Montana Grizzlies vs. Villanova Wildcats Preview
Posted by Jay Horne on December 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
NCAA Football Betting Preview
Montana Grizzlies vs. Villanova Wildcats
Friday December 18th, 8:00PM Eastern
Betus.com betting line – TBA
Just before the bowl season gets underway this weekend, college football takes the spotlight this Friday night for the Division I AA National Championship as the Montana Grizzlies go to war with the Villanova Wildcats. Montana was the only team in the Football Championship Subdivision to go undefeated this season and held off Appalachian State 24-17 week to advance to the Championship Game. Villanova was shut out last week in the first half against William and Mary, but rallied back to edge the Tribe 14-13 to get make their first ever appearance in the FCS National Championship.
The interesting match-up this Friday night will feature a highly regarded Grizzlies offense that will be up against one of the better defenses in the FCS in the Wildcats. In fact, Villanova ranked 5th in the FCS allowing just 13.67 points per game and also only gave up a little over 300 total yards on average as well. The Wildcats defense is yet to give up over 2 scores through the FCS Playoffs, but they will get their biggest test of the season through the Montana offense. The Grizzlies own the top scoring offense in the FCS averaging 36.86 points per game and responsible for more than 420 yards of total offense per game.
The Grizzlies offense is led by a trio of playmakers that really carry the offense. Running back Chase Reynolds is the soul of the team and carries the work load on the ground. Reynolds has posted over 1,400 yards this season and an amazing 22 touchdowns on the ground. However, Reynolds will be up against a Wildcats defense that has allowed just 67 yards per game on the ground this season as the 3rd best rush defense in the FCS. If that trend continues, Montana will look for QB Andrew Selle lead the air assault. Selle has completed 61% on the year and thrown 25 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions. Selle’s biggest target is star wide out Marc Mariani who has nearly 3 times as many catches and yards than any other receiver on the team. Mariani has caught over 1,300 receiving yards this year and he will be the main guy to try and foil the Wildcats secondary.
As for the Villanova offense, they run a version of the option style offense that is growing in popularity in the Football Bowl Subdivision. QB Chris Whitney leads the team in rushing with 885 yards, but he also has a decent arm to throw the ball as well. Whitney has completed 64% on the season with 17 touchdowns and 4 picks. Tailback Aaron Ball is an effective force on the ground as well carrying 4.7 yards per carry to total 743 yards on the season. Considering Villanova does not have an offense that scores points near as quickly as an offense like Montana, most would expect their game plan would be based around the running game to control the clock. If they run the ball well, the Grizzlies offense will have a tough time scoring with limited opportunities. Also, keep an eye on WR Matt Szczur for Villanova. Szczur is a playmaker that gets chances carrying the football and catching the football so the Wildcats will find a way to get his hands on the football.
Pick – Montana
PARKING TICKETS AT ISSUE POLICE CHIEF EXAMINES SHARP HIKE IN VIOLATIONS
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) April 21, 2005 | Caroline Louise Cole, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Melrose Police Chief Richard Morrissey is reviewing his department’s parking ticket practices after city officials discovered that police officers gave out about 66 percent more parking tickets in March than in an average month.
Morrissey also has invoked a loosely enforced department regulation that requires police officers to sign out individual books of parking tickets so that it would be easier to track who is giving out tickets when, the chief said.
“I am reviewing how we go about issuing parking tickets because I am interested in making sure the department is operating in an appropriate manner. If there is something that needs correcting, we’ll correct it.” The effect of Morrissey’s decision is that the number of parking tickets the police issued in April slowed to a trickle, according to Jack Higgins, the city’s parking clerk. Neither the Police Department nor the parking clerk track the number of parking tickets issued each month, but Higgins said that based on his experience processing tickets, the number of March tickets was about two-thirds greater than the number he normally processes in a month.
“The officers are saying that the chief essentially has taken away their ticket books,” Higgins said.
Mayor Robert Dolan said he thought the num ber of tickets the police issued in the last two weeks has dropped dramatically because his office has logged few recent complaints from residents who believe they were being targeted unfairly. go to site best parking nyc
The issue of where and when some police officers were issuing parking tickets during March surfaced after two police officers stopped Alderman George Doyle when they discovered him removing freshly issued parking tickets from three cars on Upland Road.
At the time, Doyle said he believed the Upland Road neighborhood was being targeted with a flurry of citations for violating the city’s year-round overnight parking ban because the street is in the ward he represents and he was among those aldermen who have held up payment of three years of back pay that the city owes its police officers.
A subsequent analysis of the more than 1,000 March parking tickets indicated that several police officers had gone on a ticketing spree in March and had issued overnight parking ban violations as well as wrong-way parking violations throughout the city.
“It wasn’t just one or two officers, and it wasn’t that they were targeting one neighborhood,” Dolan said.
Melrose bans overnight parking on all city streets from 2 to 6 a.m. year-round. However, Doyle pointed out that several of the residents of Upland Road have been allowed to park on the narrow margin of city property in front of their homes for more than 50 years without drawing the attention of police. web site best parking nyc
Upland Road is a short street on a hill above Vinton Street. Several of the Victorian era homes there do not have driveways.
Initially Morrissey said he could not stop his officers from issuing the $15 and $25 parking citations because it is technically illegal to park overnight on Upland Road as well as illegal to park in the wrong direction.
However, Morrissey said Tuesday he was concerned about the “bad publicity” the ticketing had generated and he wanted “to make sure the department is operating effectively.” Sergeant James Smith, who is a ranking member of the Police Department’s superior officers union, said he was among those officers “embarrassed” about the ticketing ploy.
“Generally the Melrose Police are pretty lenient when it comes to issuing parking tickets with some of the officers, me included, hardly ever giving a parking ticket,” Smith said. “But those officers who do [issue tickets] are doing their job and generally that isn’t questioned by the rest of us. However, it is true that some of the officers are miffed about the way the city has been treating them, and I think their attitude is if the city is going to treat me like garbage, it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy.” Police Officer John Ross, one of the two officers who challenged Doyle for removing parking tickets on Upland Road, said he was only carrying out his official duties.
“As far as I am concerned, they were illegally parked cars and there is no city ordinance which waives the overnight parking ban on that street,” Ross said.
In December, the Melrose Police Department won a salary increase in their contract for the three years that ended last June.
The aldermen have held up funding the back pay award because both Doyle and aldermanic president Donald Conn said the city doesn’t have the necessary $700,000. Conn said it is the aldermen’s intention to fund the award before June 30.
In the meantime, Christine Brophy, one the Upland Road area residents who received several parking tickets in March, said she thought the Police Department’s flurry of ticketing backfired.
“It is just turning the city against them,” Brophy said. “Clearly the police want their raise and the city doesn’t have the money to fund it. But to people like us who have no other place to park, it’s just plain silly.” Caroline Louise Cole can be reached at cole@globe.com Caroline Louise Cole, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
