College Football Betting: Boston College at Syracuse
Saturday college football features a battle between ACC foes as Boston College travels to upstate New York to take on Syracuse. Boston College is finally heading in the right direction after hiring a coach that’s a perfect fit to rebuild the long struggling program. Steve Addazio has already made impressive progress with a team that was mentally weak and physically overpowered for much of last season. Last year’s Eagles had one of the worst run defenses in college football but there seems to be improvement in the team’s overall toughness and they’ve got a potent weapon on offense in running back Andre Williams. The fact that this team has a look at an 8-4 record and a bowl bid tells you everything you need to know about their improvement.
Boston College was one of my favorite ‘go against’ teams last season—a perfect combination of bad coaching, disinterested players and equal levels of ineptness on both sides of the ball. Things have changed dramatically in the first season under head coach Steve Addazio. Addazio has not only improved the focus and intensity of his players but has transformed the BC offense into a power running attack built around RB Andre Williams and QB Chase Rettig. Both players benefit from a tough OL and that toughness ‘in the trenches’ extends to the defense where the team has also shown improvement. There’s more work that needs to be done on that side of the ball and there are injuries ‘in the trenches’ on offense and defense but there’s no way to characterize the improvement under Addazio as downright remarkable.
In our view Boston College is the better team. Their offense isn’t pretty, but it’s efficient and productive. Syracuse has been a profitable pointspread play–they’re 7-4 ATS despite their 5-6 SU record–but we’ve been riding this Eagles’ team for most of the season and we’re not going to start now. Orange has a capable run defense and is gunning for bowl eligibility but these factors are both priced into the line. We’ll take the better team in a spot where they just need to win outright.
BET BOSTON COLLEGE +2′ OVER SYRACUSE
