Football Odds – Louisiana Tech Goes for Encore

Those who challenge the football odds have, in turn, been challenged by the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs this season, and after their best effort of the season, the guys from Louisiana Tech go for an encore performance as they play host to the Idaho Vandals in Western Athletic Conference action that is slated to get underway at 4 PM ET on Saturday afternoon at Joe Aillet Stadium (artificial turf) in Ruston, LA.

In the football betting lines that have been established for this game, Idaho is listed as a 1.5-point favorite.

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Idaho Vandals (3-2 SU, 3-1 ATS) at Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (2-4 SU, 2-3 ATS)

Live at Joe Aillet Stadium

Ruston, LA

Saturday, October 16 — 4 PM ET

TV:  MASN, ESPN Game Plan

Football Odds:

Idaho -1.5

Louisiana Tech +1.5

Key stats for Idaho — The Vandals are sixth in the nation in passing offense. Quarterback Nathan Enderle has thrown for 1411 yards and ten touchdowns, but he’s been intercepted nine times. There is a very limited running game coming out of this team.

Idaho is 101st in the country, averaging just over 100 yards a game. They’ve been able to get to the opposing quarterback; their 3.4 sacks per game ranks fourth in the nation. However, they have had a problem protecting Enderle; the offensive line has yielded 4.2 sacks per contest, which ranks them dead last in the country.

Key stats for Louisiana Tech — The Bulldogs rank 108th in passing efficiency and 106th in pass defense. Louisiana Tech had by far its best defensive game of the season last week as it hosted Utah State, allowing only 195 yards, which compared rather favorably, you might say, with the 647 yards they surrendered the week before at Hawaii.

The turnover margin is minus-5, which puts it outside the top 100. Louisiana Tech has had some growing pains adapting to a new spread offense, and ranks 99th overall in scoring, averaging 19.3 points.

Here are some of the football trends as they involve the odds on this game:

• Idaho has won four of its last six games SU
• Idaho has lost 19 of its last 23 road games SU
• Idaho has played seven of its last eight road games OVER the total
• Louisiana Tech has lost four of its last five games SU
• Louisiana Tech has won 12 of its last 16 home games SU
• Louisiana Tech has played four of its last six home games OVER the total

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The WAC is wacky enough, isn’t it? The conference stretches from Louisiana all the way to Hawaii, so needless to say, there are some teams making long trips, and one of those is from Pocatello, Idaho to Ruston, LA. This is what the Vandals do as they try to cover in the football odds as the favorite for this game. .

Nathan Enderle is one of the senior quarterbacks the NFL scouts like very much. Last year he threw for 2906 yards with 22 touchdowns, but he has always had a tendency to toss the interceptions.

If you look at his career statistics he has 62 TD’s while being picked off 53 times, and this year he’s already thrown nine (all of them in the red zone), although five of those took place against Nebraska, in a game the Vandals lost by three touchdowns.

Louisiana Tech, as mentioned, has that weak defense (allowing 435 yards a game) which has given them trouble against the football odds, but they looked like the Monsters of the Midway when they played Utah State, holding Diondre Borel and the USU offense to 122 yards rushing and just 73 through the air.

A case could be made (and I should have made it beforehand) that Utah State was coming in there flat, off a win over BYU, but the dynamic is not the same with Idaho, which has had a week off since their 33-13 win over Western Michigan.

The structure of Idaho’s offense makes it easier for Louisiana Tech to put pressure on the passer, and the fact that it is one-dimensional might mitigate the effect of Tech’s inability to stop teams. It looks like there is going to be some stability at last in the quarterback situation, with Ross Jenkins starting to impress people in Tony Franklin’s spread offense.

We’re going to move with the home underdog here, taking the short number with Louisiana Tech in the football odds for Saturday.

JAY’S PLAY:  LOUISIANA TECH +1.5 **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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