Friday, May 25th, 2012
The Temple Owls will travel in MAC conference play when they take on the Akron Zips in a college football game in prime time on Friday night. Kick off time in Akron is set for 8PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPNU. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the Temple Owls opened as a 7-point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the home underdog, as the Temple Owls are currently a 4-½ point favorite. The over under is currently lined at 44 for the bettors to play into. College football money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Temple Owls at –190 with the home underdog Akron Zips bringing back +160 to win straight up with no points on their side.
When these two teams met in the 2008 season it was the Temple Owls getting a 27-6 win over the Akron Zips as a 3 point home favorite. Temple was able to move the football on the Zips with 148 yards rushing and 220 through the air. The Temple Owls are a nice surprise this season with a 7-2 record this season and 5-0 on the season in MAC conference play. The Temple Owls have a nice road victory this season at Navy winning 27-24 as a 7-point road underdog. Temple found success running on the Navy defense with 274 yards rushing on 34 carries. The Owls were able to hold on for a 34-32 win against an improving Miami Ohio team last week. The Owls gave up 426 passing yards last week in victory. With shaky play at quarterback this season the Owls have been able to win behind the running of freshman running back Bernard Pierce who has a 5.9 yards per carry average on the season. Pierce has rushed for 657 yards over his past two games. The Owls has rotated quarterbacks late in the year and the team cannot complete half of their passes this season. Temple is a one-man offense. Starting quarterback Vaughn Charlton was benched last week and sophomore quarterback Chester Stewart in place was just 7 of 16 passing last week with 143 yards no touchdowns and no interceptions. Temple is #2 in total defense giving up 329 yards per game. Akron has a disappointing season sitting at 2-7 this season and out of a bowl game. The team is coming off a 28-20 win at home last week to Kent St. The Zips were able to get 449 yards on Kent St last week. Akron is going with their third string freshman quarterback Patrick Nicely who has only completed 50% of his passes this season with 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Nicely was inserted into the lineup back on October 10th. The Zips have struggled utilizing a running back by committee with just 3.2 yards per rush average. Akron will need to be good against the run against Temple as the Zips are 8th in the MAC against the run allowing 166 yards per game and a 4.2 yards per attempt average.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Temple Owls are 4-0 ATS on the road this season
The Wagerline consensus has 57.6% of the CFB bettors on Stanford +4 1/2
The Wagerline consensus has 55.7% of the CFB bettors playing over 44
Tags: college football betting odds, temple owls versus akron zips espnu college football betting odds pick preview
