Tonight, at 7 PM EST, the Florida Tuskers will host the Las Vegas Locos at their home away from home – Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 3-0 Tuskers will look to lock up a spot in the Championship Game while the 1-1 Locos will look to keep pace with the suddenly resurgent California Redwoods.

Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg is the venue due to the Tampa Bay Rays’ subsidiary Sunburst Entertainment owning a majority share of the Florida Tuskers. A concert by Grammy-nominated artist Switchfoot will happen after the game, combine that with a fairly good advertising and marketing effort, and a good crowd should be expected even going up against the USF/West Virginia game during the same time.

The Tuskers

Brooks Bollinger leads the league in passing with 767 passing yards. Taye Biddle leads the league in receiving with 278 yards receiving, Jayson “Wildcat” Foster joins him to bring dual threats to the receiving corps. The Tuskers unfortunately sustained a major loss when Chas Gessner was lost for the season, although the Tuskers are better poised than any other UFL team to sustain losses.

Keary Colbert, the former USC standout and NFL WR, was added to the roster showcasing the maxim that the rich get richer. Colbert left USC as the all-time leader in receptions, something to be proud of considering the USC tradition in wide receivers. Colbert left USC after his senior year with a 1,000+ yards receiving season under his belt. He was picked in the second round of the 2004 draft and never quite lived up to the billing amassing only 1,500 and some odd yards over his NFL career. Colbert will look to get his career back on track in the UFL.

The Tuskers multi-headed rushing attack will continue to put pressure on the Locos front seven, but it is the Locos secondary that will have to step up for them to win this game.

Odell Thurman has 15.5 tackles on the year and has shown why he was so highly thought of coming into the NFL. He has been a leader on the defensive end of the ball and that should continue tonight. He is joined by Tim McGarigle who had a dominating performance last week against the California Redwoods.

The strength of the Tuskers might be their secondary. While it appears that Dexter Jackson will miss another game, Fakhir Brown and Ricky Manning, Jr. will continue to make it difficult for Losman to find his receivers tonight.

The Locos

JP Losman hasn’t been the best QB in the league thus far as most expected, but he has played well for the most part. The problem for the Locos begins and ends with the O-Line. It is likely that Jim Fassel dedicated much of their bye week to working on the offensive line. Another point in their favor is that the Locos have the same roster they began the season with, that continuity has to pay off at some juncture.

Andrae Thurman is expected back for the game tonight which should help JP Losman out in the passing game. TE Adam Bergen will look to continue his case for the best TE in the league.

DeDe Dorsey and Marcel Shipp should be able to take some pressure off of JP with their legs. Dorsey has been one of the surprises of the UFL season.

The key for the Locos is their secondary making strides in this game. They were pathetic in the last Locos game and they will need to step up for the Locos to win.

The Result

My predictions have been poor for much of the year, I blame it on the newness of the league! With that said, I am picking the Locos to win 24-21 in the upset of the young UFL season.

Although I would take my prediction with a grain of salt!

Tickets are available at TicketMaster.com!