Game Team Salvage Salvage From Finish

Football Betting Lines

Linehan guided an offense that saw quarterback Matthew Stafford throw for 5,038 yards to finish third in the league and wide receiver Calvin Johnson finish first in the NFL with 1,681 receiving yards along with 16 touchdowns.

 

Overall, the team finished fifth in yards per game with 396.1 and fourth in scoring with 29.6 points per game.

 

Detroit kicker Jason Hanson booted 24 field goals on the season and also set an NFL record early in the season with the most games ever played by one player for the same organization.

 

Safety Brian Dawkins is doubtful with a neck injury. Dawkins did not practice this week and has played once in the team's last four games.

 

St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Fisher will be the next head coach of the St. Louis Rams. According to a report from the Post-Dispatch, Fisher decided to coach the Rams rather than the Miami Dolphins. Both teams sought the former long-time Titans head coach, who returns from a year away from the game. He and Tennessee parted ways following the 2010 season, ending his 17-year run with the team.

 

With the Rams, Fisher replaces Steve Spagnuolo, who was fired along with general manager Billy Devaney the day after St. Louis completed a dismal 2-14 season.

 

The club transitioned to Tennessee for the 1997 season and was re-named the Titans prior to 1999. Fisher led the team to the Super Bowl in its first season with the new name, though the Titans dropped a 23-16 decision to the Rams after coming up a yard short of the end zone on the game's final play.

 

Fisher didn't part ways with the Titans until January 27 of last year, after other head coaching vacancies had been filled.

 

This is Tim Tebow's world and we're all just, well...squirrels.

 

Though the No. 15 phenomenon might still be novelty in places like Denver, Des Moines and Doylestown, it's been more than half a decade since shaggy hair and Biblical eye-black became a fashion statement for the cool folks in the university town two hours northwest of Disney.

 

Gator Nation had exclusive rights to freshman Tebow as a Wildcat alternative to Chris Leak during a 2006 BCS title run, then slowly ceded possession when he won the Heisman as a sophomore and delivered the tearful "Promise" speech on the way to another national championship in 2008.

Wtravelocity Football Betting Blog

<< Inter Helps United With Play

<< First Round Leads Points For Gattuso

<< Games Rey Claim Claim With Contract

<< Game Sparks Mavericks From Celtics

<< Game In Tonight Can

Titans Tebow Edge Edge In Reinfeldt >>

Calgary Pittsburgh Smash Smash Over Tonight >>

Edmonton Joins Season Over Victories >>

Coyotes In Umberger Washington >>

Loose Puck Sparks Puck From Goal >>

COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING

NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com