{"id":17336,"date":"2011-08-31T11:30:21","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T16:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17336"},"modified":"2011-08-31T11:30:21","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T16:30:21","slug":"akron-zips-at-ohio-state-buckeyes-2011-college-football-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/akron-zips-at-ohio-state-buckeyes-2011-college-football-picks-17336\/","title":{"rendered":"Akron Zips at Ohio State Buckeyes 2011 College Football Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Akron Zips at No. 18 Ohio State Buckeyes
\nSaturday, 9\/3\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Ohio State -31.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Ohio State -34
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 48
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 47.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ohio State opens up the 2011 college football season as a heavy home favorite against Akron<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Akron is ready to take on an AP Top 25 team for the first time since the 2009 campaign, when it dropped a 31-7 season-opening contest to the Penn State Nittany Lions.\u00a0 The Zips have tallied a dismal 1-21 all-time mark against ranked foes since joining Division I-A before the 1987 campaign.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a busy offseason that included a rather quick quarterback change in naming sophomore Clayton Moore the starter over veteran Patrick Nealy, who guided the team the previous two years.\u00a0 \u201cWe had a great competition during training camp at many positions, and especially the quarterback position,\u201d commented head coach Rob Ianello.\u00a0 Akron is 7-12 ATS as an underdog the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Zips dropped a 20-2 decision to the Buckeyes in the last meeting, covering a 27-point spread as a road underdog.\u00a0 Akron will be looking to snap a string of three consecutive losses in season openers, which includes a 29-3 home setback to the Syracuse Orange a year ago.\u00a0 Life on the road hasn\u2019t been easy for the program, picking up its last victory on Oct. 18, 2008, which is a stretch of 14 consecutive games.\u00a0 One thing going for them in this matchup is the coaching staff has a combined 58 games of experience facing the Buckeyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ohio State begins life without former head coach Jim Tressel and quarterback Terrelle Pryor, but will likely have an easy time of it against Akron.\u00a0 The Buckeyes are 19-0-1 in their last 20 games when a new coach debuts on the sidelines.\u00a0 Former defensive linemen for the program, Luke Fickell, gets thrown in the fire and fans in Columbus will be watching closely.\u00a0 \u201cI think everybody has been ready to get back to football for a long time,\u201d said Buckeyes center Mike Brewster.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not about the past and all of that.\u201d\u00a0 Ohio State returns seven starters on offense and four on defense, posting a 13-2 ATS record at Ohio Stadium the last two years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Buckeyes offense will be led by 26-year-old senior Joe Bauserman, who certainly doesn\u2019t lack experience in playing in 24 games in his career.\u00a0 He has completed 53.2 percent of his passes with two touchdowns and an interception over that span.\u00a0 Ohio State hasn\u2019t lost an opener since suffering a 23-12 loss to the Miami Hurricanes in the 1999 Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium.\u00a0 Defensively, the school always has a proud tradition, ranking first or second in scoring defense within the Big Ten Conference each of the last six years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Buckeyes due to their 20-5 ATS mark in their last 25 games, while the Zips are 10-14 ATS over the same time period.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports will be firing away all season long and there\u2019s no better time than now to grab a package.\u00a0 Stop sitting on the sidelines and get in the game!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Akron Zips at No. 18 Ohio State Buckeyes Saturday, 9\/3\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Ohio State -31.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Ohio State -34 Opening Total:\u00a0 48 Current Total:\u00a0 47.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Akron is ready to take on an AP Top 25 team for the first time since the 2009 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":16550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3894,737,5368,209,5370,5369,3853,463,5367],"class_list":["post-17336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-akron-zips","tag-big-ten","tag-clayton-moore","tag-jim-tressel","tag-joe-bauserman","tag-luke-fickell","tag-ohio-stadium","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-rob-ianello"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17337,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17336\/revisions\/17337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}