NCAAF
(9/16/22) 7:30 PM Eastern.
Spread: Florida State -3 / Louisville +3
Moneyline: Florida State -155 / Louisville +125
Total: Over / Under 56.5
College Football week 3 opens up with ACC conference play Friday night. The Florida State Seminoles take on the Louisville Cardinals in their home opener. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30p.m. eastern time at Cardinal Stadium.
Florida State (2-0)
Mike Norvell is off to a strong start in his 3rd season at FSU. After blowing out Duquesne in the opener the Seminoles grabbed a win against the LSU Tigers by a score of 24-23. FSU actually blocked the game tying extra point with no time remaining. Jordan Travis had a solid day, completing 20 of 32 passes for 260 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Ontario Wilson snagged both TD passes to go along with his 102 yards receiving. They only ran for 132 yards on 38 carries though. Starting RB Treshaun Ward averaged just 3.1 yards per carry on 16 attempts.
The FSU defense came out and punched LSU in the mouth. The Tigers offense couldn’t get anything going in the first half. They opened up with a FG drive after FSU bombed the opening kickoff out of bounds but was quiet after that. Despite losing most of it’s production to the NFL draft a season ago, their D-Line dominated the line of scrimmage. LSU did settle in and found some late magic, ultimately coming an XP away from tying the game with time expiring. The big concern for the FSU defense is containing the QB. Jayden Daniels ran for 114 yards on 16 attempts and the mobile QB has been a thorn in the FSU defense’s side for a couple years now. They did keep the LSU running backs in check, they combined for just 39 yards.
Louisville (1-1)
Scott Satterfield’s bunch is coming off an impressive road win over UCF. Malik Cunningham had an inefficient day as a passer but ran wild against the UCF defense. He had 17 carries for 121 yards and 1 touchdown. They racked up 421 yards of total offense, 226 came on the ground. 7 different Cardinal players caught passes, led by Tyler Hudson’s 67 yards. He was also their leading WR in week 1 against Syracuse, he had 8 receptions and 102 yards in that game. Tennessee transfer RB Tiyon Evans is off to a good start, averaging 5.1 YPC through 2 games.
It was the Louisville defense that was most impressive in the 20-14 win. After surrendering a pair of touchdown drives in the first half, they put the clamps on the Knights in the 2nd. They held UCF to just 22 yards in the 3rd quarter, which allowed the Cards offense to put up 10 points and take a 17- 14 lead, then held the Knights to 77 yards in the 4th while securing the game sealing turnover on downs with 1:26 to go. They had 4 sacks and held UCF to just 4/16 on 3rd downs.
AIR FORCE vs WYOMING
(8:00PM Eastern)
The Pick
Take the OVER 56.5 tonight. There two programs have a history and that history spells Over. The Over Is 6-2 their L8 meetings and 4-0 their L4 meetings at Louisville. Mike Norvell’s defensive coordinator Adam Fuller has had a hard time containing Malik Cunningham and every mobile QB since he came in as DC in 2020. Cunningham has combined for 638 yards and 6 touchdowns in their first two meetings, leading Louisville to 79 total points. Tiyon Evans is also the best RB Cunningham’s had to play with the past few years, someone FSU hasn’t seen yet. This is also Louisville’s home opener tonight, when they met at Louisville in 2020, Cunningham and co. scored 48 points. Not like Louisville’s defense will be able to stop FSU either. FSU QB Jordan Travis had no issue moving the ball against an LSU defense littered with future NFL talent. It’ll be much easier to move the ball against a Cardinals defense that let Syracuse throw up 31 on them. Louisville’s defense has let up over 200 yards rushing in each of their first 2 games and this FSU offense ranks 11th in the nation with 269 rushing yards a game. On top of the head-to-head trends mentioned earlier, the Over’s 11-5 the Cardinals L16 home games, 10-3 following an ATS Win, and 10-2 following an outright win. Chunk plays and plenty of fireworks in this game tonight.
