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South Carolina at Arkansas College Football Lines

Written November 5, 2009 by Kyle Hunter

The South Carolina Gamecocks fell out of the top 25 with last week’s big loss to Tennessee in Knoxville, but they are still having a pretty solid season at 6-3. The Arkansas Razorbacks have had an up and down season. At times Arkansas has looked like they could beat anyone on their schedule, but at other times the defense can’t stop anyone and they struggle mightily. This is a pretty big SEC conference game for both teams to get things going back in the right direction here before this season winds down. If you want to get in on the action and bet on football you should definitely take advantage of Bookmaker’s 20% signup bonus on your initial deposit. Challenge yourself by looking at the NCAA football picks from the best handicappers out there and see if you can keep up.

Stephen Garcia has stepped up and provided South Carolina with a pretty reliable starting quarterback, something the team has been missing most of Steve Spurrier’s years as the coach of the Gamecocks. Garcia has thrown for 2,094 yards and has thrown just 5 interceptions on the season. The South Carolina offense as a whole has been rather sporadic, with outbursts of offense at times and almost no offense at other times. Kenny Miles is the top running back for the team and he has run the ball pretty well of late. With five receivers over 20 receptions on the season South Carolina definitely has plenty of options to throw the football to. The defense of South Carolina has been great this season outside of one terrible game against Georgia. The pass defense is especially good, which will make for a great matchup against Arkansas and its passing attack.

The Razorbacks of Arkansas definitely haven’t been having trouble putting points on the board, rather it is the defensive side of the ball that has held them back at times this year. Ryan Mallett transferred into Arkansas from Michigan and has been absolutely brilliant at quarterback. Mallett has 18 touchdown passes and just 3 interceptions in 8 games this season. Arkansas is also deep at the running back position, where it has four players who average at least 4.7 yards per carry this season. Dennis Johnson also serves as an explosive kick returner with the potential to break it every time he touches the ball. The Arkansas defense is allowing 27.4 points per game and 264 yards per game through the air. At times they have forced turnovers and helped the team win games, but they haven’t yet proven they can keep the other team from moving the football consistently.

This week’s college football odds show Arkansas a 7 point home favorite in this game. The posted total is set at 53.5 points. Most football picks from the experts are picking Arkansas to win this one, and I don’t disagree, but I do think it will be a very close game. Both teams should be able to move the football quite a bit in this one. The over is 4-0 in Arkansas’ last 4 home games and 7-2-1 in South Carolina’s last 10 road games.

Look for Ryan Mallett and the Arkansas offense to throw the ball even on a very tough secondary. South Carolina should be able to run and throw well on Arkansas, but in the end I think Arkansas may have a little too much firepower for South Carolina. The best bet here looks to be the over, which should be hit in this one with little problems.