NCAA Football Betting – USC Trojans at Washington State Cougars
The USC Trojans (4-1 SU & ATS), who after two consecutive blowout victories like to think they;re back on a path to a possible national title game, will engage in a workout up in Pullman, WA on Saturday when they take on the outmanned Washington State Cougars (1-6 SU, 0-6 ATS) in NCAA college football action in the Pacific-10 Conference, scheduled to kick off at 3:30 PM ET at Martin Stadium (artificial turf)
Saturday, October 18
BetUS NCAA Football Betting Odds: USC -42.5, Total 55.5
Here are some of the NCAA football online betting trends as they relate to this matchup:
* USC has covered five of its last six games
* USC has won nine of its last ten games SU
* USC has played 13 of its last 16 games UNDER the total
* USC has covered four of its last six road games
* USC has won 21 of its last 25 road games SU
* USC has played five of its last seven road games UNDER the total
* WSU has lost six of its last seven games SU
* WSU has lost four of its last five home games SU
Also…
* USC has covered four of the last five meetings
* USC has won the last five meetings SU
* Four of the last six meetings have gone OVER the total
* USC has won five of the last six meetings SU as the road team
The Trojans were extremely disappointing against Oregon State, as we know, but they knew that if they started to win again, and win impressively, that they could play themselves back into the national title picture. And maybe they have done just that. Routs over Oregon (44-10) and Arizona State (28-0) seem to have reinstated confidence among pollsters in this club, and so the Trojans are now sitting at #4 in the coaches’ poll, and #6 according to the Associated Press (they were leapfrogged by Florida).
In those games USC held its opposition to 468 combined yards, and that’s more like it, when you look at the 207 they yielded against Ohio State in the Coliseum on September 13.
Now when you;re talking about Washington State, you’ve got a whole different story.
The Cougars, who were adjusting to a new no-huddle offense installed by coach Paul Wulff, have had problems right from the start. Some of them have to do with ineptitude, for sure, but but there have been plenty of injuries to worry about as well. At this moment, Wazzou could be down to its fourth-string quarterback. Marshall Lobbestael, the freshman who completed a little over 50% of his passes since taking over the reins from Kevin Lopina, who had himself taken over from Gary Rogers. Now it appears as if Lopina is going to be back for this one, but he’s got to be considered vulnerable with his back injury. If he gets banged up more, he’ll have to give way to a freshman, J.T. Levenseller, who’s got no experience at all.
To make matters worse, running backs Dwight Tardy (330 yards) and Chris Ivory (136 yards) are out, so where’s the offense? A better question is – where has the defense been? WSU has not come within 25 points of any Division I team, and they have given up more than 60 points three times. The Cougar stop unit has surrendered 6.6 yards a rush, and has just six sacks. In other words, Pete Carroll can pretty much name the score.
Since USC is looking to impress, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be looking to break 60. How about 70? Let’s not get crazy with this, because we don’t know how charitable Carroll is going to be, but we’ll lay the points with USC, the 42.5-point favorite in the BetUS NCAA college football betting odds.
