{"id":34456,"date":"2014-07-07T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=34456"},"modified":"2014-07-06T21:03:24","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T02:03:24","slug":"college-football-week-1-preview-penn-state-nittany-lions-vs-ucf-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-football-week-1-preview-penn-state-nittany-lions-vs-ucf-knights-34456\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Week 1 Preview: Penn State Nittany Lions vs. UCF Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State Nittany Lions vs. UCF Knights
\nSaturday, 8\/30\/14, 8:30 AM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Penn State -4
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Penn State -4
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nOdds Courtesy of 5Dimes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Penn State Nittany Lions will open up the James Franklin era overseas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Penn State will begin the James Franklin era in unfamiliar surroundings, as it prepares to play in a 82,300 seat venue in Dublin, Ireland.\u00a0 The Nittany Lions will be a team to watch this season due to quarterback Christian Hackenberg, who threw for 2,955 yards and 20 touchdowns with 10 interceptions in his freshman campaign.\u00a0 He\u2019ll definitely miss top target Allen Robinson, which can\u2019t be ignored when looking over the college football odds page, but tight end Jesse James is a nice safety blanket in the middle of the field.\u00a0 Penn State has failed to cover the number in its last four games in month of August.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions have won two of three meetings against the Knights, but they suffered a 34-31 setback as 4.5-point home favorites last year\u2014getting out-gained by a 507-455 margin.\u00a0 Penn State will begin life without defensive line coach Larry Johnson after 14 years on campus, as he\u2019s taken on the same role at Ohio State.\u00a0 On the other side of the football, Hackenberg may need to get rid of the ball quicker in the early going, considering the team welcomes back just one starter on the offensive line.<\/p>\n

UCF made its biggest splash since becoming a FBS program in 1979, as it tallie a 52-42 victory over the Baylor Bears as 16-point underdogs in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl.\u00a0 The Knights return 15 total starters, but will have to replace starting quarterback Blake Bortles, who was selected third overall in the NFL draft.\u00a0 The roster possesses just 25 career passes, but could be helped by Boise State transfer Nick Patti.\u00a0 UCF is 6-0 ATS in its last six non-conference affairs.<\/p>\n

The Knights are going to be formidable on defense with top tacklers Clayton Geathers and Terrance Plummer back in the fold, while all of their returners combined for 12 interceptions.\u00a0 UCF may be able to overcome offensive growing pains with a new leader under center, as it possesses one of the more talented special teams units in the country.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Knights due to their 4-2 ATS mark in their last six games on a neutral field.<\/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":"

Penn State Nittany Lions vs. UCF Knights Saturday, 8\/30\/14, 8:30 AM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Penn State -4 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Penn State -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 N\/A Current Total:\u00a0 N\/A Odds Courtesy of 5Dimes Penn State will begin the James Franklin era in unfamiliar surroundings, as it prepares to play in a 82,300 seat venue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":29330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[7662,8346,5406,497,8347,3261],"class_list":["post-34456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-christian-hackenberg","tag-clayton-geathers","tag-james-franklin","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-terrance-plummer","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34456","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=34456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34457,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34456\/revisions\/34457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}