At 4-1 the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are in the midst of a fine season so far and bettors are well aware of this. Anytime a team can play two top flight schools and grab easy point spread covers, and the public will not soon forget this fact. If you recall the opening weekend of the 2006 college football season, the Chan Gailey led group gave the overrated Irish of Notre Dame all they could handle, in a hard fought 14-10 loss.
Since they have had a nondescript victory over Samford, wins over Troy and a lousy Virginia team and then last week a stunning domination on the road at Blacksburg, Virginia against the Hokies of Virginia Tech. This weekend America's favorite online sportsbook, www.sportsbook.com, has the Atlanta based school listed as a 13.5 favorite over the visiting Maryland Terrapins, with the over/under total in the 40.5-41 range.
Off the two nationally televised appearances the perception in America is that Georgia Tech and their talented duo of receiver Calvin Johnson and quarterback Reggie Ball cannot be stopped by the beneath the radar Terrapins, but I'm not so sure about that. Maybe I should rephrase that and suggest that they will not completely stop them, but they could control them, by forcing them to work their way down the field rather them give up the long ball.
Georgia Tech was pumped last weekend as they were looking to avenge the previous season's debacle at the hands of the Hokies. They blocked a punt, returned an interception for a touchdown, and played almost flawless ball. You can be sure that the student body put the players on a pedestal this past week and there were one or two parties, thrown for the players.
Next week GT travels to Clemson, SC for a huge battle with the talented Tigers. Maryland has played on the road in a hostile environment this year, when they played West Virginia at Morgantown. Their coach Ralph 'the Fridge' Freigen was an outstanding offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech before taking the job at Maryland.
Any time you are considering taking a dog on the road against a solid team in a conference game you had better have an experienced quarterback. The top quarterback for the club is Sam Hollenbach (5th year senior) and he has completed 58.1 percent of his passes for 661 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions.
Maryland has a superb running back duo in Lance Ball and Keon Lattimore. They form a tremendous backfield duo. Ball has racked up 276 yards and five touchdowns, while Lattimore has contributed 255 yards and one score while averaging 5.2 ypc. Racking up first downs keeps Johnson on the bench and that is a very good thing.
When you're scanning the line changes at SportingbetUSA consider the visitors as a live play!
Bob Acton
Author: Bob Acton
Author Bio:
Bob Acton is an experienced sports writer and handicapper, who has written for the sports industry for over 10 years. His years of writing for Sports Scene, sports consulting on 33 Made for Television and Major Motion Pictures and his work as an instructor at Pro Teach Baseball Academy, have made Bob a trusted and respected source in the sports world.
