This Saturday the 7th of November 2015 we have an interesting match-up between Big Ten rivals as the unranked 4-4 Golden Gophers (Big Ten West) playing at the No.1 and 8-0 Buckeyes of Ohio State (Big Ten East), with the game being played at the Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio and seen on ABC TV.
If you Bet on College football at the SBG Sportsbook their opening odds for rival game have the Buckeyes big favorites at -23 with the Over/under at 52, while the Golden Gophers are underdogs in a big way at +23.
The Golden Gophers in their last game could smell a win as they trailed by 3 the No. 16 Wolverines of Michigan and they were on the Wolverines 1 yard lined and failed to score on a sneak by their QB, thus they lost the game 29-26. Meanwhile the Buckeyes are without a loss this season, but will be without their starting QB J. Barrett as he was arrested for driving under the influence recently. Thus, this will be a very interesting game, where the Gophers have a chance of upsetting the undefeated Buckeyes.
The Big Ten fans of the Golden Gophers of Minnesota as mentioned your team had the bowl on the Michigan 1 yard line with 2 seconds left in the game, and rather than kicking a FG and forcing OT, they chose to go for the win, the attempted a QB sneak with M. Leidner and he was stopped as time expired and lost the game 29-16 to the Wolverines.
That was a devastating loss for the Minnesota QB Leidner who passed for his career high of 320 yards and 1 TD in the game. With time running out in the game he converted a 4th and 5 by connecting on a 9 yard pass to WR D. Wolitarsky for a gain of 22 yards that put the Gophers on the Wolverine 1 yard line. Now QB Leidner may find performing more difficult against the Buckeyes defense that has only been allowing their opponents some 149 yards passing each game. Thus, if the Gophers are going to stay closes in this Saturday game with the Buckeyes their running game to gain a lot of yardage.
The Gophers RB R. Smith this season has 178 carries for 542 yards and should go well against the Buckeyes who have struggled with their rushing defense as to date they have allowed opponents to gain over 150 yard rushing in each game. Another RB S. Brooks also is capable of gaining yardage as this season he has run for 350 yards on 57 carries and scored on 3 occasions, and had 1 carry for 71 yards.
Defensively on the pass rush the Gophers have several players who are capable of picking off the problematic back-up Buckeye QB C. Jones who has 5 interceptions to date along with his 7 TD’s. Their J. Myrick has 3 intercepts to date with 1 going for a TD, while B. Calhoun has 2 intercepts and E. Murray and D. Campbell each have 1 interception to date. In their ultimate 7 games the Golden Gophers are with 2 wins and 5 losses against the spread.
For the fans of the Buckeyes of Ohio State your previous QB Barrett for the 1st 5 games had a working offense as in his 1st game he was 14 of 18 for 222 yards and 3 TD’s and also had 13 carries running the ball for 102 yards and scored 2 times. But on Halloween morning he got arrested for DWI and has been suspended for this game and will have to forfeit any financial aid for 2016.
For this game back-up QB C. Jones will be at the helm after a so-so season to date throwing 7 TD’s and being intercepted on 5 occasions. Plus in 3 of his game his completions was less than 55%.
His prime target when starting has been WR M. Thomas who has had 4 receptions from QB Jones that went for TD’s and leads the team with 538 yards on receptions this season. His presence on offense should assist QB Jones in busting through a strong Gopher defense that has only allowed opponents some 1,128 rushing yards and 13 TD’s to date for their 8 games.
If QB Jones can’t get the Buckeyes rolling then they may turn to Heisman candidate E. Elliot has scored 13 times and rushed for 13 TD’s to date. In his last 2 games he has rushed for 140 yards each game and scored 3 times on his runs in those games. That may be an answer for Ohio State since the Gopher defense has allowed some 149 yards rushing to opponents this season.
On defense the Buckeyes have a decent pass rush and rank 3rd in Big Ten with some 26 sacks to date. Their senior DL T. Lewis has 5.5 sacks while junior J. Bossa and rookie S. Hubbard have each had 3.5 sacks. The Buckeyes have beaten the Golden Gophers in their last 9 meetings.
The prediction for this Big Ten rivalry game is that the Golden Gophers of Minnesota struggle to cover the spread, but are not able to pull off a win, while the Buckeyes win the game and remain undefeated at 9-0!