Arizona State had one of the best offenses to deal with last night. This week they’re going to be switching gears, against one of the worst offenses in college football is. The Roadrunners have been trying to figure it out by trial and error thus far. UTSA has gone with Dalton Sturm at quarterback, this being his second season in a starting role. Last season he threw for 13 touchdowns and 7 interceptions, with 361 yards rushing and a touchdown on the ground.
In college football today, your team better have one really good defense if that’s what you’re working with at the quarterback position. Strum has been adequate through the first two weeks of action, throwing for 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He has yet to play a decent defense, though. Also, he shouldn’t get much help from his defense in this contest.
The Roadrunners should struggle against the Arizona State ground game tonight. UTSA is ranked 94th in the country against the run, after allowing 220 yards to the Rams last week. Note that they’ve only played Alabama State and Colorado State and are 94th in the nation against the run. I expect that number to get even worse for UTSA following games against better team, starting today against Arizona State. The Sun Devils ran all over Texas Tech last week for 301 yards. Quarterback Manny Wilkins looked much better than the previous week, passing for 351 yards and 2 touchdowns. It was a nice confidence boost for Wilkins, who is in his first season as the starter in the Sun Devil offense.
The only way to compete with Arizona State is to have a high-powered offense with an adequate defense. An average defense would do it against them, but Texas Tech definitely didn’t fulfill that requirement a week ago. Nor do I see the UTSA defense slowing the running attack down this week. UTSA does not have the horses on offense to keep this a close game, like Texas Tech did. It’s a chalky evening for me on Friday night, but this looks like a winning selection.
Arizona st -20.5
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