thinking I had gone 3-2 in my 12:00p.m. games. Later that night, I was talking to another friend who follows my games. He congratulated me on my 12:00 picks. I thanked him, and said 3-2 in the early games was nice after going 5-1 on my weekday games. My friend corrected me, and said I had gone 4-1. Here's what happened: I left my house with the score in the KSU-Missouri at 14-38 in the 4th quarter. I was so sure it was a loser, I never even checked the final. At about 10:00p.m. Saturday night, I found out from my buddy, that what was once a loser, was, in fact an ego-inflating, comeback win. My favorite coach, Bill Snyder, and his team, the Kansas St. Wildcats, scored 14 late points and gave me, and my followers, a 12-3 record on the week, instead of 11-4. I love Bill Snyder! Final score KSU 28, Missouri 38( yeah, I wish KSU would've won outright, but..........)

Dull Edges:I picked Pitt over UConn Thursday evening, figuring one of these goofy Big East teams would step to the front, and pridefully try to represent their floundering conference. NOT! I should just realize the conference stinks, and no one has the ability to step up. I again went against coach Randy Edsall for the second time in three weeks, in situations where Edsall had very good records against the spread( prior to the Pitt game, Edsall was 8-3 as a conference, home-dog). I chose to overlook Edsall's spread success, and paid the price...I would probably pick the South Carolina-Florida again to go over( the totals spread was 51.5; the final score was 36-14) again. I'd probably stubbornly believe that QB Brantley of Florida had to play better than he did in the game. It's hard to get through this thick skull that this isn't the Florida squad we've been used to seeing. I have to admit, it is fun watching perennial powers Florida and Texas struggling like we've never seen!

Rich's NFL Recommendation Tonight:
REDSKINS