College Football Saturday [B]163 Purdue +11.5[/B]
It's time to step to the plate with this game, as I believe the line is about as high as it should go. We ALWAYS want the best number. It's not going to happen all the time. We can beat the closing number, but you still need to handicap both sides of a football match and you still need to be on the right side.
Notre Dame has new HC Brian Kelly from Cincinnati and I can't think of a better hire for the Irish. The returning starters and coaches are believing that their recruiting class has the talent to turn the corner and produce superior results to that of the previous Weis years. The offense must start with no experience under center and QB sophomore Dayne Crist. The defense returns 9, but this may not be a good thing as they gave up 400 yards per game and 4.8 ypc.
Purdue brings to the table new QB Robert Marve who you may recall was at Miami FL, he is a dual threat to score with speed and a strong arm. They have 3 potent WRs that will produce much of the Boilermaker spread offense, AND I see the defense holding opponents to low numbers this season. They return 6 on D, all 6 are in the front 7. The secondary has lost all it's starters but are returning injured players that have experience as in FS Albert Evans.
The line on this game is high IMO. I thought they would hang 8, 8.5 and we'd come in at double digits. If you are playing ND at this price you pretty much need them to be ahead by 20+ points in the 4th Q and that would be a very risky bet. Purdue has the tools to put 3 TDs+ on the board and 2nd yr HC Hope has an underrated squad. This game is key for Purdue to go for an all out win, as their next 3 games are at home vs much weaker competition.
