Alabama vs. UL-Lafayette Spread Pick
The Alabama Crimson Tide are massive favorites over the UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns today at Noon ET. While the Tide will certainly roll to victory, will Alabama cover as nearly a 50-point favorite?
Game Snapshot
173 UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns vs. 174 Alabama Crimson Tide
12:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, September 29, 2018
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Crimson Tide are 49-point favorites to beat the Ragin Cajuns. The total, meanwhile, sits at 68.5 points. As of this writing, 51% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Cowboys.
UL-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns
Louisiana-Lafayette redshirt sophomore RB Trey Ragas carried the ball 15 times for 103 yards and a score in a 30-28 loss to Coastal Carolina on Saturday. Ragas did his best to keep the Ragin Cajuns in this one, but the defense couldn’t stop the ground game of the Chanticleers (311 yards rushing for Coastal) and they couldn’t complete enough passes to keep the defense honest. The good news for fans of the Ragin’ Cajuns is that Ragas looks the part, and has backed up his strong redshirt freshman campaign with a strong start to the year. Unfortunately, he probably won’t find many rushing lanes against Alabama next Saturday.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama redshirt junior T Matt Womack has returned to practicing. Womack underwent surgery after breaking a bone in his foot in August, and it was the same foot that caused the 6-foot-7, 324-pound tackle to miss spring practices. As good as Alabama has been, the line has been the one area where there has been questions. Womack isn’t guaranteed to start when he comes back, but at the very least, he should provide quality depth at the bookends.
Betting Trends
UL Lafayette
The Ragin’ Cajuns are 1-4 against the spread in their last five road games and are winless at the betting window in their last four games versus an opponent with a winning record.
Alabama
The Crimson Tide are 1-5 against the spread in their last six meetings with Sun Belt opponents but are 5-1 against the number in their last six games played in the month of September.
Prediction
Today marks a four-week stretch in which Nick Saban and his staff will start developing depth and building their running game. Billy Napier, the head coach at UL-Lafayette, is a former Saban assistant and certainly, the ‘Bama coach doesn’t want to embarrass one of his former pupils. That said, the talent difference between these two teams is too great for that not to happen. It’s unlikely Louisiana gets into double-digits in points and if Alabama is hanging 50 on most opponents, I’ll roll the dice that they can cover the 49.
College Football Prediction: Alabama Crimson Tide -49