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Fresno State Rutgers Odds

Written August 30, 2008 by Jack Jones

There are two games on the slate for Labor Day, and the action will get started at 4 PM EST when Fresno State heads to New Brunswick to take on Rutgers on ESPN. The philosophy for the Bulldogs remains the same every year, find the best teams that are willing to take them on and put them on the schedule. It has worked well to put the school on the map, as they are either competitive or pull out an upset what seems like once a year. Last year this team played some tough competition, and lost to conference rivals Boise State and Hawaii and in non-conference play it was Oregon blowing them out and Texas A&M stealing one from Fresno in triple overtime. Those were the four losses, all against top schools with the team racking up nine wins along the way.

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Early Odds:
Fresno State +4.5
Rutgers -4.5
Total – 59

Rutgers doesn’t seem to go out of it’s way to find teams that might beat them before the Knights open Big East play, but this should be a good test to see where Greg Schiano’s team is at right out of the gate. Last year was pretty disappointing for Rutgers, as they started out with five straight home games, in which they blew out their first three weak opponents by a total of 138-27. Unfortunately they then lost to Maryland and Cincinnati, but the team rebounded to make the International Bowl, and put a beat down on Ball State 52-30 to end the year.

Fresno State likes to move the ball on the ground, and they should be able to do that again this year with running backs Ryan Matthews and Lonyae Miller returning after scoring 21 touchdowns a year ago. When the Bulldogs do throw though they are confident in the abilities of quarterback Tom Brandstater, who is one of the WAC’s top passers. He threw 15 touchdowns a year ago, but what was more impressive was how he only threw three picks and completed over 63% of his passes. If you like the Bulldogs then bet on them +4.5 at JustBet.

Fresno State might not be able to stop the run very well (they ranked 85th in the nation with 181 ypg given up a year), but man do they get to the passer. This team had 2.8 sacks per game and 7.6 tackles for loss per game a year ago, and we expect more of the same this year. The run defense will still struggle though, especially without top tackler Marcus Riley roaming the middle of the field. The strong secondary should be ready to take advantage of the heat this team puts on the passer, and we expect to see strong numbers out of this group.

Rutgers had little problem scoring last season, becoming only the eigth team in school history to rack up more than 300 points. The difference this year will be that they don’t have standout Ray Rice in the backfield, which means that Mike Teel, a veteran and able quarterback, is going to have to shoulder more of the load. The good news for the Knights is that they will have Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt to throw to, both of which finished in the top three in the Big East in receiving yards a year ago. There isn’t much experience at running back with Kordell Young only being a sophomore.

You can’t really count on this team being as good against the pass as they were a year ago, when the opposition only averaged 170.6 ypg through the air and 327.6 ypg overall. Without All-American Eric Foster, the front line isn’t going to be quite as good, and at linebacker the group will be bringing in some new faces as well. The secondary should still be tough to throw against through, with Courtney Greene being a two-time All-Big East selection. The Rutgers point spread is -4.5 against Fresno State at JustBet.

Predicted Score: Rutgers 31, Fresno State 27

The OC Blunderguff disagrees with our Rutgers Fresno State Predictions as they think Fresno wins by a touchdown.

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