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West Virginia at Syracuse Football Betting Odds

Written October 8, 2009 by Kyle Hunter

The West Virginia Mountaineers and the Syracuse Orange entered this season with very different expectations from fans of their program, but both teams have definitely shown promise this season. Syracuse had been the doormat of the Big East of late and signs of improvement were wanted. It is fair to say that at 2-3, with wins over Northwestern and a loss in overtime to Minnesota the Orange have shown drastic improvement from last season. West Virginia is in its second full season under head coach Bill Stewart. Last season was a bit disappointing since goals were so high and many expected this year to be a bit of a rebuilding season, but the Mountaineers have gone 3-1, with their only loss coming at Auburn. If you are ready to get serious about NCAA football betting this season, you need to take advantage of the incredible $500 match bonus going on at BetUS.

West Virginia has an offense that can definitely strike fear in a defensive coordinator’s mind. Jarrett Brown is a pretty efficient passer and a very capable runner, and Noel Devine can break it any time he touches the ball from the tailback position. Make no mistake about it, the West Virginia offense is run first and pass second. Special Teams have been strong for West Virginia as well, and their punter Scott Kozlowski is averaging over 48 yards per punt. The defense is giving up 26 points per game, so they will need to improve if the Mountaineers are going to push for a BCS berth from the Big East.

Syracuse has a brand new quarterback in Greg Paulus and the offense has definitely shown signs of life this season. The team is scoring 25 points per game, which has kept them in almost every contest. The problem that Paulus has shown is that he can be prone to the turnover. Paulus already has 9 interceptions in just 5 games this season. On the other hand Paulus does have 1157 yards passing and a 64.4% completion percentage. The Orange have struggled to find a consistent running game, which makes them too predictable on offense. On the defensive side the team is improving, but they certainly need to do more. The pass defense is shaky at best, which could be exposed throughout the season if it isn’t fixed quickly.

West Virginia opened as 9.5 point favorites and the football betting odds have since moved to West Virginia -10. The over/under for this game is set at 55.5 points. The over is 4-0 in West Virginia’s last 4 games and the over is 8-2-1 in Syracuse’s last 11 game home games, so the trends point toward the over in this matchup.

West Virginia is certainly the team that is more talented and ready to make noise in the Big East, but they haven’t proven themselves on the road at all yet this season. Expect West Virginia to be looking to establish the running game while Syracuse tries to spread out the defense of the Mountaineers through the air. If Syracuse is going to stay with West Virginia they must take care of the football in this game. Given the unknowns about both of these teams the over 55.5 is probably the safest play in this Big East matchup.

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