Hawaii at San Jose Sate Line
Written by Steve Janus - Google +
The Hawaii Warriors will look to improve to 2-0 inside the WAC when they go on the road to take on the San Jose Spartans in a special Friday night matchup. The Warriors weren’t in action this past week, but come in having won two straight by a combined 60 points. The Spartans played BYU closer than expected, but still wound up losing the game 29-16 to fall to 2-3 on the year. Hawaii has won 9 of the last 10 in the series, but each of their last four trips to San Jose State have been decided by 7-points or less.
Taking a look at the week 7 lines, oddsmakers currently have Hawaii favored by 6.5-points over San Jose State.
Hawaii Warriors:
The Warriors 44-26 win over Louisiana Tech in their most recent game was their first road win of the season. They had lost 32-40 at Washington and 20-40 at UNLV in their two other road contests. Hawaii’s offense has been lights out over their last two games, scoring 100 points combined in blowout wins over UC Davis and Louisiana Tech. The offense is averaging 37.2 ppg behind one of the best passing attacks in the country.
Senior quarterback Bryant Moniz and the Hawaii offense rank 8th in the country in passing offense, averaging 343.4 yards per game. Moniz has completed 65% of his attempts for 1,578 yards with 15 touchdowns to just one interceptions. Over his last two games Moniz has thrown for 834 yards and 11 touchdowns.
While the passing game has been nearly unstoppable, the Warriors don’t pose much of a threat running the football. Joey Iosefa leads the team with just 146 yards on 39 carries, but doesn’t have a single rushing touchdown. Moniz leads the team with four rushing touchdowns and is second to Iosefa with 126 yards.
It will be interesting to see if the Warriors don’t turn to the ground game a little more against San Jose State, who are 91st in the country giving 192.3 rushing yards on average. Hawaii still figures to have all kinds of success throwing the ball if they choose to continue to attack through the air.
San Jose State Spartans:
The Spartans 7-point loss to BYU was their third defeat this season by 10 points or less. San Jose State has really lacked consistency on the offensive side of the ball. After scoring just 34 points combined in three straight losses to open the season, the Spartans put up 34 and 38 in wins over New Mexico State and Colorado State. The offense didn’t have much luck against BYU, managing just one touchdown and three field goals on 325 yards of total offense.
Starting quarterback Matt Faulkner went 25 of 35 for 255 yards in the loss to BYU. His completion percentage of 71% was his highest mark of the season, but he two interceptions without a single touchdown. It was the third straight game where Faulkner threw for at least 235 yards, as he went 49 of 86 for 549 yards and four touchdowns in the Spartans wins over New Mexico State and Colorado State.
Unlike the Warriors, San Jose State has a legit rushing attack. Senior running back Brandon Rutley has a team-best 519 yards and six touchdowns. Rutley has been a huge surprise for the Spartans, as the back had just 461 yards and four scores in 10 starts as a junior.
Hawaii comes into the game ranked 27th in total defense, allowing just 93.2 ypg on the ground and 233.8 ypg through the air. However, they haven’t exactly played all that great on the road. Hawaii is giving up just under 400 yards of total offense in three road games, compared to just 218 yards in two home games.
Betting Trends:
Hawaii is 9-1 ATS in their last 10 conference games, but just 3-7 ATS in their last 10 Friday games.
San Jose State is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games as an underdog, but just 8-17 ATS in their last 25 games after scoring less than 20 points in their previous game.
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