College Football odds Favor Miami at Pittsburgh
The Pitt Panthers, 3-point football betting underdogs at home, will try to get Dion Lewis and their ground attack clicking Thursday night against the Miami Hurricanes in an ESPN broadcast.
That was almost too easy. Last week, we showcased the matchup between the Cincinnati Bearcats of the Big East and the North Carolina State Wolfpack of the ACC. Both conferences have had their problems this early season, but the Big East has been getting brutalized, and it happened again when North Carolina State beat Cincinnati 30-19 as a 2-point home fave.
The Big East is now 6-14-1 ATS after three weeks; the ACC is dead even at 16-16 ATS.
Can we apply the same formula to Thursday night’s battle (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) between the Miami Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Panthers? It’s a good place to start. Pittsburgh has yet to cover this year, losing 27-24 to the Utah Utes in overtime as a 3-point road dog, and beating the New Hampshire Wildcats (from the CAA) 38-16 as a 29½-point home chalk. The Panthers offense wasn’t terribly good in either contest, but at least they had Week 3 off to sort out their problems.
The Hurricanes have also had some time to chew over their 36-24 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes (-8 at home) in Week 2. However, there were some good moments in there for Miami, just as there were during the season opener, a 45-0 romp over the Florida A&M Rattlers (+40½ away) of the MEAC. The ‘Canes are still good in the eyes of the AP writers at No. 19 in the polls. Pittsburgh has fallen outside the Top 25, and the betting odds have the Panthers getting 3½ points at Heinz Field.
Like much of the Big East, the Panthers are in somewhat of a transition mode – although not at coach, where Dave Wannstedt is in his sixth season at the helm and has earned generally positive reviews. The big changes are on offense, where sophomore Tino Sunseri is taking over for Bill Stull behind an offensive line that’s down three starters from last year. This is proving to be a big challenge for the Panthers.
Sunseri (40-of-62 for 459 yards, three TDs, two INTs) has fared well enough, but RB Dion Lewis has been held to just 102 yards on 35 carries. That’s 2.9 yards per carry.
It’s going to take more than that to beat Miami. Coach Randy Shannon enters his fourth year on campus with a fresh contract extension and a team with plenty of returning starters on offense and defense. Again, though, the offensive line is in question after losing three starters. You could see the difficulty QB Jacory Harris had against the Buckeyes, throwing four interceptions, and RB Damien Berry’s numbers (16 carries for 94 yards) were inflated by one 42-yard romp.
Pittsburgh’s defensive line is strong enough to keep the pressure on Miami. But there are some question marks further downfield. The linebacker situation is a bit iffy with middle linebacker Dan Mason losing his starting job despite leading the team with 13 tackles. Mason has been over-committing to run blocking, leaving Pittsburgh’s retooled secondary exposed. He’s also been having some academic issues.
The Hurricanes defense, like Pittsburgh’s, is strong up front. But they’ve got talent up and down the field. The linebacker corps is bolstered by the return of Jordan Futch from a torn ACL; he may be put in the starting lineup this week, as Coach Shannon put all his first-unit players on notice after losing to the Buckeyes. Futch has been Miami’s leader on special teams – another area of strength for the Hurricanes, who scored on a 79-yard punt return from Travis Benjamin against Ohio State.
These two programs haven’t met since 2003, so we don’t have the luxury of relevant head-to-head data for this game. But aside from the spread sitting at 3½ points, there isn’t much going on with Pittsburgh here. Bettors are on Miami at about a 2:1 ratio as we go to press, and this being a midweek matchup, those bettors are likely to be sharper than your average weekend warrior. We shall see.
The Pitt Panthers, 3-point football betting underdogs at home, will try to get Dion Lewis and their ground attack clicking Thursday night against the Miami Hurricanes in an ESPN broadcast.
That was almost too easy. Last week, we showcased the matchup between the Cincinnati Bearcats of the Big East and the North Carolina State Wolfpack of the ACC. Both conferences have had their problems this early season, but the Big East has been getting brutalized, and it happened again when North Carolina State beat Cincinnati 30-19 as a 2-point home fave.
The Big East is now 6-14-1 ATS after three weeks; the ACC is dead even at 16-16 ATS.
Can we apply the same formula to Thursday night’s battle (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) between the Miami Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Panthers? It’s a good place to start. Pittsburgh has yet to cover this year, losing 27-24 to the Utah Utes in overtime as a 3-point road dog, and beating the New Hampshire Wildcats (from the CAA) 38-16 as a 29½-point home chalk. The Panthers offense wasn’t terribly good in either contest, but at least they had Week 3 off to sort out their problems.
The Hurricanes have also had some time to chew over their 36-24 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes (-8 at home) in Week 2. However, there were some good moments in there for Miami, just as there were during the season opener, a 45-0 romp over the Florida A&M Rattlers (+40½ away) of the MEAC. The ‘Canes are still good in the eyes of the AP writers at No. 19 in the polls. Pittsburgh has fallen outside the Top 25, and the betting odds have the Panthers getting 3½ points at Heinz Field.
Like much of the Big East, the Panthers are in somewhat of a transition mode – although not at coach, where Dave Wannstedt is in his sixth season at the helm and has earned generally positive reviews. The big changes are on offense, where sophomore Tino Sunseri is taking over for Bill Stull behind an offensive line that’s down three starters from last year. This is proving to be a big challenge for the Panthers.
Sunseri (40-of-62 for 459 yards, three TDs, two INTs) has fared well enough, but RB Dion Lewis has been held to just 102 yards on 35 carries. That’s 2.9 yards per carry.
It’s going to take more than that to beat Miami. Coach Randy Shannon enters his fourth year on campus with a fresh contract extension and a team with plenty of returning starters on offense and defense. Again, though, the offensive line is in question after losing three starters. You could see the difficulty QB Jacory Harris had against the Buckeyes, throwing four interceptions, and RB Damien Berry’s numbers (16 carries for 94 yards) were inflated by one 42-yard romp.
Pittsburgh’s defensive line is strong enough to keep the pressure on Miami. But there are some question marks further downfield. The linebacker situation is a bit iffy with middle linebacker Dan Mason losing his starting job despite leading the team with 13 tackles. Mason has been over-committing to run blocking, leaving Pittsburgh’s retooled secondary exposed. He’s also been having some academic issues.
The Hurricanes defense, like Pittsburgh’s, is strong up front. But they’ve got talent up and down the field. The linebacker corps is bolstered by the return of Jordan Futch from a torn ACL; he may be put in the starting lineup this week, as Coach Shannon put all his first-unit players on notice after losing to the Buckeyes. Futch has been Miami’s leader on special teams – another area of strength for the Hurricanes, who scored on a 79-yard punt return from Travis Benjamin against Ohio State.
These two programs haven’t met since 2003, so we don’t have the luxury of relevant head-to-head data for this game. But aside from the spread sitting at 3½ points, there isn’t much going on with Pittsburgh here. Bettors are on Miami at about a 2:1 ratio as we go to press, and this being a midweek matchup, those bettors are likely to be sharper than your average weekend warrior. We shall see.
