College Football Picks: Tulsa Golden Hurricane vs. Tulane Green Wave; Betting Line - Tulsa by -14; TV - ESPN-HD; Louisiana Super Dome; Kickoff 8 pm ET.

The Tulsa University Golden Hurricane, a college football picks favorite in 2008, will play the Tulane Green Wave Friday night kicking off the 2009 Conference USA football campaign. This game puts together the C-USA haves and have-nots. For the past couple of years Tulsa has been at the top of the league, even breaking into the rankings at times. The story hasn't been as rosey for the Green Wave. Last year when these teams met, coach Bob Toledo could only find 53 healthy guys to suit up.

Tulsa is lined as a 14-chalk favorite on the Sportsbook.com college football picks betting board with a 64 total. Moneyline odds have Tulsa favorited by -550 while Tulane backers are getting +425.

Looking at present day, Tulane will look much more like a football team Friday night and not the team that lost its final eight games last year. The Green Wave have back most of the 17 players they lost to season ending injury in 2008 including tailback Andre' Anderson, who led C-USA in rushing before going down in the seventh game.

One thing Tulsa and Tulane have in common for Friday is both will be breaking in new quarterbacks. Tulane will start redshirt sophomore Joe Kemp while Tulsa coach Todd Graham is expected to go with sophomore transfer from Texas G.J. Kinne.

Kinne will engineer Tulsa's hurry-up, no-huddle offensive attack that Graham has promised won't change a bit, even after the departure of former co-offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.
College Football Picks: Tulsa, like any hurricane, is difficult to stop once it gets rolling. While the Golden Hurricane lost some key contributors many are back including receiver Slick Shelly and running back Charles Clay. Unless Tulane has quietly improved we expect Tulsa to go about business as usual. Take the Golden Hurricane -14.