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Carrie Stroup here with your Connecticut Huskies vs. South Florida Bulls betting odds. Place your 1st bet here and get your 2nd bet for FREE.
Sportsbook.ag Line & Total: South Florida -3 (-105) & 43
Opening Line & Total: Bulls -3.5 & 46
Two struggling teams square off in an American Athletic Conference battle on Friday when UConn travels to South Florida.
The Huskies have looked very poor in the early going of the 2014 season, as they have taken losses against both BYU and Boise State, while their only win was a three-point victory (19-16) against Stony Brook, which is an FCS club. Their game against Boise State last week was actually quite close though, as Connecticut cut the deficit to three points just before the final quarter, but could not hold off the Broncos, allowing two late touchdowns while failing to cover the 15-point spread. The Huskies managed 290 yards of offense with a meager 48 coming from the running game. The Bulls are coming off of a 2-10 season and are not looking to have improved much in 2014. Just like its opponent, USF’s one win came against an FCS team, Western Carolina, in the opening week by a score of 36-31. Since then, the Bulls have averaged just 17.0 PPG in their two losses and really took a beating (49-17) at the hands of NC State as 2.5-point underdogs most recently. South Florida gained a putrid 159 yards of offense in the matchup as they turned the ball over three times and gave up 589 total yards to the Wolfpack. Last season’s installment of this matchup was extremely ugly, as the Bulls went on the road and won 13-10 as 3.5-point underdogs despite connecting on only 8-of-28 passes for 106 yards. Connecticut holds a slight 5-4 SU edge (4-4 ATS) between these programs since 2007 and has won SU in its past two visits to South Florida. The Bulls have not done well at all as a favorite with a 0-8 ATS record since the start of 2012 while the Huskies have gone just 2-11 ATS in the first half of the year in the same timeframe. The injury to QB Casey Cochran (concussion) is a blow to the Connecticut club, as he will be out for the entire season, while bettors should keep an eye on whether or not playmaking WR Andre Davis (sternum) suits up for USF, since he is listed as questionable.
UConn has one of the worst run games in the nation, ranking seventh-worst among FBS schools in rushing yards (76 YPG) while doing slightly better in the passing game (223 YPG) and scoring 16.7 PPG (9th-lowest in nation). With Casey Cochran out for the season, QB Chandler Whitmer (464 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT) has taken over under center. He has not done well over the past two seasons with the program, throwing 14 TD and 22 INT, and is completing less than 50 percent of his passes in 2014. Unfortunately, the team will be relying on him heavily to guide them, as their running game does little to nothing as HB Max DeLorenzo leads the sad group with 104 yards (3.6 YPC). The one true bright spot on this club is WR Geremy Davis who has 256 receiving yards (16.0 avg) and two touchdowns this year, and was the key to their one win as he grabbed six balls for 113 yards (18.8 avg) and a touchdown. The Huskies defense has given up 406.5 YPG to opponents in FBS play thus far, and hope that a strong secondary led by senior DB Byron Jones (12 tackles) can help turn things around.
South Florida is similar to its Friday opponent, in that the offense has been poor in 2014, averaging 371 YPG with just 182.5 YPG of that coming from the passing attack. QB Mike White (275 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) has been very unimpressive while completing 32.6% of his attempts that have gone for a low 6.4 YPA. Last week NC State baffled White as he completed 4-of-16 attempts for 82 yards and a TD. Freshman HB Marlon Mack (399 yards, 4 TD) has been a great surprise for the Bulls, but had most of his production come in the opening win against Western Carolina when he rushed for 275 yards (11.5 avg) and four touchdowns. The receivers on this team will not impress anyone with WR Rodney Adams (116 yards) leading the team, while WR Deonte Welch (76 yards) has the most receptions (seven) and WR Reyshene Bronson (80 yards) has the lone touchdown. The defense for the Bulls had its worst game last week, but will look to turn things around behind leader LB Reshard Cliett (7 tackles, 2 sacks).
