The Grey Bush - Week One Picks

As all our loyal followers have undoubtedly noticed by this time, The Grey Bush has been absent from the Team MVP blog for some time now. My only link to the outside world was through my smartphone, which I used to research and post during my lunch hours at work. Unfortunately, my phone met an untimely and mysterious demise in the early morning hours during or immediately following Beer, Guns, & Firetrucks VII. Details have been somewhat limited regarding the incident, but thankfully, Best Buy was happy to repair my phone under the terms of my "Best Buy Mobile Black Tie Protection and Replacement Plan."

Or so I thought.

We'll save this story for another post at a later time (a.k.a. once we have a resolution to the story), but I'll go out on a limb and guess you don't need a spoiler alert before I tell you that I still do not have my phone back (or at least a decent replacement).

That being said, I will return to my full-frontal blogging once I have acquired a new phone to use during the day, because... well, let's face it kids: Grampa is too old to remember his daily thoughts, let alone stay up late enough to type them all out on the InterWeb.

Week One Picks (odds courtesy of the Las Vegas Hilton):
Picks in BOLD CAPS

TEXAS -30 at Rice (at Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX)
Texas has won 6 of their last 7 season openers by more than 38, with an average margin of victory in those 7 games of 45.4. Regardless that all of those games were at home, I think Houston is close enough.

LOUISIANA STATE PK v. North Carolina
The first controversy of 2010! The LSU-UNC game is off the board with most Vegas sportsbooks at this point in time, but is still appearing in some offshore books as a PICK. I think the distractions and possible suspensions will be too much for the Tar Heels to overcome. I like them so much, I'll even lay 3 lousy points.

CINCINNATI -2.5 at Fresno State
I am putting my faith in fellow valley-boy Zach Collaros to lead the Big East Conference across the country and win in a tough environment.

MICHIGAN -3 v. Connecticut
DickRod needs a HUGE season to salvage his job (is 11-2 even enough, at this point?) and I look to the Wolverines to get off to a rolling start over perennial "sleeper" UConn. Seriously, is there a record for consecutive seasons with the "sleeper"-label attached to your program? If so, Randy Edsall's crew is challenging that mark again this year. Yeah, even the Rhodes Scholars from THE Ohio State University (ie Kirk Herbstreit) are believers this year. My advice... don't believe everything you see on ESPN...

OHIO STATE -28.5 v. Marshall
Oh and speaking of THE Ohio State University... yeah, Marshall is that bad.