2012 NCAA College Football – Week Seven Preview
When venturing into the realm of sport betting online, you're going to get a variety of college football games to choose from this Saturday. Various bookies in the United States will be handling action on the dozens of backyard duels that will spring up across the country. Various 5dimes.com reviews have their sights set on one game in the Steel City, another game in the American Heartland, and a third game in the land of the big sky, where Mountain time zone football is played.
The first game in this three-pack spotlight is an 11 a.m. Eastern time kick between the Louisville Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Panthers. Louisville's defense should be able to dominate Pittsburgh's offense. Louisville's defense has progressively gotten better over the past few weeks. The Cardinals allowed 21 points on Sept. 22 and then 17 points on Sept. 29 after coughing up 34 on Sept. 15 against North Carolina. Strong has assembled quality depth on his roster, especially on his defensive line.
Beefing up a defensive front is a foremost key to successful college football recruiting and, accordingly, to long-term prosperity in the sport. Pittsburgh's offense, which scored a meager 13 points last week in a wrenching one-point loss to Syracuse, has performed particularly well in only one Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) game this season, against Virginia Tech on Sept. 15. Quarterback Tino Sunseri is erratic to begin with, but he also has not been getting much of any support from his teammates, especially his offensive line. Louisville should be able to generate a very consistent pass rush in this game, and if that does indeed happen, it's hard to see how Pittsburgh will be able to score enough to win.
Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater offers another really good reason to trust the Cardinals on the road. Bridgewater has greatly matured since his freshman season in 2011. He is the unquestioned leader of Louisville's offense and a player who understands the game a lot better. Bridgewater will enable his team to win as long as he does not commit backbreaking turnovers in key situations.
The second game in this set is a noon kickoff in Ames, Iowa, between the Kansas State Wildcats and the Iowa State Cyclones. Quarterback Collin Klein, who is a better runner than he is a passer, is a dual-threat magician under center for Kansas State. Klein's slick ballhandling ability, his excellent football IQ, his finely-honed instincts, and his overall athleticism all combine to make a first-rate player. The fact that Klein brings a linebacker's mentality to the quarterback position makes him that much more of a team leader and a clutch performer, someone who can pound out that tough yard in a fourth-and-one situation late in a game.
Klein's vast array of skills stands in marked contrast to what Iowa State can offer at the quarterback position. Steele Jantz was the opening-day starter for head coach Paul Rhoads, but he failed to make the grade on Sept. 29 against Texas Tech, sputtering and struggling in a game the Cyclones lost by a 24-13 margin. Jared Barnett stepped in for Jantz against TCU on Oct. 6 and led his team to a 37-23 triumph. However, the very fact that Barnett was unable to beat out Jantz in August training camp suggests that he's not ready to be an every-week leader for Iowa State's offense. Barnett was very inconsistent last season, as Iowa State finished with a 6-7 overall record. Klein should enable Kansas State to flourish in this game, while Iowa State's quarterbacks simply can't be trusted.
A college football season, with just 12 games, is like online poker. Uncertainty is part of the landscape, even for programs such as the Boise State Broncos, who have struggled this season on offense without former legend Kellen Moore at quarterback. New signal caller Joe Southwick is still learning on the job, and this is why Boise is only a 7.5-point favorite at home against the Fresno State Bulldogs, who have overachieved under first-year head coach Tim DeRuyter. Boise State will try to flex its muscles at home, where it has rarely lost over the years. This game will not be a blowout, but Boise State might find a way to win by 10 or 11 points.
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