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College Football Odds: Florida State vs Wake Forest

Written November 13, 2009 by Hector Garza

Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any worse for Bobby Bowden and company, they do. In a 40-24 loss to Clemson last week, the club turned the ball over 5 times! Four of those came as interceptions from QB Christina Ponder, who’s out the rest of the year with a shoulder injury. Florida State will be taking their 4-5 record to Wake Forest this Saturday at noon ET, and are the underdogs by 5 according to the college football spreads. The Demon Deacons are 4-6 and both teams have a 2-4 conference records. The total is set at 57.

The blame for the 5 losses this year can’t be placed on the offense. As a unit they’ve accumulated 437.9 ypg which is good for 20th in the nation, and scored 31 td’s. They’ve been a perfect 11-11 at scoring in the red zone in the last 3 games, and in the last 5 contests they’ve averaged just under 35 ppg. However, the dynamics will be changing this week as QB E.J. Manuel will be taking over for Ponder. On the year he’s completed 1 pass, so it’s impossible to tell how he’ll perform at game time. No doubt they’ll be relying more on the running game that’s averaged 135 ypg, and more specifically on RB Jermaine Thomas, as he’s recently posted back to back 100-yarders. While it’s definitely a team effort, the defense of FSU hasn’t been up to the task. Against Clemson they allowed 483 yards and 6 td’s. Even with the 5 turnovers by the offense, that’s poor football. Prior to last week, they were allowing 29.8 ppg and 428.9 ypg. They’ll need to do a better job in all aspects to slow down Wake Forest. Check out Betfirms for more game breakdowns and expert college football picks.

The Demon Deacons are currently riding a 4 game losing streak, but have shown signs of life with their last two losses coming to ranked teams and by a total of 4 points. QB Riley Skinner has completed an impressive 65.5% of his throws for over 2,500 yards and 20 tds to 10 ints. He’s got a host of receivers to spread it around to and passing is definitely their strength, which matches up well against a suspect FSU defense. Josh Adams and Brandon Pendergrass have combined for 749 yards and 3 scores, but last week against Georgia Tech the ground game was held to 28 yards which was costly in the 30-27 overtime loss. Defensively Wake has been mediocre at best. While they’ve scored 30 td’s on the year, they’ve also given up 30, with 17 of them coming in the air. They’ve only forced 13 turnovers and have allowed 370 ypg, both numbers that are in need of improvement. One area they’ve done a good job in is getting to the QB, with 23 sacks to their credit, and they’ll be hoping to take advantage of FSU’s inexperience at that position. If they’re to have success against the Seminoles, they’ll need to shut down the run, something they weren’t able to do last week as GA Tech gashed them for 412 yards and 4 td’s. Betfirms has all you need when it comes to professional football picks.

Florida State owns the overall advantage in this series at 21-5-1 and has the offense to put up big numbers, despite having an unproven QB . The Deacons do have the homefield advantage where they’re currently 4-2. Both defenses are bad, and this game will be won or lost in the turnover column. I give Bowden the nod in this one, and if you’re interested in betting college football, then be smart and signup for a 10% deposit bonus at Bodog.