Fab Frosh Fournette Could Be Difference-Maker for LSU Against Wisconsin
by Charles Jay
The LSU Tigers have to replace their quarterback this season, but will be moving ahead with one of the most highly-touted freshman running backs in the country. The Wisconsin Badgers’ stock-in-trade involves running the football, and they have had a shift in quarterbacks as well, although in their case they have unseated the incumbent. These nationally-ranked teams will tangle in Saturday night college football betting action that is slated to begin at 9 PM ET at NRG Stadium in Houston.
LSU was 10-3 straight-up last season (though just 6-7 ATS), losing two of those games by just a field goal, and they went to the Outback Bowl, where they defeated Big Ten representative Iowa. Wisconsin was 9-4, both straight-up and against the college football pointspread, and lost to South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl.
This game marks the debut for Leonard Fournette, who was generally considered to be the best high school recruit in the country and landed in the lap of Les Miles. he is expected to make a difference, although the Bayou Bengalis have a lot of other talent they can turn to.
In the football betting odds on this game as they are currently posted at VietBet, LSU is the favorite at this neutral site:
LSU Tigers -5
Wisconsin Badgers +5
Over 49.5 Points -110
Under 49.5 Points -110
It stands to reason that with Zach Mettenberger having departed to the NFL, the Tigers are going to be relying on the run game a lot more. And that is going to put a lot of pressure on Fournette, who comes out of New Orleans with that “can’t miss” tag. He should be durable enough at 6’1″ and 225 pounds, and is being pushed by some as a future Heisman Trophy winner. Well, even by himself. “I plan on winning the Heisman my freshman year and hopefully a BCS national championship,” he has said.
Certainly Miles doesn’t want him looking ahead to all of that, but the fact remains that unless Kenny Hilliard and Terrence Magee are able to shoulder some of the burden, the Baton Rouge faithful, not to mention VietBet customers who are looking the Tigers’ way in football betting, will be looking squarely at him for answers in the ground game.
It would seem that losing receivers like Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry would be highly detrimental to this LSU side, but there is a plethora of talent at that position, which is why they’re not all that worried. But who will be throwing the ball to them? Miles has been coy, for the most part, when it comes to naming a quarterback, and often those kinds of situations don’t turn out too well. Ultimately, Anthony Jennings has gotten the starting assignment for this season opener, beating out Brandon Harris, who is a sophomore. Jennings started the Outback Bowl last season.
Wisconsin (+250 to win the Big Ten according to the football betting odds at VietBet) has a new quarterback as well, and it’s Tanner McEvoy, a junior college transfer who had also redshirted at South Carolina, and played safety and wide receiver for the Badgers last season. He beat out Joel Stave, who is now a senior. There are only nine starters coming back, but thankfully, four of them are on the offensive line, so there could be some holes for a pair of very talented running backs to move through.
Melvin Gordon is one of the top backs in the country and also a Heisman candidate. He ran for 1609 yards last season, and he will team with Corey Clement, who averaged over eight yards a carry in 2013. The result of this game may boil down to what Wisconsin will be able to put together on defense, where they have only three starters returning to campus this year.
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