This next week the 2015-16 NCAA Football season begins and on Saturday the 5th of September 2015 with the Zips of Akron playing the No. 19 Sooners of Oklahoma at the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma with kick-off at 7 PM ET. The early Vegas odds the Sooners is favored at -31 with the Over/under at 55 ½ with the underdog Zips at +31. Fans are wondering if the Sooners will roll over the Zips, or will Akron stage an upset?
For the football fans that Bet on College at an Offshore sportbook and are fans of the Zips of Akron, their Coach T. Bowden who is under the gun, as this is his 3rd year at the helm and not a winning record yet. In 2014 they started out at 4 wins and 2 losses but finished the season with 5 wins and 7 losses, and that’s for the 2nd season.
The Zip offense is still in question this season as they have yet to announce a starting QB for 2015. QB K. Pohl is the default starter who had 9 TD’s and passed for over 2,000 yards and some 8 intercepts and 4 of those would have been TD’s. However, they do appear to have a decent and improving run offense RB Hundley who average 5.3 yards each carry for a total of 542 yards and scored 4 TD’s. Also senior transfer Alexander who averaged 6 yards each carry in the 2013 season, while the line offensively returns 4 starting lineman from 2014. In the Mid-American conference the Zips were a top team as they allowed their opponents to only score an average of 23 points per game and gave up an average 370 yards offensively per game. On defense the Akron team will depend again on star LB Brown, a 2 time All-Mac player who had some 99 tackles of which more than 15 for losses, along with 4 sacks for the season. In this game Brown and his other defensive teammates will have to step up big time as they face the Sooner of Oklahoma and for the season if they expect to win the Mac title for this 2015 season.
For the Sooner of Oklahoma fans, you know your team started 2014 as the preseason 4th, then struggled and finished the season with 8 wins and 5 losses, and that is the main reason the this season are ranked 19th in the preseason poll.
In the offseason the Sooners coach Stoops hired a new OC in L. Riley coming from E. Carolina with hopes of mending the Sooners passing game in 2015. The Oklahoma starter at QB Mayfield is familiar with the offense they call ‘Air Raid’ hoping it can be successful with the Sooners offense.
However, most likely coach Stoops will continue his rushing game, that has been the Sooners bread and butter for several years. In 2014 freshman S. Perine scored 21 TD’s averaging 6.6 yards per carry and rushing for a total of 1,715 yards. Joining Perine in the backfield will be transfer J. Mixon from Army who had 23 TD’s on 1,710 yards rushing at Army and was an All-American Bowl MVP before coming to the Sooners.
Then don’t over look the Sooners defense that finished 8th as a result of its strong run defense that only allowed some 3.1 yards per carry by opposing team rushers. It is expected that the Sooner defense led by star All Big 12 LB E. Striker who in 2014 had 10 sacks and 18 tackles for losses to lead the defense in bringing the Zips offensive to a standstill in this 2015 season opener for both teams.
The prediction is that the No. 19 Sooner of Oklahoma will have an easy task playing the unranked Zips of Akron and win their season opener at 40-6!