CFB Betting Preview: Utah State at USC
Beleaguered USC head coach Lane Kiffin got himself a much needed victory over Boston College last weekend but the Trojan faithful isn’t happy. USC’s offense has looked putrid this year and reached a low point two weeks ago in the Trojans’ loss to Washington State. The defense is still solid and held Mike Leach’s Washington State team to 10 points in that game but the offense scored only 7 in the loss to the Cougars as -16 point favorites. Things were much better last week as they had no trouble with Boston College and performed well on both sides of the ball winning 35-7 and easily covering the spread as -16 point favorites. They even pushed the game ‘Over’ the total of 41′.
We think the betting marketplace may have overreacted to USC’s early season struggles but they won’t have it quite as easy as they step back up in class to face a tough Utah State team. The Utah State program has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years but the Aggies may still be somewhat ‘under the radar’ due to an early season loss to Utah. Utah State has been a very good pointspread team in the past couple of years with a 19-8 ATS record and have gone 10-3 ATS away from their Logan, Utah home field. Expectations-and the resulting pointspreads-are higher this season but we expect the Aggies to respond well. They’re a class program and so far new head coach Matt Wells has proven to be a capable replacement for Gary Andersen, who took over the vacant job at Wisconsin. Utah State has a very talented quarterback in Chuckie Keaton and return 14 starters from last year’s team.
The Aggies’ defense was very good a year ago but will face a test from the superior USC athletes that have been getting all sorts of abuse in the local and national sports media. Nothing but respect for QB Keaton and the Utah State program but they’ll likely have a tough time trading points with the Trojans. USC has been buried by fans and media to the point where they’re now a decent value. We’ll gladly play the Trojans at home laying less than a touchdown.
BET USC -6′ OVER UTAH STATE