College Football Predictions: UCONN vs. Pittsburgh Preview

Written by Jake Thompson
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 17:19

Score predictions are ready in Wednesday’s college football game between UCONN and Pittsburgh.

The game between the UCONN Huskies (3-4) and the Pittsburgh Panthers (3-4) will be shown live on ESPN with a start time of 8:00 PM ET.  Wednesday’s college football game looks, on the surface, to be a competitive game with both teams sporting the same record, yet the odds makers at 5Dimes Sportsbook have Pittsburgh as a large 10.5-point home favorite.

Pittsburgh’s offense has been running the ball well but quarterback Tino Sunseri (1204 yards, 61.6%, 5 TD, 7 INT) needs to make better decisions to give his team the balance it needs to really be successful.  The Panthers will be going up against a UCONN defense that has allowed just 2.9 yards per carry in the ground game, making Sunseri take on some additional pressure to avoid turnovers.

UCONN has a decent balance on the offensive side of the ball but they don’t run the ball well enough and have averaged just 3.0 yards per carry.  The Panthers usually have a stout defense but they’ve been a tick worse than what they are probably used to this year.  They are only average at stopping the run and the pass, but that is about all you need to be to stop this year’s UCONN offense.

UCONN has covered the point spread in 4 of the last 5 head-to-head meetings with Pittsburgh, including in their 30-28 victory as 6-point home underdogs last year.  The Huskies covered in Pittsburgh in a 21-24 loss as 6.5-point underdogs in 2009, as well as in the 2007 matchup when UCONN pulled a 34-14 upset as 7.5-point underdogs.  2 of the last 3 meetings between these Big East schools have gone under the wagering total.

Bet on the UCONN vs. Pittsburgh college football game at 5Dimes Sportsbook and receive a 50% cash bonus on top of the money you deposit to wager with!

Predictions here call for an ugly game that will include plenty of punts and ineffective offense.  Teams that are this untrustworthy on offense can sometimes produce high-scoring games because of turnovers and 3-and-outs that lead to quick scoring drives for the opposition, but ultimately I don’t think we’ll see that here.  Pittsburgh is the home team and that has me calling for them to win outright while not covering the point spread.

UCONN vs. Pittsburgh Score Predictions:

UCONN 16

Pittsburgh 17