USC vs. Colorado Spread Prediction
The USC Trojans are laying a full touchdown at home on Saturday night to the undefeated Colorado Buffaloes. Is there value in the road dog or is this a statement game for a young USC team that continues to improve?
Game Snapshot
155 Colorado Buffaloes at 156 USC Trojans
10:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, October 13, 2018
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Trojans are 7-point favorites to beat the Buffaloes. The total, meanwhile, sits at 57 points. As of this writing, 67% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Buffaloes.
Colorado Buffaloes
Colorado redshirt junior QB Steven Montez completed 24-of-33 passes for 328 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s 28-21 win over Arizona State. Montez (6’5/235) and stud wide receiver Laviska Shenault have been rolling all year long, and today was no different. The redshirt junior dropped an absolute dime to Shenault for a 30 yard touchdown to tie the game 21-21 in the third quarter, and then led the team on an 80 yard touchdown drive to take the 28-21 lead. Montez probably isn’t getting all the credit he deserves because Shenault is absorbing a lot of the media’s attention, but Montez owns a clean 11/2 TD/INT ratio while averaging over nine yards per pass attempt on the season. Colorado (5-0) travels to USC next week for a matchup that could decide who wins the Pac-12 South this season.
USC Trojans
USC freshman QB J.T. Daniels completed 16-of-24 passes for 197 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions in Saturday’s 24-20 victory at Arizona. The good news is that Daniels was able to lead his team to a road victory and his completion percentage was the best (66.7 percent) of the season and he didn’t toss an interception for the second straight outing. He did lose a fumble, however. The bad news is that he did nothing of note statistically and leaned heavily upon the run game, with Aca’Cedric Ware leading the way. He’ll likely need to revisit the end zone next week if the Trojans are going to push aside unbeaten Colorado.
Betting Trends
Colorado
The Buffaloes are 4-1 against the spread in their last five games overall.
Southern Cal
The Trojans are 0-4 against the number in their last four home games.
Prediction
I’m not going to overthink this one. Plenty of national pundits have been waiting for Colorado’s bubble to be burst and chances are, the Buffs will fall this weekend in Southern Cal. That said, this is way too many points to hand an undefeated team in a conference game. Sure, if USC finds a way to slow down Laviska Shenault Jr. then Colorado has nothing else. But which team has figured out how to slow down Shenault to this point? Speaking of points, give them to me here.
College Football Prediction: Colorado Buffaloes +7