College Football Betting: UCLA at Utah
PAC 12 action on Thursday night as UCLA makes the trip from Westwood to Salt Lake City to take on the University of Utah. The Bruins have looked very impressive thus far rolling to a 3-0 record. They’ve covered all three of their games and in fact have won all three by 20+ points. Utah is something of an enigma. They did enough to beat tough in state rival Utah State in their opening game and enter this contest with a 3-1 record with the only blemish being an OT home loss to Oregon State. Their defense looked putrid against the Beavers but rebounded nicely to dispatch their other in-state rival beating BYU 20-13 in Provo as +7 underdogs to lock up the ‘Beehive Boot’. Both teams are coming off a bye week.
Some edges to the home team due to the always tough Salt Lake City altitude (approximately 4,500 feet above sea level at Utah’s stadium located in the city’s Eastern foothills) and the weather isn’t going to be exactly vintage Southern California either with cool temperatures and rain. Additional concern about UCLA coming out of a break when they played so well during the early part of their campaign and compounding matters is the fact that the school is on the quarter system and started classes during bye week. That being said, they just have too many weapons for the well coached but not overly athletic Utah defense to deal with. Given the fact that Utah couldn’t contain a fairly pedestrian Oregon State attack it sure doesn’t bode well for them to stop a much more potent UCLA offense.
Utah hasn’t been a good investment in PAC 12 play in the recent years going 7-12 ATS since 2011 and despite the advantage of playing at altitude are just 8-7 ATS in that time frame. Worth nothing that UCLA is 0-3 ATS as a favorite of -3′ to -10 since 2011. Nothing but respect for the Utah program and particularly their underrated head coach Kyle Whittingham but we’ve got to back the invaders from Westwood. Just too many weapons and too much momentum for what may not be one of the better teams that Whittingham has had in Salt Lake City.
BET UCLA -4 OVER UTAH
