{"id":20563,"date":"2011-12-26T14:47:05","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T19:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20563"},"modified":"2011-12-26T14:47:05","modified_gmt":"2011-12-26T19:47:05","slug":"belk-bowl-predictions-louisville-cardinals-vs-nc-state-wolfpack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/belk-bowl-predictions-louisville-cardinals-vs-nc-state-wolfpack-20563\/","title":{"rendered":"Belk Bowl Predictions: Louisville Cardinals vs. NC State Wolfpack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louisville Cardinals vs. NC State Wolfpack
\nTuesday, 12\/27\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 NC State -1.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 NC State -1
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 45.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 44.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The NC State Wolfpack are 1-7 ATS in their last eight games as a favorite of a field goal or less<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Louisville tied with West Virginia and Cincinnati for a share of the Big East title with a 5-2 league record, but lost out on a higher bowl bid due to possessing a lower BCS ranking.\u00a0 Cardinals second-year head coach Charlie Strong has the program moving in the right direction and hopes freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater can continue his solid play.\u00a0 \u201cHe plays with so much poise and he\u2019s a guy that can get us out of bad play,\u201d commented Strong last week.\u00a0 Offensively, the team has a credible running back tandem in Dominique Brown and Victory Anderson, combining for 960 yards and seven touchdowns.\u00a0 Louisville is 8-4 ATS this season.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals captured a 31-28 win over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles last year in the Beef \u2018O\u2019 Brady\u2019s Bowl.\u00a0 Louisville came into this season as one of the youngest teams in major college football, starting a combined 10 freshmen on offense and defense.\u00a0 Defense is certainly the name of the game under Strong, as the unit ranked second among conference teams and 23rd nationally in allowing just 327.8 yards per game.\u00a0 Louisville is 7-7-1 all-time in postseason play and 18-36-1 against members of the ACC.<\/p>\n

NC State won five of its final seven games to qualify for the Belk Bowl, as the defense tightened up in surrendering just 291.7 yards per game in its final six contests.\u00a0 The Wolfpack posted their largest comeback in school history last time out, posting a 56-41 victory over the Maryland Terrapins as 11.5-point home favorites, overcoming a 27-point deficit.\u00a0 \u201cIt speaks to the character of the kids,\u201d commented Wolfpack head coach Tom O\u2019Brien.\u00a0 NC State is 12-7 ATS as an underdog over the last two-plus campaigns.<\/p>\n

The Wolfpack will go as far as quarterback Mike Glennon will take them in this matchup, finishing the regular season with 2,790 yards and 28 touchdowns.\u00a0 He did a great job in playing the position with Russell Wilson transferring to Wisconsin.\u00a0 NC State has been outscored by a 174-139 margin in the first half, but has outscored its opponent 197-123 in the second.\u00a0 On the defensive end, David Amerson must be watched in the secondary, leading the nation with 11 interceptions.\u00a0 The Wolfpack led all teams with 24 interceptions this season, setting a school record.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Cardinals due to their 12-1 ATS mark versus ACC foes, while the Wolfpack are 1-7 ATS in their last eight games as a favorite of a field goal or less.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning 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":"

Louisville Cardinals vs. NC State Wolfpack Tuesday, 12\/27\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 NC State -1.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 NC State -1 Opening Total:\u00a0 45.5 Current Total:\u00a0 44.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Louisville tied with West Virginia and Cincinnati for a share of the Big East title with a 5-2 league record, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":16537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[387,6239,2497,556,5460,4550,6238],"class_list":["post-20563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-acc","tag-belk-bowl","tag-big-east-conference","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-mike-glennon","tag-nc-state-wolfpack","tag-teddy-bridgewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20563","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=20563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20564,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20563\/revisions\/20564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}