NCAA Football Odds Gridiron Weekly News and Rumors

Posted by Daniel Strum on Thursday,December 3, 2015 10:17, EDT in

Since Gary Pinkel is retiring as the head coach at the University of Missouri, the vacancy has attracted significant attention from the media as well as their College Football betting fans. According to Pat Forde with Yahoo! Sports, Cal head coach Sonny Dykes has interviewed for the job. At the same time, Missouri has confirmed extending terms for a contract with Dykes and his agent. Dykes currently makes $2 million at Cal, ranking him last in the conference coaches that appear in the salary database in USA Today. Dykes is just wrapping up his third season at Cal and has a record of 13-23. Dykes only won one game his first season but has improved to five and then seven, and now the Bears are about to play in their first bowl game since 2011.

Missouri athletic director Mack Rhoades has pursued Dykes before, when Rhoades was the AD at the University of Houston. Rhoades has also interviewed Mike Bobo from Colorado State, Matt Wells from Utah State and Troy Calhoun from Air Force. The fact that these coaches represent diverse offensive philosophies suggests that Rhoades is looking for the best coach rather than for someone who will institute a particular system.

Let’s Review the NCAA Football Odds Gridiron Weekly News and Rumors

Another SEC coaching vacancy appears to be ready to disappear, as the departing Mark Richt at Georgia will apparently be replaced by Kirby Smart, the defensive coordinator at Alabama. Smart was the only coach that Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity pursued. Even though the process cannot officially take place until after the SEC Championship game this weekend, the job appears to be Smart’s. Smart grew up in Georga and played safety for the Bulldogs from 1995-1998. In 2005, he came back as running backs coach. At Alabama, his work with the defense has been instrumental in the team’s three national championships.

His defenses have never ranked below #18 in the nation in terms of yards permitted per play. This year, the Alabama defense is #2 in the nation. It will be interesting to see if Smart tries to pull double duty, opening his program at Georgia while trying to get the Crimson Tide defense ready for the College Football Playoff, or if he will leave Alabama immediately. At Georgia, he will need to make sure that he gets a quality offensive coordinator.

Steve Spurrier Walking Away from SC, What’s Next For the Gamecocks?

Have you been wondering why Steve Spurrier would walk away from South Carolina in the middle of the season? He sent a letter to “The State” to counter criticism that his decision basically amounted to quitting on his group midway through a campaign. According to him, the timing of his retirement was to help the team get better right away. As he wrote in his letter, “After six games, we were 2-4 with two blow-outs by Georgia and LSU…we were definitely going in the wrong direction. I felt that I was doing a lousy job as head coach and a change would help our team become more competitive….by resigning, I forfeited the buyout clause in my contract that saved our university three million dollars.” So it was altruism? Maybe. Either way, the Old Ball Coach had clearly had enough.