BYU vs Hawaii NCAA Football Odds
BYU will travel to the Aloha State in search of ending its season with a nine win record, while the Warriors, who started this year’s campaign coming off an 11-win season in 2010, hope they can avoid finishing the season with a losing record.
Cougars v Warriors
When: 7:30 PM ET, Saturday, December 3, 2011
Where: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii
TV: ESPN 2
LINE: +8 (Hawaii), O/U 52.5
After starting the season 1-2, the Cougars have won seven of their last eight games as they close out their first season as an Independent.
Bronco Mendenhall’s team has really come together and thanks to the solid play from QB Jake Heaps over the past few weeks, the Brigham Young Cougars have maintained their winning ways while ranking 45 on offense, averaging 400.0 yards per game.
Heaps has done a good job stepping in for starting junior quarterback Riley Nelson who went down with bruised ribs against Idaho back on Nov. 12, but this is still clearly his team. Nelson has been cleared to play against Hawaii on Saturday, and even though it is reported that he has yet to make a decision to play, I expect that he will take the field.
If he doesn’t, though, Heaps seems capable, and with a rushing attack that is averaging 165.7 yards per game, the Cougs seemed prepared.
J.J. Di Luigi and Michael Alisa are both averaging over five yards per carry and have a combined six touchdowns, while Bryan Kariya rounds out the triple threat with five TDs on the ground.
But don’t let all that firepower lure you into thinking the that BYU is strictly an offensive powerhouse. The defense is pretty good too. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
As a unit they have hauled in 13 interceptions, snatched nine fumble recoveries, and have crushed the oppositions QB 19 times for a minus three turnover difference this season.
That’s not good news for Warriors’ QB David Graves, who took over for starter Bryant Moniz after he suffered a season ending injury in a Nov. 12 loss to the Nevada Wolf Pack.
It was a devastating blow to a Warriors team that has already struggled after coming off an epic 11-win season in 2010. But behind Moniz were still managing to roll up an average of 412.9 yards per game, which included 101.9 yards rushing and 311.0 yards passing.
Moniz had already put up 2,733 passing yards and 22 TDs in the air and eight rushing TDs on nearly 300 yards before his exit.
Meanwhile, Graves has completed 57.5 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and two interceptions in just two games as a starter, and with a little help from Joey Iosefa who is the Warriors leading rusher, averaging 5.1 yards per carry for 541 yards with seven touchdowns, has kept Hawaii in the hunt to finish the season with a winning record.
Matt’s Prediction: BYU 27, Hawaii 24—
BYU has been on a nice run but most of their wins have come against teams who won’t be going to a bowl game this year, while their losses are all against better teams. Mix in that the Cougars are just 2-2 on the road this season, while the Warriors are 4-2 at home, and you could be lured into picking Hawaii in this one.
However, BYU is the better team here, and it’s tough not to like a team that can run the ball behind a massive offensive line.
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