This weekend is going to be tough for Alabama-Birmingham as they go to face the Gamecocks in South Carolina. USC Struggled a little offensively during week 1 play. So, should we lay money on the dog to cover?
NCAA Football Betting
– UAB vs South Carolina Picks
The Alabama-Birmingham Blazers did not start off on the
right foot in the 2012 college football season, losing at home to the Troy
Trojans. The road is not likely to get any easier this upcoming weekend, when
the boys of UAB take on the South Carolina Gamecocks in an early-afternoon
tilt.
The Gamecocks are favored by a 33.5 points on the college
football betting lines, which means UAB’s best shot for a win in this game is
on the point spread. Does UAB have the offense to cover those odds?
The Blazers can win because:
They have a leader they can trust, who is determined to
improve the program… not merely use it as a steppingstone to bigger jobs.
Garrick McGee was the offensive coordinator for the
Arkansas Razorbacks under Bobby Petrino for the past few seasons. McGee tutored
star quarterback Ryan Mallett, helping the Hogs reach the Sugar Bowl at the end
of the 2010 season. McGee jumped at the UAB job when the Blazers offered him
the opportunity after the end of the 2011 regular season, but in early April,
his position in Birmingham seemed tenuous. When Petrino was fired on April 10
in the wake of his unethical dealings with former mistress Jessica Dorrell, it
was rumored that McGee might leave UAB after just a few months on the job to
take the interim head coaching position at Arkansas.
However, McGee politely declined to pursue that job, even
though nobody would have blamed him if he did. The Razorbacks went in another
direction, keeping McGee in the UAB football family.
Now, the Blazers and their new coach will try to cross
the postseason barrier and establish a new standard of competitive excellence.
This team is a work in progress, but McGee is showing signs early on that he is
going to remake this team for the better, come hell or high water.
The Gamecocks can win because:
They're a lot
better than UAB. Sout
h Carolina found it very tough to score in week one
against Vanderbilt on the road but magically (or rather, not so magically)
scored in copious quantities in week two at home against a Conference USA
opponent, East Carolina. South Carolina was able to throw the ball downfield
against a weak ECU secondary and with UAB's defense returning only four
starters, the Blazers are clearly as thin as East Carolina was.
South Carolina's
blowout of ECU occurred under the leadership of quarterback Dylan Thompson, who
entered this season as the backup but became the lead man when starter Connor
Shaw was injured against Vanderbilt. If South Carolina's backup quarterback can
dominate a game against one C-USA team, there's no reason why he can't do so
against another. UAB is not much better than East Carolina; in fact, it might
not be better than ECU at all.
South Carolina
should flourish on defense as well. The Gamecocks' front four should wipe out
UAB's offensive line, using a combination of speed and power. There's nothing
that UAB can do better than South Carolina… except, perhaps, punt.
Outlook & NCAA Football Betting Prediction:
This is a cupcake game. UAB has not reached a higher
level as a program over the past decade and until it shows signs of life, it is
just not ready to handle the upper-tier teams in the Southeastern Conference.
South Carolina will roll.
Free College Football
Pick: South Carolina