Thursday, February 9th, 2012
The Tennessee Volunteers will hit the highway in SEC conference play when they meet the Mississippi Rebels in a college football game on Saturday afternoon. Kick off time in Mississippi is scheduled for 12PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by CBS. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the Mississippi Rebels opened as a 3-½ point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the home favorite, as the Mississippi Rebels are currently a 5 points favorite. College football money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Mississippi Rebels at –195 with the road underdog Tennessee Volunteer returning +165 to win this game without the aid of getting the points.
These teams are meeting for the first time since 2005. Tennessee Volunteers are 5-4 this season and is looking for 1 more win to qualify for a bowl game. Since losing a close 12-10 game at Alabama a few weeks back by a missed field goal the Tennessee Volunteers have strung together two straight wins. Last week they beat Memphis 56-28 and two weeks back it was an impressive 31-13 win at home to a good South Carolina Gamecocks team. Senior quarterback Jonathan Crompton has had a rocky road as starting quarterback for the Tennessee Volunteers. Crompton is coming off a 21 of 27 passing performance with 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions against a bad Memphis team. The two games prior the Vols starting quarterback was an inaccurate passer. Crompton has hit on 59% of his passes with 21 touchdowns and 9 interceptions on the year. Senior running back Montario Hardesty has ran effectively with 5.0 yards a carry with 179 yards on the season. The Vols defense has been good allowing their opponents only 18.9 points per game. Tennessee is hard team to run on allowing just 119 yards rushing this season and ranking 3rd in the SEC. Mississippi is bowl eligible and 6-3 this season. The Rebels are also getting inconsistent play at quarterback as Jevan Snead is barely hitting on half of his passes this season with 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The Rebels are getting good production on the ground from Brandon Bolden who carries a 5.2 yards per carry average on 100 carries and Dexter McCluster and impressive 5.8 yards a carry on 82 carries. With a potent running game the Rebels have averaged 29.9 points per game on the season. With Tennessee’s defense only giving up 3.68 yards per rush this season the game may come down to which inconsistent quarterback will be on target on Saturday.
Tony T’s Opinion: No play on my card from me here. Rushing yards will be hard to come by and I trust neither Jevan Snead nor Jonathan Crompton throwing the football downfield.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Tennessee Volunteers are 4-1 ATS in their past 5 games
The Wagerline consensus has 60.0% of the CFB bettors on Tennessee +5
Tags: college football betting odds, tennessee volunteers versus mississippi rebels college football betting odds pick preview
