Kentucky Louisville Odds, Spread & NCAA Football Picks

August 29, 2008

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The intense rivalry between the Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals opens up each school’s season on Sunday, August 31st at 3:30 PM EST on ESPN. This game will be played in Papa John Cardinal Stadium in Louisville with the Governor’s Cup on the line. The early line at JustBet has Louisville a 3.5 point favorite over Kentucky.

Kentucky is coming off a fairly successful season in which they racked up eight wins, but that included a victory over LSU, and could have been higher if it weren’t for heartbreaking losses to Florida and Tennessee.  It’s going to be tough for the Wildcats to make it three eight-win seasons in a row with the loss of their leader, Andre Woodson.

Last year was a down year for the Cardinal program as they went 6-6 and missed out on the postseason for the first time in ten years.  If they want to get things turned around they are going to need to pick up wins early as they get their first four games and six of their first seven in front of their home faithful.  Louisville has had some success in recent years against the Wildcats, winning seven of the last nine meetings, but the game went the Wildcats way last year with a 57-yard pass in the final seconds giving them the 40-34 win.

Kentucky set a school record with 475 points a year ago, but without five players who made All-SEC last year that’s going to be impossible to come near.  Not only did the Wildcats lose Woodson, but Curtis Pulley was dismissed from the team this spring, leaving Mike Hartline the starter by default.  Dicky Lyons is going to have to step up big at wideout since there isn’t much depth at the position.  There is depth at tailback though with senior Tony Dixon, junior Alfonso Smith, and sophomore Derrick Locke all having plenty of experience carrying the ball.  The offensive line should be better than average once again with three starters back in trenches.  You will get the Kentucky odds at +3.5 against Louisville at JustBet.

As good as the offense was a year ago, the defense was almost that bad, giving up close to 30 ppg and 190 ypg rushing. With eight starters coming back the team is hoping those numbers improve, but they are missing a big part with linebacker Wesley Woodyard gone.  The team does have experience in the middle though with Braxton Kelley at the weak side spot, Micah Johnson in the middle, and Johnny Williams holding down the strong side.  The front four has a force in end Jeremy Jarmon with his nine sacks returning.  The secondary is the strength of this side with three guys back, including highly touted corner Trevard Lindley, who had three picks a year ago.

Kentucky isn’t the only one who is missing their leader at quarteback, as Hunter Cantwell will try to replace Brian Brohm under center.  That means Louisville will have trouble keeping pace with last year’s offense that ranked sixth in the nation.  Cantwell won’t have any experience at wideout or tight end either, which will make his job all the more difficult.  At running back sophomore Bilal Powell gets the nod, but he has less than 25 carries in his career.  Things don’t get much better up front with only two of the five lineman returning.

Not only did the offense get a complete overhaul, but the defense did as well.  Four starters are back, but at least there is some experience up front with nose tackle Earl Heyman and defensive end Maurice Mitchell. Other than that there are going to be a lot of fresh faces, but at least they have some juco transfers and players returning from injury, so they do have some guys with experience.  Still, we don’t expect the team to do much better than the 91st rank they had a year ago in scoring defense.  Do your betting on Louisville -3.5 against Kentucky at JustBet.

Predicted Score:

Kentucky 27
Louisville 30

Superbook.com Online Sports Book

Written by admin · Filed Under College Football 

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