Thursday NCAA: Florida State Seminoles at North Carolina Tar Heels
ESPN looked like a winner with Thursday’s game between the Noles and Heels before the season began, but now both teams are shockingly in last place in their respective ACC divisions and just trying to salvage the season.
UNC is a 2.5-point favorite for this game on WagerWeb.com despite being 1-14-1 all-time in this series. But the two schools haven’t met in five years.
It’s been quite the opposite problem for both schools. The Noles have been very good on offense, especially QB Christian Ponder, who leads the ACC in total offense, passing yards and completions and who has 12 TD throws to just two interceptions. Ponder is coming off back-to-back, career-high passing performances against Boston College and Georgia Tech. In those two losses, the junior completed 55-of-78 (70.5 percent) of his passes for 699 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions.
The FSU defense, on the other hand, is 107th in the country and last in the ACC in total, rushing, passing and pass efficiency.
The UNC defense is first in the ACC and has held four of the six opponents this season to under 100 yards rushing. DE Robert Quinn leads the Heels with seven sacks (second in the ACC.) and is one of the best defenders you will see. On offense, the Heels are 117th nationally and really struggle to run, having only 56 yards on the ground in their two conference losses. Shaun Draughn leads the Tar Heels in rushing (355 yards). Of UNC’s 664 yards rushing for the season, 425 have come in wins over FCS teams The Citadel and Georgia Southern.
FSU is 5-4 all-time in Thursday night ESPN games and has covered just once in the past five against the spread on that night. This will be the first Thursday night home game in UNC history. The Heels are 4-2 in Thursday night games (all on the road obviously), including a 44-12 victory at Rutgers a year ago.
NCAA Betting at WagerWeb.com
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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