NCAA Football
2012-09-08 - Miami Hurricanes at Kansas State Wildcat
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States: College Football
Saturday 8 September 2012 - Kick Off 12pm ET
5pm (British Time)
Preview
Both the Kansas State Wildcats and the Miami Hurricanes opened their season with wins last weekend, but both would have had differing views of their wins. The Wildcats put the gloss on their scoreline in the final quarter last week, while the Hurricanes won as short favourites on the road at Boston College.
It wasn't a great performance from Kansas State, but it was the first game of the season against a team that is clearly over-matched. Collin Klein didn't have the best game considering the expectation on his shoulders after accounting for 40 touchdowns a season ago, but he should raise his game against the Hurricanes, a much more formidable opponent.
The Wildcats have a good chance for a big game here considering Miami gave up over 500 total yards of Offense last week against Boston College. However, most of Miami's issues were in the passing game last week and Klein is someone that relies on his legs as much as his arm.
Miami do have an inexperienced Defense and that did show last week by the number of yards they gave up, but they were strong on the ground by limiting Boston College to 3 yards per carry. That is going to be severely tested by the Wildcats with Klein and John Hubert running the ball for Kansas State.
Stephen Morris will continue running the Miami Offense after a strong performance last week, but all the talk was about Duke Johnson who had two long touchdown runs last week and finished with 135 yards on just 7 carries for the Hurricanes. Thanks to Johnson's efforts, the Hurricanes were very effective running the ball last week, but Kansas State are a much more formidable unit up front that Boston College.
Kansas State did give up too many yards considering they were not playing a powerful school, but they prevented Missouri State getting into the end zone, although they will be expecting a much stronger effort this week.
They will look to slow down the rushing game of Miami's and then put the pressure on the passing game which only went 4.6 yards per attempt last week.
Head to Head
Kansas State and Miami met in Florida last season and it ended with a Wildcat 28-24 win on the road. The Wildcats won the game outright despite being 12.5 point underdogs on the road.
Other Interesting Trends
Kansas State are just 9-21 against the spread in their last 30 games against non-Conference schools.
They are 7-3 against the spread in their last 10 games following a straight up win.
Miami are 7-2 against the spread in their last 9 games against Big 12 schools.
Prediction
I am going to back the Kansas State Wildcats to win this game and cover the spread for the following reasons:
First, I think the Wildcats are much more experienced than Miami and may have been looking ahead to this game last week and so started slowly against an over-matched Missouri State team.
Second, I expect Kansas State to have more consistent success with Collin Klein being able to run and throw from underneath Center and that is going to make it tough for Miami to keep up.
Third, I don't have full faith in this Miami Offense just yet, despite their big week last week and I think the Wildcats can make them a little one-dimensional and begin shutting them down. That should be just enough to see them cover this spread.
The Pick :
Kansas State Wildcats 38-30 Miami Hurricanes
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back Kansas State Wildcats - 7 Points @ 2.00
