Oregon St. is 7-point chalk because most likely they beat USC. They lost a lot of key players who did the scoring such as QB Mike Moore, there top tackler CB or Safety Piscitelli, top receiver Sam Stroughter who supplied 1200 yards of offense. They beat 6 teams by a total of 21 points. They got killed @ Boise by over 3 Td’s & Cal came in and destroyed them by over 3 Td’s also. They only managed around 50+ yards a game, with the now departed & aforementioned QB & WR tandem. What will they do with the talent they have? I’m not sure but its going to take awhile to gel as a Unit
Utah is 21-4 ATS as a road dog and love battling against the better conferences like the Pac-10.
QB Brian Johnson is back and healthy with his seven receivers and also with his own legs, which gave him almost 700 yards. There defense only allowed a little under 20 points for 3 consecutive years. They won, not just by accident, 5 bowl games in a row.
After losing their 1st game last year you can expect Whittingham not to let that happen 2 years in a row. Both of their #1 & 2 tacklers are both back and healthy.
Oregon St. coach Mike Riley chose Sean Canfield to play QB. In practice not one QB really went out and grabbed the bull by the horns and won the job. The other 2 QB’s Ryan Gunderson, or Lyle Moevao may see playing time as the year goes own because they are famous for playing 2 QB’s in the same game and I cant remember many teams having great success with that sort of rotation.