{"id":8769,"date":"2010-10-08T10:00:40","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=8769"},"modified":"2010-10-08T02:07:52","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T07:07:52","slug":"alabama-at-south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/alabama-at-south-carolina-8769\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Vs South Carolina Sports Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alabama Crimson Tide at South Carolina Gamecocks
\nSaturday, 10\/9\/10, 3:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread: Alabama -8
\nCurrent Betting Line: Alabama -7
\nOpening Total: 49
\nCurrent Total: 47.5<\/strong>
\nYou can bet this game at Bookmaker Sports and collect a 20% signup bonus<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Alabama heads into South Carolina on Saturday and is a 7 point road favorite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Top-ranked Alabama returns to the road for the third time in the past four games and visits No. 20 South Carolina at Williams Brice Stadium.\u00a0 The Crimson Tide lead the series with the Gamecocks 10-2 and the teams haven\u2019t met in Columbia since Alabama posted a 37-14 win in 2005.\u00a0 Head coach Nick Saban\u2019s team has played at such an unbelievable level since the start of last season, winning 19 in a row and is coming off a dominating 31-6 win over Florida.\u00a0 \u201cI think the biggest thing is being able to continue to challenge yourself and challenge each other to improve and play to a standard,\u201d Saban stated this week.\u00a0 Piling up wins against ranked opponents hasnt been difficult for the Tide, compiling a 12-2 record against AP Top 25 opponents over the last three years.\u00a0 Alabama is an impressive 8-2 in its last 10 road games and the total is 5-4 O\/U in those contests.\u00a0 The current line is hovering around 7 so be sure to check out the college football lines page to compare odds from multiple sportsbooks so you know you are getting the best number.<\/p>\n

The Crimson Tide have continued to use a power rushing game that helped them win a national championship last season, as Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson are averaging 7.9 and 7.4 yards per carry respectively.\u00a0 Ingram missed the first two games due to injury, but he has quickly made up for lost time, gaining 335 rushing yards and six touchdowns.\u00a0 The offense is averaging 464 yards of total offense that ranks 20th nationally and third in the SEC.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, a defense that replaced nine starters from last season hasn\u2019t skipped a beat, leading the nation in surrendering just 9.0 points per game.\u00a0 Alabama\u2019s total defense is 20th nationally at 292.4 yards per game and rates third in the conference.<\/p>\n

South Carolina returns home after a disappointing 35-27 loss on the road to Auburn, as the team led through three quarters only to turn the ball over four times in the fourth quarter.\u00a0 \u201cOur goals this week are to play better and try to improve as a team,\u201d head coach Steve Spurrier said.\u00a0 He has decided to start quarterback Stephen Garcia despite\u00a0 accounting for all three of the team\u2019s fumbles.\u00a0 \u201cHopefully he\u2019ll protect the ball when he runs.\u201d\u00a0 The Gamecocks will have to play the game of their lives to pull off the upset, especially considering the program is 0-4 all-time in previous meetings against the nation\u2019s top-ranked team.\u00a0 An upset certainly isn\u2019t far-fetched due to the Gamecocks winning 11 of their last 12 home games.\u00a0 The squad is 9-5 ATS in its last 14 home games, but 7-9 ATS as a home underdog of 3.5 to 7 points.<\/p>\n

The Gamecocks will need a resurgence from its running game to hang with the Tide, as the team gained just 79 yards on 28 carries in its loss to the Tigers.\u00a0 Freshman running back Marcus Lattimore was held in check, rushing 14 times for 33 yards.\u00a0 South Carolina has been the best team in the league in the red zone, ranking first in the SEC in red zone offense and second in defense.\u00a0 Offensively, the team is 15-for-16 in red zone opportunities, scoring 13 touchdowns and two field goals.\u00a0 Conversely, the Gamecock defense has allowed just 10 scores in 16 opportunities, with six of the 10 being field goals.<\/p>\n

Bettors will have an interest in playing the Crimson Tide due to the road team being 4-0 ATS in the last four meetings.\u00a0 South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier is 6-5 all-time against the Tide, but 0-2 as the main man in Columbia.<\/p>\n

Get Maddux’s winning picks for this Saturday’s games by visiting the college football sports picks page of our site.\u00a0 Currently on a 70% pick run expect another solid performance from our handicappers this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alabama Crimson Tide at South Carolina Gamecocks Saturday, 10\/9\/10, 3:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread: Alabama -8 Current Betting Line: Alabama -7 Opening Total: 49 Current Total: 47.5 You can bet this game at Bookmaker Sports and collect a 20% signup bonus Top-ranked Alabama returns to the road for the third time in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":3929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[462,3128,2040,588,739,3126,3292,2781],"class_list":["post-8769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-marcus-lattimore","tag-mark-ingram","tag-nick-saban","tag-sec","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-stephen-garica","tag-steve-spurrier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8769","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=8769"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8790,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8769\/revisions\/8790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}