Southern Miss vs. Nebraska Odds
LINCOLN, NE (The Spread) – No. 17 Nebraska gets its 2012 College Football Season underway on Saturday when it hosts Southern Miss at 3:30PM ET on ABC.
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Nebraska is in its second season as part of the Big Ten Conference and coming off a 9-4 season in 2011. The Golden Eagles are coming into their first year with new coach Ellis Johnson after Larry Fedora led the team to a 12-2 season and 2011. Nebraska is 2-1 all-time against Southern Miss.
Trends show that Southern Miss is 5-1 against the spread in its last 6 games on the road while Nebraska is just 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against Conference USA opponents. The Huskers are also just 2-6 ATS in their last 8 home games.
Oddsmakers have made Nebraska the clear favorite in this game, as the Cornhuskers have a point spread of -20 against Southern Miss, while the over/under total has been set at 53 points (View Matchup). The point spread opened at Nebraska -17.5 against Southern Miss. The point spread dipped down to as low as 16.5, but has since made a steady climb up to 20 points.
Nebraska had a strong rushing offense in 2011, as the Cornhuskers averaged 217 yards on the ground. The team returns its top running back in Rex Burkhead, who rushed for 1,357 yards and 15 TD’s in 2011. Nebraska also has quarterback Taylor Martinez back. Martinez rushed for 874 yards and threw for 2,089 yards with 13 TD’s. Defensively, Nebraska took a step back last season, allowed 23.4 points and 351 yards per game. The Huskers have 7 starters back on defense, including three on the defensive line, which should help improve on the 158 rushing yards allowed per game from a year ago.
Southern Miss will have a hard time matching its numbers from last year, as the team averaged 36.9 points and 461 total yards per game on offense. This year’s offense has six starters back, but will be breaking in a new quarterback along with the new coach. The Eagles also lose their top two receivers from 2011. Defensively, Southern Miss held opponents to 20.8 points per game, but the unit has just four starters back. The defensive line loses three starters, which should open up holes for Nebraska’s rushing attack.
In terms of Injuries, both teams have a clean slate on the injury report for this week.
The Public Bets show that Nebraska is heavily liked in this game with 77% of the betters placing their wagers on Nebraska with a point spread of -20 against Southern Miss at home.
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