Central Michigan is not used to getting teams from the “Big 5” conferences to visit Kelly/Shorts Stadium, but they will get that rare opportunity Saturday as Syracuse visits Mount Pleasant. The Orange are coming off a bye week, which they needed to regroup after skating by with a 27-26 win over FCS-school Villanova in the opening weekend of the season. The Orange were really outplayed in that game and Nova actually outgained them and had 25 first downs to Syracuse’s 21. That game was also marred by an ejection of Syracuse QB Terrel Hunt, who threw a punch late in the first half of that game. CMU has opened the season 2-0 on the season, highlighted with last week’s 38-17 win at Purdue. The Chipps featured their new running back Thomas Rawls, who transferred from Michigan, who rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns. The CMU offense is led by QB Cooper Rush, who has started the season with solid numbers and they have the look of a team that is returning 11 offensive starters from last year. Syracuse had tons of problems getting their defense off the field against Villanova and this CMU team is a major step up in class for the Orange. There are some pretty solid trends that back the home dog in this spot and the majority of our computer models actually have CMU winning this game outright. That said, we will gladly take the Chipps at home getting 6.5. The Sharps say…
3 UNITS – CENTRAL MICHIGAN (+6.5)