AWESOME ANGLE OF THE WEEK
This coach cooks at home in non-division games, going 23-10-1 ATS in his career. When priced as a dog or favorite of less than 3 points, he improves to 19-5 ATS. And thru Game 12 of the season in this range, he is 17-2 ATS. Who is this week’s Master Chef?

THIS WEEK'S AMAZING SITUATIONAL PLAY
Be sure to check out the COACHES LEAGUE for ATS records on every College & NFL coach in 16 key situational roles. Simply log on to http://www.PLAYBOOK.com and click on the COACHES LEAGUE.

PLAY AGAINST any college favorite in Game Two of the season who won 7 or more games last year if they lost Game One SU as a favorite.

“Maybe you had too much too fast, Or just overplayed your part. Nothin’ shakin’ on Shakedown Street. Used to be the heart of town. Don’t tell me this town ain’t got no heart. You just gotta poke around.”



If you happen to be a ‘Deadhead’ you know exactly where we’re headed here. Arguably the most popular cult band of all-time, the Grateful Dead was founded in the mid ‘60’s when bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were busy dominating the music scene. Described as an electric Lovin’ Spoonful with a dirtier sound, the Dead’s lead vocal was guitarist Jerry Garcia. When Garcia’s health deteriorated before his passing in 1995, Bruce Hornsby provided keyboards and vocals in the early ‘90’s. Along with the likes of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane and Santana, the Dead was known for its Haight-Ashbury San Francisco sound. They were among 32 of the best-known musicians to perform at Woodstock.

When their set was played in the rain, several band members received shocks during their performance and bass player Phil Lesh said he heard a helicopter radio transmission through his bass while playing. (It’s a good thing it was raining, otherwise the sounds he was hearing would likely have been traced to the buzz on stage.)

Like the fans that fl ocked to Woodstock, college football attracts its share of groupies, too. They are generally those who look to jump and stay on the bandwagon of winning teams. But it’s not so much recognizing when to jump on... it’s knowing when to get off that matters the most.

It seems that teams who enjoyed winning seasons the previous year are a frontrunner’s dream the next season. Like the words in the verse of the Dead’s popular ‘Shakedown Street’ (see above), sometimes certain teams enjoy success too much, too fast and perhaps simply played over their head. We can identify these pretenders real fast simply by fading teams in Game Two of the season when they are off a straight-up favorite loss in their season opener – provided they won 7 or more games the previous year. These teams are just 39-63 ATS in this role since 1980. Better yet, these deadheads become solid ‘play against’ material when we –

That’s because teams in this role are 23-42 ATS since 1980, including 7-23 ATS when facing an opponent that’s also off a loss. Better yet, by poking around and dressing them up as double-digit favorites in these ‘shakedown’ games, they slip to 3-16 ATS!

Last year, one team met our criteria when Florida State laid 32 points at homeagainst UAB just five days after stubbing its toe at Clemson as 3.5 point road chalk in their lidlifter. The Sems went through the motions in a 34-24 win over the Blazers, not nearly enough to overcome the huge impost. (Qualifying plays on this week’s card can be heard on the PLAYBOOK Weekend Update Phone this Friday after 1:00 PM ET.)

FYI: a perfect 0-14 ATS subset resides nside this angle. It’s yours when you isit http://www.PLAYBOOK.com and click on he 2008 BLACK BOOK™ link waiting in he HANDICAPPERS LOUNGE section of he site.

After shaking down this perfect angle why not sit back and enjoy a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.