College Football Under-the-Radar Plays: Week 14 (2020)
The college football season moves into Week 14, with several teams vying for College Football Playoff berths. Meanwhile, other teams are scratching and clawing for respect and recognition. Oklahoma State had been No. 6 in the country. Now the Cowboys are trying to stay in a Big 12 title chase where they don’t hold the cards. OSU needs Oklahoma to lose, but with the Sooners being a heavy favorite against Baylor this week, that doesn’t figure to happen. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 – with its truncated season – is finding it hard to get any national publicity. Two intriguing Pac-12 games are worth taking a look at in this week’s under-the-radar preview.
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Oklahoma State Cowboys (-2.5) at TCU Horned Frogs
This game will be determined by the extent to which TCU’s offense can improve its level of execution, specifically along the offensive line. The Horned Frogs have suffered this season with their line play, which has been spotty enough that starting quarterback Max Duggan has been much less than 100-percent healthy. Duggan takes way too many hits, and as a result, he isn’t able to be the quarterback the Horned Frogs hoped he would become in 2020. TCU crushed Kansas this past weekend, but everyone in the Big 12 crushes Kansas. That is no special indicator of how good the Frogs are, but scoring over 55 points in any conference game might lead some people to think TCU is better than it actually is. Oklahoma State is not the Big 12 favorite, but the Cowboys have a favorable matchup here when their defense goes up against TCU’s spotty and unreliable offensive front.
Pick: Oklahoma State -2.5
Stanford Cardinal at Washington Huskies (-11.5)
This game is accompanied by a strange new development in the Pac-12: Stanford, because of severe regulations and restrictions imposed by Santa Clara County government, has left its Bay Area home base and relocated to Seattle, where the University of Washington has cooperated in letting Stanford use local practice facilities in advance of this game. Stanford won’t merely play Washington this upcoming weekend; the Cardinal will stay in Seattle another few weeks to round out the Pac-12 season. By the time bowl season rolls around, Stanford hopes it can return to Palo Alto, California, but until then, the Cardinals will be in Seattle to practice and train.
Washington came back from a 21-0 deficit to beat Utah, 24-21, in its most recent game. Which version of Washington are we going to see – the one which was horrible in the first half versus Utah, or the one who came back to win in the second half? It’s hard to say, but Washington is not a consistently strong team. Stanford should at least keep this close.
Pick: Stanford +11.5
UCLA Bruins at Arizona State Sun Devils (-3)
The Arizona State Sun Devils haven’t played in four weeks. They were struck by COVID-19 and have been unable to play the previous three weekends. The Sun Devils emerge from their long period of inactivity by hosting UCLA. The Bruins beat California and Arizona but lost to Colorado and Oregon. UCLA is a competitive team, but not necessarily a team that has turned the corner. UCLA’s win over California looked really impressive at the time, but Cal has since lost two more games. Skepticism surrounding UCLA is warranted. Arizona State might be rusty after several weeks off, but the Sun Devils outplayed USC in their one game; they lost only because they failed to recover an onside kick. Arizona State deserves the benefit of the doubt here.
Pick: Arizona State -3
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Dave Golokhov is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Dave, check out his archive and follow him @davegolokhov.