College Football Week 6 Odds – Arizona State at Washington State

Arizona State Sun Devils (2-2 SU, 2-1 ATS) at Washington State Cougars (1-4 SU, 2-3 ATS)

Saturday, October 10 – 5 PM ET

BetOnline NCAA Football Odds:  ARIZONA STATE -21, Total 47.5

Here are some of the NCAA football betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

• ASU has covered three of its last nine road games
• ASU has lost five of its last six road games SU
• ASU has played ten of its last 12 road games UNDER the total
• WSU has covered six of its last nine games
• WSU has lost 12 of its last 14 games SU
• WSU has lost eight of its last 11 home games SU

Also….

• ASU has won the last five meetings SU
• WSU has covered five of the last eight meetings
• Four of the last six meetings have gone UNDER the total
• ASU has won four of the last six meetings SU as the road team

Jeff Tuel came to Washington State with the idea that if he could develop in the role of quarterback, the rest of the roster might be ready to grown into Pac-10 contention with him over the course of time. There was some talk that he would be redshirted, but with Maeshall Lobbestael (5 INT’s in 93 passes) struggling, and Kevin Lopina not increasing their chances in the college football odds, there was not very much choice.

Tuel, who ran a similar no-huddle approach in high school as the Cougars do now, came in against USC two weeks ago and completed 14 of 22 passes, then started the game with Oregon (the only other true frosh at Wazzu to get a start was Drew Bledsoe) and had to leave the game early with a hip pointer. He has been participating in some practice, and feels he is healthy enough to start Saturday.

Tuel wouldn’t be the only youngster getting considerable playing time for Wazzu. There are six more who got the start at Eugene. of course, the end result was a deficit of 514-318 in yardage and a 52-6 defeat. This is the homecoming game for the Cougars, though I’m not quite so sure what that means. WSU has allowed 5.3 yards per rushing attempt, ranks 119th in total defense and doesn’t have a running back averaging more than 38 yards a game, so can they effectively "shorten" the game and improve their football odds?

Arizona State have beaten a couple of stiffs and lost tough games against Georgia, at Athens, in a game where starting quarterback Danny Sullivan was just 10 for 32, and then to Oregon State, despite 338 yards from Sullivan and 26 first downs.

This is clearly the level of opponent they prefer, and this team, which has a plus-9 turnover ratio, is obviously looking for an opportunity to create some distance between themselves and an opponent. Surely they have the stop unit to do it.

The Sun Devils rank third nationwide in total defense, and have allowed 2.6 yards a rushing attempt. They haven’t been able to rush the quarterback very well, but they have intercepted nine passes. Let’s see how well they do against the freshman.

We know that potentially ASU can crack this game wide open, so we’re going to lay the points with the Sun Devils, the 21-point favorites in the BetOnline NCAA college football odds.

JAY’S PLAY:  ARIZONA STATE -21 ***

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)