College Football Betting: What We Learned in Week 9

The Hokies are Overrated?

A week after wasting a late lead at home to Florida State, odds makers expected North Carolina to get blown out by the 14th ranked Hokies of Virginia Tech. Well that surely wasn’t the case last Thursday night as UNC pulled out the win as 14.5 point road dogs. The Virginia Tech offense was anemic to say the least as they were only able to gain 256 yards of total offense. Their mighty running game was held in check as they carried the ball 33 times for just 95 yards. Tyrod Taylor wasn’t much of a component either as he only attempted 23 passes, completing 11 of them. Taylor passed for just 161 yards and 0 touchdowns. The Hokies also had difficulty stopping the run on defense which has been their big failing on that side of the football throughout the entire season. North Carolina ran for 181 yards on 43 attempts. Virginia Tech now has three defeats on the year as they are 5-3 overall and 3-2 in ACC play. It can be debated after two straight conference losses that this team is a tad overrated.

The wheels are starting to come off in Ann Arbor:

After blazing out to a promising 4-0 start and looking like one of the more improved teams in the Big 10, the Wolverines have now lost 4 of their last 5 football games. Michigan is now 1-4 in Big 10 action and no longer look like a team who can be legitimate Big 10 contenders. Illinois didn’t do anything elaborate as they utterly pounded the ball right down the throat of the Michigan defense. The Illini ran the ball 56 times for a sizeable 377 yards, averaging 6.7 yards per carry. The Michigan defense granted 500 yards of total offense in the 38-13 loss. Juice Williams didn’t have to rely much on his arm as he tossed just 11 passes, completing 8 of them for 123 yards and a TD. Michigan has major issues on their front seven and they need to get solved quickly as Michigan still has to play Wisconsin and Ohio State, two teams that really like to run the football.

Oregon the best team who isn’t undefeated:

The Ducks got off to a slow start as they were utterly dominated by Boise State in the season opener and then fought to beat Purdue at home. Since the Boise loss however, they have rattled off 7 consecutive victories with their most recent being a 47-20 spanking against Southern Cal. This is a very talented Oregon team who is putting up points in clusters. They rank 9th in the nation in scoring averaging 35.6 per contest. It is amazing that they were able to compile 613 yards against a pretty steady USC defense. They utterly owned the fight in the trenches and ran the ball 49 times for 391 yards. Yes, they almost ran for 400 yards against the Trojans! QB Jeremiah Massoli is getting better each week and he can beat you with his passing and running. He has excellent speed for a quarterback and is an explosive playmaker for this Oregon team. It will be interesting to see how things pan outfor Oregon in the mess that is the BCS as they truly are the best one loss team in the land right now.