2008 Virginia NCAA Football Betting Preview

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

College Football Preview – Virginia Cavaliers

The Virginia Cavaliers are riding high right after winning nine games in the ACC last year and playing in a New Year’s Day bowl. But that was yesterday and today is a new day.



The Cavs have a lot of holes to fill and likely won’t be back in a classy bowl this year.

Offense

The Cavs have had a rough offseason where six of their players were declared ineligible and in total, are looking for a new quarterback and three offensive linemen.

With Jamal Sewell ineligible, the Cavs are hosting a three-way battle between Scott Deke, Marc Verica and Peter Lalich. Without a lot of experience on the offensive line, you can basically except some pretty shoddy quarterback early, if not all the way through, this season.

The bright spot on offense is running back where the Cavs have quality and depth. Cedric Peerman and Mikell Simpson make up one of the best tandems in the conference, although they aren’t on the same level of Clemson’s James Davis and C.J. Spiller

The Cavs will also have a new kicker and punter this year so points won’t be easy to come by.

Defense

The defense was also hit hard this offseason by graduations and academic ineligibilities.

The entire defensive line needs to be replaced and when you consider how much of a strength that was for this defense last year as it was led by Chris Long, the Cavs entire defensive unit is going to be hurting.

The linebacking corps returns three senior starters in Clint Sintim, Jon Copper and Antonio Appleby. The linebackers were a terror last year but we’ll have to see how they respond to more traffic with a new starting line in front of them.

Cornerbacks Vic Hall and safety Byron Glaspy return in the secondary but as a whole, this unit doesn’t scare anyone.

The Cavs played in a lot of close games last year and with a weakened defense, they might come out on the wrong end of those games this year.

Outlook

The Cavs went 5-0 in games decided by two points or less last year but they likely won’t be in nearly as many close games as they were. They have issues at quarterback and offensive line, which spells disaster.

They lost a lot of key members by the suspensions and the overall talent level took a hit on this team. Also, college football betting fans don’t underestimate the loss of depth. Last year, this team was able to overcome some key injuries but with less depth this year, the same cannot be expected.

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.