College Football 2009

Troy Trojans at Bowling Green Falcons

Thursday September 3, 2009 7 PM EST (College Sports Direct, B2 Networks)

The Line: Bowling Green +7

Bowling Green started last season out strong, going to Pittsburgh and knocking off the ranked Panthers as 13 point underdogs and really made it look easy. Overall though it was an up and down season which ended at 6-6 with the Falcons not making it to a bowl game.

While it is easy to look at BGSU and think they weren't a very good team, and certainly they weren't elite, they weren't too bad either and had some pretty tough scheduling. This season's schedule doesn't look much easier and out of the gate games against Troy, Boise, and Missouri should test what Bowling Green is made of this year.

Troy won the Sunbelt conference last season but ended last year with a heart breaker of a loss in the New Orleans Bowl to Southern Miss in a game they very well could have won. Troy returns a lot of the same team team and really the only missing parts are two tackles on the offensive line.

Of course losses on the offensive line hurt but the Trojans return QB Levi Brown, running back DuJuan Harris, and wide receiver Jerrel Jenigan, all leaders in the offensive categories. On defense Troy returns Boris Lee and Brandon Lang, their leading tackler and sacker.

Bowling Green loses about half of an offensive line that started every game last year but return QB Tyler Sheehan. The defense is where the Falcons are hurting as they lost the bulk of their unit and are going to have to rely on a lot of young and inexperienced players.

While I like the Falcons outlook over the long term and think if the defense comes together they have a shot in the MAC, I don't think this will be a very good initiation day and I think at this point in the season and in their college careers, the Falcons are in just a little over their heads.

Both of these teams have decent rends against the spread but I think we need to look at the fact that Troy is 7-3against the number in their last 10 road games and Bowling Green is just 2-14 against the spread in their last 16 home games, it just makes me feel even better about going with Troy in this one.

Mitch's Pick: Troy -7