NCAA Football
2011-09-05 - Miami-Florida at Maryland
A Sports Betting Pick by Addicted
American Football : North America : NCAAF
Monday, September 5th, 2011, 8:00PM US
(1:00AM GMT)
PREVIEW
This is an ACC Conference match for the two sides but there has been a lot of controversy with Miami and it means they play this opener away at Maryland without a whole bunch of starters.
The Miami-Florida Hurricanes will play this game without 7 starters and 2 very key backup players. QB Jacory Harris is suspended and that is a huge blow. In his place comes Stephen Morris, who did play a decent amount last season but threw 15 interceptions in just 270 pass attempts, giving him an awful pick percentage.
The pass offence will also be missing Travis Benjamin, who plays wide receiver and was responsible for some big plays last year. Aldarius Johnson has also been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules and those 3 absentees mean it will have to be Miamis ground attack that gets relied on most.
The Miami rush will have Mike James and Larry Miller, who should be able to make up for the departure of Damien Berry, who was last years leading rusher. The seriously weakened pass attack and a rush attack no better than last year means it will be hard breaking down the Maryland defence that only narrowly lost to Miami last year.
The suspensions do not end there. Perhaps the toll will be greatest on the defence. Miami will not be able to field LB Sean Spence, who racked up 17 tackles behind the line of scrimmage last season. SS Ray-Ray Armstrong, who managed to rank 3rd in tackles for Miami despite only starting 3 games, is also out, as is Vaughn Telemaque. Huge blows to the defence, who will have to face a QB who can take advantage of their absences.
The Maryland Terrapins have a new coach, who takes over the team that finished 9-4 last season. Randy Edsall has a great chance to start with a win here as he is at home playing a Miami side badly stripped of it's best talent. Edsall has QB Danny O'Brien, who was last years ACC rookie of the year. O'Brien started 10 games for Maryland and racked up almost 2,450 yards and 22 TDs. That attack will be strengthened further by leading rusher Davin Meggett and DJ Adams, who had 15 TDs between them last year.
BETTING VERDICT
Great situation for Maryland, who will want revenge for last years 26-20 loss. Take the Terps to win this one.
The Pick :
Maryland
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Maryland to win @ 1.60 (Pinnacle)
