A new season of college football on ESPN opens this week with a SEC
clash this Thursday night between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the
Vanderbilt Commodores in a 8 p.m. (ET) start at Vanderbilt Stadium. BetAnySports has opened the Commodores as 3.5-point home favorites with the betting line for the total set at 42.5.
South Carolina is coming off a tough year in SEC play with a straight-up
1-7 mark. Its lone conference win of the season came against Vanderbilt
in a 19-10 victory in mid-October as a slight 1.5-point home favorite.
The total stayed well UNDER BetAnySports’ closing 45.5-point line and it
stayed UNDER in four of the Gamecocks last six games.
New head coach Will Muschamp will have the tall task of turning around an offense that sunk to 110th in the nation in scoring with 22.3 points per game. His defense was not all that much better at 72nd
in average points allowed (27.5). The quarterback position remains up
in the air for 2016, but it looks like Perry Orth should get the
starting nod on Thursday night.
The Commodores were not much better in the SEC last season at 2-6 SU and
the total stayed UNDER or ended as a PUSH in 11 of their 12 games
overall. They failed to cover against the spread on BetAnySports’ closing betting line in three of their final five games in 2015. Overall, Vanderbilt went 4-8 SU with a 6-5-1 record ATS.
Head coach Derek Mason will go with Kyle Shurmur as his starting
quarterback for the season opener after he started five of the team’s
final six games in 2015. This unit has nowhere to go but up after
averaging a dismal 18.4 points a game last year. Fortunately, Vanderbilt
does have eight starters returning to a defense that was ranked 22nd in the nation last year in points allowed (21.0).
It is hard to know what to expect from these two teams on Thursday
night, but I do think we will see a tight battle that keeps the scoring
to minimum on both sides of the scoreboard. Stick with the UNDER 42.5
points at BetAnySports as the top play in this conference clash.
NCAA Football Week 1 Preview & Free Pick- South Carolina at Vanderbilt - Handicappers Hideaway
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