College Football Betting: What We Learned in Week 9

The Hokies are Overrated?

A week after blowing a second half lead at home to the Seminoles, bookies anticipated the Tar Heels to get beaten badly by the 14th rated 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 underdogs. The Virginia Tech offense was weak 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 factor either as he only threw 23 passes, completing 11 of them. Taylor threw for just 161 yards and 0 TDs. Va Tech also had difficulty stopping the run on defense which has been their big failing on that side of the football throughout the entire season. the Tar Heels ran for 181 yards on 43 carries. Virginia Tech now has three losses on the year as they are 5-3 overall and 3-2 in ACC play. It can be argued after two straight conference losses that this team is a tad overrated.

The wheels are starting to come off in Ann Arbor:

After getting out to a promising 4-0 start and looking like one of the more improved teams in the conference, Michigan has now lost 4 of their past 5 football games. Michigan is now 1-4 in conference action and no longer look like a team who can be recognized Big 10 contenders. Illinois didn’t do anything elaborate as they absolutely pounded the ball right at the Michigan defense. Illinois ran the ball 56 times for a enormous 377 yards, averaging 6.7 yards per tote. The Michigan defense allowed 500 yards of total offense in the 38-13 defeat. Juice Williams didn’t have to bank much on his arm as he threw 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 resolved quickly as Michigan still has to play Wisconsin and Ohio State, two teams that really like to run the football.

Oregon is now the best 1 loss team:

The Ducks got off to a bad start as they were absolutely dominated by Boise State in the season opener and then struggled to beat Purdue at home. Since the Boise loss however, they have reeled off 7 consecutive victories with their most recent being a 47-20 domination against Southern Cal. This is a very dangerous Oregon team who is putting up points in bunches. They rank 9th in the land in points per game averaging 35.6 per contest. It is amazing that they were able to compile 613 yards against a pretty steady USC defense. They absolutely dominated the battle of the trenches and ran the ball 49 times for 391 yards. Yes, they almost ran for 400 yards against USC! QB Jeremiah Massoli is getting better each week and he can beat you with his arm and his legs. He has tremendous speed for a quarterback and is an explosive playmaker for this Oregon team. It will be fascinating to see how things end upfor Oregon in the final standings as they sincerely are the best one loss team in the land right now.