We have to survive their early energy advantage to open the game. It's a FAR, or Fury of Anti-Revenge game. Louisville is going to be incredibly motivated to smack us in the mouth again to reassert the pecking order. That's what happens when a team wins a high profile game on the road or neutral site, particularly if it's an upset or by large margin, and then quickly faces the same team again, but this time at home. The road team assumes it owns the motivational edge based on simpleton revenge. Anti revenge at home is exponentially more powerful, especially early in the season before other variables intervene.
I've bet this angle in the first half since discovering it in 1988. Obviously nothing works every time. But the percentage of covers and number of lopsided wins is startling, far beyond any other angle I've uncovered. It worked easily yesterday in the USC vs. Fresno State game. That's another example of a team winning a lopsided bowl game as small favorite and then hosting the same team to open the season. Early demolition.
I discovered the angle based on Miami's 31-0 shut out of top ranked Florida State in the 1988 opener. The Canes had rallied from 19-3 down to upset the Seminoles 26-25 on the road en route to the national title a year earlier. Miami had so much intensity and ferocity in that 1988 game I realized it had to be a situational variable involved. Didn't take long to figure it out. The home team was enraged that the visitor assumed it could march into their place and take something back, solely due to pathetic fragile revenge.
Suddenly dozens of prior results made sense, college and pro. I was annoyed that I had failed to identify this trend for so many years. The problem is that the media spends so much time fixating on revenge that nobody fails to examine the situations in which revenge doesn't work. Seemingly every losing bettor I know in Las Vegas relies on revenge.
The great aspect of this angle is you can isolate the games months in advance. I remember when UCLA went to Texas in the mid to late '90s and scored something like 65 or 70 points while winning huge as a big underdog. Texas with Ricky Williams yapped about revenge for a full year, since they had a game at UCLA the following season. Meanwhile, UCLA was so energized in the Rose Bowl they put up 28 points almost immediately in the rematch. I was howling. My favorite recent example was Oregon at Boise State in the opener a few years ago. Same thing. Oregon mouthed off after losing at home to Boise State the prior season. Boise State was so energized in the rematch that Oregon basically couldn't manage a first down in the first half. I don't remember the specifics but they didn't have more than 1 or 2 first downs at halftime. Boise State was shattering the backfield and Chip Kelly was in shock, unaware of the situational scenario he inherited for his first game. That was the LeGarrette Blount post game punch game. Many more examples, too many to detail. Several pro games stood out. Remember when Tomlinson whined after New England celebrated on the San Diego field after pulling out an emotional playoff game? New England hosted San Diego on Monday Night in game two the following year. I couldn't wait. Sure enough, the Patriots shattered San Diego from the outset of the first half.
When this angle fails, it's generally due to talent differential that has changed radically since the prior game. That's our hope tomorrow. It's possible we trump Louisville in basic manpower and their early energy and motivational edge will be quickly nullified. It might help that we have a freshman quarterback. He doesn't know or care anything about that bowl result. If he's rattled and ineffective early he can write it off to early jitters and not anything the opponent is doing.
I merely wanted to point out this angle for anyone who wants to use it down the road. The good news is that the FAR advantage tends to wear off in the second half. Sometimes it's a dramatic reversal once the home team has used up all the frantic energy. You'll remember last season when Stanford dominated Oregon for the vast majority of the game and then tried to give it away in the final 8 minutes. That was another FAR game, albeit deeper into the season. Stanford had upset Oregon in overtime on the road in 2012 as two touchdown underdogs, ruining Oregon's national championship hopes. It was hardly surprising when Stanford pushed Oregon all around in the home FAR rematch and took a 26-0 lead. Then Stanford ran out of steam and barely held on, 26-20.
I have friends in Las Vegas who bet the home team in the first half when these FAR situations show up, and often turn around and wager on the road team at halftime. Very profitable. I sometimes hesitate to mention stuff like this on non-gambling websites because the overwhelming tendency is to use the one immediate example and overreact to the extreme based on the result. That's what bar stool types do. Gamblers understand the value of long term volume and an edge.