Friday, May 25th, 2012
It will be a battle between the Big East Conference and WAC conference when the Cincinnati Bearcats travel to the west coast to face the Fresno St Bulldogs in a college football game on Saturday night.
They kick off this game from Fresno St at 10PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN2.
The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and it was opened at pick with an over under of 58.
The early money from the college football betting public has been home team money as the Fresno St Bulldogs are now 2 ½ point favorites. The total hasn’t moved off the opening number of 58.
Money line bettors playing the favored Fresno St Bulldogs will lay -140 odds with the road underdog Cincinnati Bearcats bringing back +120 odds to win this game outright without the aid of getting points on their side.
This game will mark the debut of head coach Butch Jones as the head coach of Cincinnati as Brian Kelly leaves for Notre Dame. Jones comes over from Central Michigan.
The teams met last season with Cincinnati pulling out the 28-20 victory as 17 point home favorites.
The Bearcats finished off the 2009 season with a 12-1 record but were pounded 51-24 by Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators in their bowl game.
Cincinnati will return 8 starters on offense and 6 to their defensive corps.
With 2009 starter Tony Pike competing for work in the NFL it will be junior quarterback Zach Collaros as the clubs starter. Collaros saw significant action in 2009 for an injured Tony Pike. Collaros was very impressive completing 93 of 124 passes for 1434 yards 10 touchdowns and 2 picks. Cincinnati completed their regular season at a perfect 12-0.
The team returns leading rusher Isaiah Pead a junior running back who rushed for a 6.7 yards per carry average and 9 touchdowns on 121 carries in 2009.
Collaros will have 5 of his top 6 pass catchers in 2010. Senior receiver Armon Binns had 61 catches for a 14.6 yards per reception average and 11 touchdowns in 2009.
The Bearcats averaged 39 points and 448 offensive yards with 309 coming through the air in 2009. The Bearcats defense gave up 23 points and 374 yards per game a year ago.
Fresno St will return 8 starters on offense and 8 on defense. The club finished 8-5 last season and fell in overtime to Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl 35-28 as 10 ½ point betting favorites.
Senior quarterback Ryan Colburn returns under center for Fresno St. The signal caller completed 60.7% of his passes last season with 2459 yards 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2009.
The Bulldogs will have to replace a huge part of their offense in 2009 as running back Ryan Matthews was selected in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers. Sophomore running back Robbie Rouse will take his place as the starter and the ball carrier had 82 rushes for 483 yards and 4 touchdowns in 2009. We will see if Rouse can handle heavy load in 2010 as Mathews had 276 rushes in 2010.
Their was some heavy turnover in the pass catching citatory for Fresno St as three of their top four pass catchers are gone. Only junior wide out Jamel Hamler returns from that bunch. Hamler had 37 catches for 5 touchdowns and a 13.6 yards per reception average.
Fresno St averaged 34 points and 431 offensive yards last season. Behind Ryan Mathews the team averaged 229 yards rushing a season ago.
Defensively the Bulldogs were atrocious allowing their opponents 28 points and 414 yards per game. Opposing teams averaged 200 yards rushing against Fresno St last year.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Cincinnati Bearcats are 9-1 straight up in their past 10 road games. Fresno St is 0-4-1 ATS in their past 5 home games.
Tags: betting, cincinnati bearcats, college football, espn2 tv, fresno st bulldogs, Odds, pick, preview, saturday, september 4th 2010
