Saturday, February 4th, 2012
The Illinois Fighting Illini will travel in a week 1 contest to face the Missouri Tigers in a college football game on Saturday afternoon.
They will kick off from St Louis Missouri at 12:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by FSN.
The LVSC college football odds makers have set the betting line in this game and it was the home team Missouri Tigers opening up as 13 point favorites with an over under of 53 ½.
The early money came on the side of the road underdog as the Missouri Tigers dropped to an 11 point favorite. The total saw no movement as it is hung at 53 ½.
College football money line players taking the side of the favored Missouri Tigers will lay -430 odds with the road underdog Illinois Fighting Illini returning +360 to pull off the upset victory without taking the points.
These teams opened the season the past three years and Missouri has won straight up in each game. The Tigers defeated the Fighting Illini 37-9 as a 7 point underdog and breaking in a new starting quarterback a season ago.
Illinois will return 5 starters to the offense and 7 to the defense. They are coming off a disappointing 2009 campaign as they won just three games and lost 9. They failed to make a bowl game for the second straight year and head coach Ron Zook suddenly is under pressure to get the team back to respectability.
With Juice Williams out of eligibility the team will look to red shirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhasse to start.
The teams two leading rushers are back to support their red shirt frosh as junior Mikel Leshoure produced 765 rushing yards on 108 carries for 5 touchdowns and junior Jason Ford had 606 yards on 97 carries and 4 TD’s in 2009.
The Fighting Illini will lose their two top pass catchers from last season. Senior Jarred Fayson and junior A.J. Jenkins line up out wide and the two combined for only 26 catches and 2 touchdowns in 2009.
The team averaged 24 points and 393 offensive yards per game. Illinois behind a running quarterback averaged 200 rushing yards in 2009. On the defensive side the Fighting Illini gave up a very high 30 points and 403 yards per game to their opponents.
Missouri has good experience returning with 8 starters back from the offense and 8 to the defense. The team finished play in 2009 with an 8-5 record but was thoroughly embarrassed by Navy in their bowl game losing 35-13 as a 6 ½ point favorite.
Junior quarterback Blaine Gabbert returns under center after an injury plagued season in 2009. Gabbert played hurt much of the time and still completed 58.9% of his passes for 3593 yards 24 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in his first year as starting quarterback.
The top 5 ball carriers return in 2010 including leading rusher senior Derrick Washington who produced 909 yards on 190 carries and 10 touchdowns in 2009.
Missouri must replace their two top pass catchers from last season. The big loss is Danario Alexander who had 113 receptions and 14 touchdowns in 2009. They will line up with junior Wes Kemp and sophomore T.J. Moe. Kemp had 23 catches for a solid 18.2 yards per catch average and 3 touchdowns a year ago.
The Tigers after a 2007 and 2008 season where they averaged over 40 points per game could only average 29 points and 413 offensive yards in 2009. The team on the defensive side of the ball gave up 25 points and 370 yards a game.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: Illinois Fighting Illini is 0-5 ATS in their past 5 meetings with Missouri Tigers
Tags: betting, college football, fsn tv, illinois fighting illini, missouri tigers, Odds, pick, preview, saturday, september 4th 2010
