Saturday College football and we will see the LSU Tigers take on the Wisconsin Badgers at NGR Stadium in Houston, Texas. The game has a start time of 9:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas odds have LSU listed as 5 point favorites, while the total is set at 50.5.
Analysis: The Wisconsin Badgers went 9-4 last year, but their season did end on a sour note with losses to Penn State and South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl. Joel Stave returns this year, but is giving way to dual threat QB Tanner McEvoy, who is just the kind of QB that HC Gary Andersen prefers. McEvoy would compliment an already strong running game that returns Melvin Gordon, who ran for 1609 yards and 12 TDs last year, along with highly touted Corey Clement, who had 547 yards and 7 TDs last year. The badgers always boast a strong OL and this year is no different as they have 74 career starts returning to a line that is rated 3rd best in the nation by Phil Steele. The defense took major hits as they return just 3 starters on this side of the ball. All three starters back are in the secondary and that clearly makes them the strength of this defense. Despite having 7 new starters in the front 7, 3 of them are seniors and 2 are juniors so there is some experience there.
The LSU Tigers went a solid 10-2 last year and capped their season off with a 21-14 Outback Bowl win over Iowa. Some rebuilding has to be done this year as they lost allot from last year and are ranked 119th in the nation in terms of experience this year. The Tigers had a very good offense last year as they averaged a healthy 35.8 ppg. This year it will be very difficult as they return just 18% of their yards from last year. The New QB looks to be Brandon Harris, who is a sophomore and was rated 7th best QB when he came out of HS. The WR corps is talented but young, with 2 starters being freshmen and one being a sophomore. The running game will also call on a freshman in Leonard Fournette, who was the #1 back coming out of HS last year. The strength of this offense is an OL that returns 4 starters. The defense looks to be very solid this year and it will have to until the offense comes around. The secondary is the clear strength of this defense, with 3 starters back, including Jalen Mills, who had 3 sacks and 3 INTs last year. The DL and LB corps are solid but not spectacular.
Pick: This is my kind of game as it shapes up as a real defensive battle. The Badgers do have some solid returning starters on offense, but still this is a power running team and that type of team will take time off the clock. Their top RB returns from last year, but they also lost a 1400 yard back and their top 4 WR's from last year. The Badgers have also switched QB's, going with Tanner McEvoy, who was a DB last year for the team, over Joel Stave. The weakness for the Badgers will be on their defense, but still they have recruited well on this side of the ball and will be taking on an LSU squad that is missing a whopping 82% of their yardage from last year. This looks to be an LSU offense that will struggle in the early going. Well then it is a good thing that this team has one of the best defenses in the nation to carry them through, at least until this offense catches up. Huge game for both teams and getting two rather conservative coaches helps as well. I look for this one to be played at around 40 points at best.
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