No sooner had we been touting Drake Maye as the next big thing in college football quarterbacking than he came up with his season low in passing yards in a game where his North Carolina team appeared to lay down after an impressive start.
What should BetOnline customers expect from Maye and the Tar Heels this week? And what about the Arizona Wildcats, who want to extract some payback after being violently bludgeoned by the ASU Sun Devils the last two seasons?
We’re looking at those games here with Football sports betting odds.
North Carolina State Wolfpack at North Carolina Tar Heels
NCAA Football Odds: North Carolina -6.5
Total: 56 Points
Strangely, North Carolina got off to a 17-0 lead over Georgia Tech and stopped playing. It was kind of mystifying in the sense that this was against a team in transition and one that was shuffling quarterbacks in and out. The juxtaposition is interesting in that the Tar Heels have one of the very best signal-callers in the nation in freshman Drake Maye, who’s thrown 34 touchdown passes against just four interceptions and chips in with 597 rushing yards on top of that.
He is being considered a possible #1 NFL draft choice down the road. But in the process of this loss to the Yellow Jackets, Maye, whose brother Luke was a member of a national championship basketball team at UNC, probably hurt his darkhorse Heisman chances, and North Carolina dropped from its #13 national ranking.
One of the interesting things about Mack Brown’s team is that they have not very often put a lot of distance between themselves and opponents, winning five games by three points or fewer. The Wolfpack won last year’s meeting 34-30 but as a 5.5-point favorite. Also, North Carolina has covered three straight meetings in this series. That tells us, albeit in a small way, that the focus isn’t likely to be missing.
And unless NC State has shuffled its own quarterbacks around and comes up with a solution quickly, you can make that four straight covers. We don’t see North Carolina going to sleep in this one.
The Play: NORTH CAROLINA -6.5
Arkansas Razorbacks at Missouri Tigers
NCAA Football Odds at BetOnline: Arkansas -3
Total: 55.5 Points
The Arkansas quarterback is KJ Jefferson, who’s put together some nice numbers, with a 20-3 ratio of touchdowns, interceptions, and 472 rushing yards. He’s complemented nicely by setback Raheem Sanders 1379 yards rushing, and big-play receivers like Ketron Jackson and Matt Landers.
Missouri can certainly play some defense, and they are possibly the best SEC stop unit behind Georgia and Alabama. That’s nice to have in your favor if you’re a home dog. The problem is that the Tigers lack punch on offense, which could be somewhat inviting, or the Arkansas defensive coordinator, Barry Odom, was dismissed by misery before taking this gig.
The play: ARKANSAS -3
Arizona State Sun Devils at Arizona Wildcats
College Football Lines: Arizona -4
Total: 65 Points
ASU has been through a tumultuous season with the unceremonious removal of Herm Edwards. They can wash a lot of this away with a win in the battle for the Territorial Cup. They haven’t done too badly in this series of late, having won six straight.
With Jedd Fisch in place, there’s a little more stability at the top on the Arizona side. And gee, maybe a revenge motive on the part of the Wildcats? They’ve been outscored 108-22 in the last two meetings. That includes a 70-7 slaughter in 2020 that featured seven Arizona turnovers.
One thing you can figure out is a noticeable edge at quarterback for ‘Zona. Jayden DeLaura, the transfer from Washington State, is fifth in the nation in passing yards.
The Play: ARIZONA -4
If you check out BetOnline, you will find that you can not only place wagers while the game is in progress (by clicking the “Live Betting” link), but you can also open your account in several different ways, using every form of cryptocurrency imaginable. So there’s no excuse for not getting on board right away!
