Connecticut at South Florida Odds

Written by Jack Jones

In a crucial Big East showdown Saturday, the Connecticut Huskies visit the South Florida Bulls with the conference championship on the line. The Huskies control their own destiny, and with a win they’d be representing the Big East in a BCS bowl game. The Bulls will just be trying to play the role of the spoiler, and odds makers give the home team the slight edge. College football lines show us odds of South Florida -1 over Connecticut with a total set of 41.5 points.

Connecticut’s chances of making a bowl game let alone winning the conference looked slim to none about a month ago. The Huskies lost 26-0 to Louisville back on October 23 which sent them off to an 0-2 start in Big East play. Connecticut had to deal with the dismissal of starting quarterback Cody Endres at the same time, and were the only winless team in the conference.

The Huskies (7-4, 4-2) have since reeled off 4 straight victories, including last Saturday’s 38-17 home victory over Cincinnati. They got a Pittsburgh loss to West Virginia, which is exactly what they needed to control their own destiny. A big reason for their resurgence has been running back Jordan Todman, who has rushed for 1,481 yards and 14 touchdowns while averaging 5.5 yards per carry. He is averaging 160 RYPG while scoring 6 touchdowns during their 4-game winning streak. QB Zach Frazer has taken care of the ball since taking over for Endres, and the defense is allowing 16.0 PPG over their last four.

“You know, it’s a whole new team,” running back Jordan Todman said. “Everybody has kind of switched attitudes and work ethic, and we’ve really started to practice, and we love to win and winning is addicting and makes everybody happy. So we’ll stick to what works so far, and we have one more game on the way.”

Mathematically, South Florida is still alive for a chance to earn a piece of the Big East title as well. The Bulls (7-4, 3-3) did lose to Pittsburgh in their last Big East game, but can still finish in a five-way deadlock for first place in the conference. They will need to beat the Huskies, have Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh while also getting Rutgers to upset West Virginia this weekend. That would mean that the Bulls, Huskies, Mountaineers, Panthers, and the Syracuse Orange would all finish with 4-3 conference records. It would then be decided by tiebreakers which team would go to the BCS.

Even if they do not win the conference title, the Bulls still have a lot to play for. They can earn their first nine-win season since 2007 after winning an emotional game 23-20 over in-state rival Miami in overtime. The loss for the Hurricanes led to the firing of head coach Randy Shannon. South Florida head coach Skip Holtz has done a nice job in his first year on the job, as a 4-3 conference record would tie their best finish in the Big East ever, something they achieved in 2005 and 2006.

BetUS Projected Score: South Florida 21 – Connecticut 20

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