Thursday, May 24th, 2012
The Penn St Nittany Lions will travel in Big Ten conference play when they face the Michigan Wolverines in a college football game on Saturday afternoon. Kick off time in Michigan is set for 3:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this contest and the Penn St Nittany Lions opened as a 4-point favorite. The early money from the college football bettors has come in on the road favorite, as the Penn St Nittany Lions are currently a 5-point favorite. The college football money line players can make a play on the favored Penn St Nittany Lions at –195 with the home underdog Michigan Wolverines returning +165 to pull off the home upset victory without the points a factor in the bet.
After falling 21-10 at home to Iowa the Penn St Nittany Lions have won 3 straight including a 20-0 victory over Minnesota at home last week. The Penn St defense totally dominated the Minnesota Gophers allowing just 37 rushing yards on 18 attempts and just 101 passing yards. The defense has been alright for Penn St this season but it’s been their offense that has under performed on the season. Senior quarterback Daryll Clark has completed 62% of his passes for 13 touchdowns but 7 interceptions on the year. Penn St has had three multi turnover games on the season and Daryll Clark had been under constant pressure in the pocket. After a slow start running back Evan Royster has started to improve on the ground as he has averaged 6.0 yards per carry or better over his past three games. As the running game improves it will open up things for Clark in the passing game. Michigan is 5-2 on the season with both their losses coming on the road. The team has a high profile win home to Notre Dame 38-34. Freshman quarterback Tate Forcier has played well in his freshman season hitting on 58% of his passes with 9 passing touchdowns and 4 interceptions. The team has produced offensively as they are second in the Big 10 in total offense averaging 426 yards per game and an impressive 6.2 yards per play. Michigan needs improvement on defense because they allow high yards per play average of 5.2 on the year and give up 363 yards of offense a game to their opponents. Michigan’s defense has not generated a great total of sacks this season with just 10 and ranking 10th in the Big Ten conference. So the concern in this game for the Wolverines is whether they can generate enough pressure on Clark to impact Penn St’s offensive flow. Michigan will need to be good in pass protection because Penn St has totaled 21 sacks this year ranking first in the Big 10.
Tony T’s Opinion: Interesting game here. I will not lay points in this game with Penn St because I don’t know how well the Nittany Lions will handle the speed of Michigan. Other than Iowa they have faced rather weak competition. Michigan is the fastest team that Penn St has faced since getting pounded by the USC Trojans in the Rose Bowl. If this line can get to Penn St –6, I may consider taking the Michigan side getting the points. I will not play on Penn St laying points at any price.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Michigan Wolverines are 7-3 ATS in their past 10 meeting with Penn St Nittany Lions
The Wagerline consensus has 58.6% of the CFB bettors on Penn St -5
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