Kentucky vs. South Carolina Spread Pick
Following upset victories over Florida and Mississippi State the past two weeks, the Kentucky Wildcats again find themselves as an underdog Saturday night. Will the Wildcats pull off a small upset when they host the South Carolina Gamecocks at 7:30 p.m. ET?
Game Snapshot
141 South Carolina Gamecocks at 142 Kentucky Wildcats
7:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, September 29, 2018
Kroger Field, Lexington, Kentucky
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Gamecocks are 1.5-point favorites to beat the Wildcats. The total, meanwhile, sits at 51.5 points. As of this writing, 64% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Wildcats.
South Carolina Gamecocks
South Carolina junior QB Jake Bentley completed 19-of-28 passes for 261 yards with a touchdown and interception on Saturday in a 37-14 victory over Vanderbilt. He also added 45 yards on the ground on nine attempts. Bentley got the scoring going with a pretty 38-yard throw to Shi Smith, his first and only throwing score of the game. The 6-foot-4, 224-pound signal-caller missed on a couple of throws and threw a pick, but it was a much better effort than the one we saw against Georgia. Of course, it was against a much, much worse defense than Georgia’s too. Still, a solid — if not spectacular — effort from Bentley. He will hope to build on this when the Gamecocks take on Kentucky next Saturday.
Kentucky Wildcats
Draft Analyst’s Tony Pauline lists Kentucky junior RB Benny Snell as one of the players who improved his stock after his performance against Mississippi State on Saturday. Snell was a mad man and ran like it in the victory, picking up four rushing touchdowns and 165 yards in the 28-7 victory over the Bulldogs. Pauline came away impressed in large part to what he was able to do against a defense that boasts several NFL prospects. “…Snell is a complete ball carrier who combines power, vision and terrific short-area quickness to constantly pick up big yardage,” Pauline writes. “Snell overruns defenders with power, runs around them with quickness or runs away from them with speed.” The 5-foot-11, 223-pound tailback has entered Heisman talk, and Pauline currently views him as a potential top 60 selection in 2019.
Betting Trends
South Carolina
The Gamecocks are 5-0-1 against the spread in their last six road games and 5-1-2 against the number in their last eight conference games.
Kentucky
The Wildcats are just 7-20 against the spread in their last 27 home games and are 4-9 against the number in their last 13 games overall.
Prediction
This game comes down to whether you believe in Kentucky. If you think they’re the same old Wildcats, then lay the small number on South Carolina. I for one, believe that this Wildcats team is for real. They have physically dominated Florida and Mississippi State and after opening as an underdog again, I expect the Wildcats to play with an edge again tonight. The Gamecocks are 0-5 against the spread in their last five games versus the Wildcats.
College Football Prediction: Kentucky Wildcats +1.5