NCAA Football Betting - Penn State Nittany Lions Preview

[Shame About Ray]

Overview

Joe Paterno’s 500th game was a successful one as the Penn State Nittany Lions ended the 2007 sports betting season with a win in the Alamo Bowl. Paterno is now working on a one-year contract but has still pieced together one of his patented teams. His defense will be solid, the offense will be decent but unspectacular, and if they can get some good production out of their quarterback, this year could be particularly memorable for online football betting fans of the Lions.

Offense

Penn State’s offense – like it was last year – will be able to run and pass to some degree. Inferior opponents will have trouble with the Lions balance but the question will remain as to whether the Lions offense can make any dent on the elite teams.

There aren’t any real superstars here, although there is talent across the board.

Derrick Williams was highly touted as a recruit but he has mostly become a No. 3 receiver in this offense, albeit a pretty good one. But he hasn’t been the consistent game-breaker they expected.

There will be plenty of consistency on this offense as the front five return, as do the wide receiving corp and tight ends. But the one hole will be at quarterback, where Anthony Morelli moved on.

Pat Devlin and redshirt junior Daryll Clark will battle it out but neither has much experience. The idea will be to lean on the power running game, which includes a one-two punch with Evan Royster and Stephfon Green. Not a bad combo for the NCAA betting faithful to note.

There is plenty of experience around Clark and Devlin and if they can carry the load while one of the quarterbacks develops, this could be a dangerous team. If not, they won’t score enough points against the elite teams.

Defense

Linebacker University might have to shift more of the workload on the defensive line this year due to a season-ending knee injury to the defense’s top playmaker, Sean Lee.

It leaves the group of linebackers a little thin and will put some untested guys in the limelight.

But the defensive line is stocked with talent from ends Maurice Evans and Josh Gaines, who combined for 14.5 sacks last year, to tackles Ollie Ogbu and Abe Koroma, who start a long list of quality pluggers.

There aren’t many concerns in the secondary, where no freshmen or sophomores will make the nickel package, and realistically, the concerns at linebacker aren’t overly consuming. After all, as mentioned, it is Linebacker U.

Tyrell Sales becomes the leader, but he only finished with 17 tackles last year. Keep in mind Dan Connor and Paul Posluzny were in front of him. He’s capable and now he’ll get his chance.

Outlook

Penn State always brings a stiff defense to the table but their offense seems to always be needing smoke and mirrors to get the job done.

Why I put Penn State among the second tier of teams in the Big Ten is because I don’t have enough confidence to place a sports betting wager on their offense. They aren’t capable of coming from behind by more than one score and their game plan falls apart when they are facing a deficit and are forced to start passing.

Their quarterbacks are raw, which will likely keep them from major success this year. They also struggle on the road and they have to go to Ohio State and to Wisconsin. The Nittany Lions were only 4-4 in their conference last year.

BetUS sportsbook already has tons of college football Futures betting available for those of us who can't wait. Bet on the Heisman winner, Conference and Divisional winners and, of course, the 2009 BCS National Championship winner.