{"id":17410,"date":"2011-09-02T13:01:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T18:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17410"},"modified":"2011-09-02T13:01:24","modified_gmt":"2011-09-02T18:01:24","slug":"college-football-week-1-preview-northwestern-wildcats-at-boston-college-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-football-week-1-preview-northwestern-wildcats-at-boston-college-eagles-17410\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Week 1 Preview: Northwestern Wildcats at Boston College Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northwestern Wildcats at Boston College Eagles
\nSaturday, 9\/3\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0ESPNU
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston College -3.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston College -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 46.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 45
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Boston College is 32-8 at Alumni Stadium since joining the ACC in 2005<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Northwestern will be searching for its fifth consecutive win to start a season under current head coach Pat Fitzgerald, while the program as a whole has come away with wins in 12 of 16 openers.\u00a0 The Wildcats have enjoyed great success away from home in recent years, including an 11-5 record since the 2008 campaign.\u00a0 The team has also proven victorious in eight of its last nine regular-season contests against non-conference competition.\u00a0 Northwestern is 5-6 ATS on the road and 10-15 ATS overall the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats bring back a wealth of experience, as 31 offensive and defensive players have combined to start 378 games.\u00a0 Northwestern brings back 82.6 percent of its rushing yards, 100 percent of its passing yards and 83 percent of its receiving yardage.\u00a0 Most of the concern heading into the season is once again the health of starting quarterback Dan Persa, as he\u2019s less than nine months removed from surgery to repair his ruptured right Achilles\u2019 tendon.\u00a0 Backup Kain Colter will need to be at the ready.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re just preparing for whichever situation presents itself,\u201d said fourth-year tackle Al Netter.\u00a0 Persa completed a school record 73.5 percent of his passes and threw for 2,581 yards last year.<\/p>\n

Boston College leads the all-time series, 2-1, with the last meeting coming in 1993.\u00a0 The Eagles dropped that contest by the score of 22-21 on the road despite out-gaining the Wildcats by a 355-285 margin.\u00a0 The team brings back an experienced group, as 100 percent of its passing yards, 93 percent of its rushing yards and 87 percent of its receiving yards return.\u00a0 The program has compiled a losing 11-29 record in 40 games against Big Ten opponents.\u00a0 Boston College is 6-6 ATS as a favorite over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

The Eagles have tallied a 64-31 record at Alumni Stadium since the 1995 season, including a 12-4 mark in home openers.\u00a0 Since joining the ACC in 2005, Boston College is a remarkable 32-8 at the venue.\u00a0 Offensively, the team has an absolute star in running back Montel Harris, who was named the ACC Conference Preseason Player of the Year.\u00a0 He enters with 3,600 career rushing yards, which is the most for any conference player after his junior campaign.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, linebacker Luke Kuechly is back after an All-ACC first-team campaign.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Wildcats due to their 10-2 ATS mark as a road underdog, while the Eagles are 0-5 ATS in their last five games as a home favorite.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning football season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northwestern Wildcats at Boston College Eagles Saturday, 9\/3\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0ESPNU Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston College -3.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston College -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 46.5 Current Total:\u00a0 45 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Northwestern will be searching for its fifth consecutive win to start a season under current head coach Pat Fitzgerald, while the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":16558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[387,5392,737,3110,3445,4336,5393,3119],"class_list":["post-17410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-acc","tag-alumni-stadium","tag-big-ten","tag-boston-college-eagles","tag-dan-persa","tag-luke-kuechly","tag-montel-harris","tag-northwestern-wildcats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410","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=17410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17411,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410\/revisions\/17411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}