{"id":24977,"date":"2012-09-14T13:45:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T18:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=24977"},"modified":"2012-09-14T11:47:59","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T16:47:59","slug":"college-football-week-3-picks-byu-cougars-vs-utah-utes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-football-week-3-picks-byu-cougars-vs-utah-utes-24977\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Week 3 Picks: BYU Cougars vs. Utah Utes"},"content":{"rendered":"

BYU Cougars at Utah Utes
\nSaturday, 9\/15\/12, 10:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 BYU -4
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 BYU -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 46.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 46.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The BYU Cougars have gone 10-1 in their last 11 games against the Utah Utes when starting a senior at quarterback<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BYU and Utah are set for the 88th meeting in the Deseret First Duel rivalry game, with Saturday\u2019s visitor winning 20 of the last 34 meetings.\u00a0 The Cougars are a confident team after earning victories in their first two games, as the coaching staff started to look ahead to this matchup in last week\u2019s 45-13 victory over Weber State as 38.5-point home favorites.\u00a0 \u201cYou think a little bit about what you have to do the next week,\u201d stated Cougars head coach Bronco Mendenhall.\u00a0 BYU has gone 2-6 ATS in the last eight games in this series.<\/p>\n

The Cougars have won 10 of their last 11 games against the Utes when having a senior under center, winning those games by an average margin of 19 points.\u00a0 Quarterback Riley Nelson has thrown at least one touchdown in 10 consecutive games, while the offense ranks 17th nationally in converting 53.1 percent of its third downs.\u00a0 BYU came into the season with a goal of being balanced, which is going in the right direction after two contests, averaging 305 yards passing and 184 yards rushing.\u00a0 Since Mendenhall took over the defensive coordinator duties again, the stop unit ranks second nationally in allowing just 93.5 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

Utah leads the series 55-34-4, as this is the second-longest rivalry in school history.\u00a0 The Utes have won four of the last five meetings in Salt Lake City, while they also look to improve upon their 8-6 record in Homecoming games inside Rice-Eccles Stadium, which opened in 1998. \u00a0 The program looks to bounce back from a 27-20 overtime loss to the Utah State Aggies, which ultimately also served as quarterback Jordan Wynn\u2019s final game.\u00a0 He is retiring after a shoulder injury, as he\u2019s undergone three surgeries since 2010.\u00a0 Utah is 0-2 ATS as a home underdog the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Utes will now be led offensively by senior Jon Hays and Travis Wilson under center, but they will want to get the ball in the hands of running back John White, as they\u2019ve gone 9-0 when he rushes for 100 or more yards dating back to last year.\u00a0 He ranks fourth in the Pac-12 Conference and 29th nationally in averaging 107.5 yards per game.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Cougars due to their 8-1 ATS mark in their last nine games, while the Utes are 2-7 ATS at home.<\/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":"

BYU Cougars at Utah Utes Saturday, 9\/15\/12, 10:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 BYU -4 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 BYU -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 46.5 Current Total:\u00a0 46.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker BYU and Utah are set for the 88th meeting in the Deseret First Duel rivalry game, with Saturday\u2019s visitor winning 20 of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":23933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[434,6996,6999,6998,5263,6997,5572,405],"class_list":["post-24977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-byu-cougars","tag-deseret-first-duel","tag-john-white","tag-jon-hays","tag-pac-12-conference","tag-rice-eccles-stadium","tag-riley-nelson","tag-utah-utes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24977","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=24977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24979,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24977\/revisions\/24979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}