I have two games to bet on tonight, let's dive in! First we have App. St. against ECU in what is a sneaky good G5 game at 7:30!
App St had what is normally a good season at 9-3 last year, but it was down due to the performances of Coastal Carolina and Louisiana in 2020. The Mountaineers lose their starting QB from last year but bring a kid in who has previously been at Clemson and Duke in Chase Brice, not to be mixed up with country singer Chase Rice. They do get back their top receiving target Corey Sutton after he opted out of the season in 2020. They also have nine returners on defense which ranked 9th in the nation last season.
ECU is coming off of a rough year where they went 3-8 but were able to show gradual improvement, especially on the defensive side of the ball. They put up 30 ppg and over 400 yards last year but the D was ranked 98th in the country. They have younger players on defense, but they all have experience now for the 2021 season.
Im looking for ECU to score points and have an improved defense for 2021. They are 10 point underdogs and they should keep it within that number if they can hold the Mountaineer rushing attack down.
In my second game, let's head to Minneapolis! The Gophers are welcoming the Buckeyes to town for a thursday night showdown!
OSU being the runner up last year will look to march through the Big Ten on their way to a playoff berth and hopefully a national title. While they have arguably the best receiving corp in the country, the Buckeyes lose top passer Justin Fields and rusher Trey Sermon to the NFL. On defense, OSU lost around 5-6 big time contributors to the NFL or graduation. Now we aren't feeling bad for them as the replacements should be as good or even better. Rushing for 259 ypg last year, that should continue into 2021. The big question will be the player of CJ Stroud at QB. The receivers are great, but can he get them the football?
Now for the Gophers. They return starting QB Tanner Morgan who is 18-8 as well as Mohamed Ibrahim who is probably the top back in the entire conference and ran for over 1000 yards in seven games. They are also returning five offensive linemen who are all seniors with 181 career starts. Defensively, they picked up a couple power five transfers and return their second leading tackler from 2020. They do lose a corner to the NFL, but overall they return 20/22 starters from last season. After going 11-2 in 2019 and struggling with covid and injuries last year, I expect Fleck to have Minnesota going full steam ahead. Give me Minnesota and the 14 points against the Buckeyes! Ski U Mah!