Without question the game of the week in college football is a SEC West showdown between two of the best teams in the country. The top ranked Alabama Crimson Tide are set to go on the road to take on the 10-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks. The Crimson Tide routed Arkansas at home last year35-7, but this is a much better Razorback team that figures to give Alabama their biggest test of the season. Looking at the college football odds for this game, the odds makers currently have the Crimson Tide favored by 7-points over the Razorbacks on the road.
Alabama (3-0): The Crimson Tide have completely dominated all three of their games this season, including a 62-13 win over Duke last week on the road. Last week Alabama welcomed back 2009 Heisman winner Mark Ingram, and he looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. Ingram took his first carry of the game 48 yards and finished with 151 yards and two touchdowns on just nine carries. Trent Richardson, who started the first two games for Alabama, finished with 61 yards on seven carries. With the way this team runs the ball, and as strong as they are on the defensive side of the ball, they are going to be one tough team to beat.
Quarterback Greg McElroy threw for 258 yards and three touchdowns in the win over Duke, and has now thrown for over 200 yards in each game this season. Everyone questioned just how good Alabama would be on defense this year, as they had just two starters back and lost a number of very good football players, but they been even better than expected to start the season. Last week they also got back star defensive lineman Marcell Dareus, which only makes this unit stronger. We will find out just how good this defense is over the next three weeks, as they host No.9 Florida next week and head to No.12 South Carolina the following week.
Arkansas (3-0): It wasn’t easy for the Razorbacks last week at Georgia, but they got the job done, as star quarterback Ryan Mallett connected on a 40 yard touchdown pass to Greg Childs with just 15 seconds left in the game. All this came after Georgia mounted a huge comeback in the fourth quarter, as they tied it up at 24-24 after entering the final period of play down 24-10.
Mallett finished the game with 380 yards and three touchdowns on 21 of 33 passing. After a big time performance on the road, Mallett is considered by many to be the front-runner in the Heisman race this season, as he leads all quarterbacks with 1,081 yards and has nine touchdown passes to just two interceptions. The Razorbacks haven’t really done much on the ground this season, as they come in averaging just 116 yards a game, but with Mallett playing at the level it really doesn’t matter, and I don’t think they would have had much success running against Alabama’s defense anyway.
Looking at the Odds: As good as Arkansas has played in their first three games of the season, I think you have to take the Crimson Tide to win this game by at least 7-points. They are simply just too good on the defensive side of the football. Duke quarterback Sean Renfree came into the game against Alabama last week averaging over 350 yards a game passing, but managed just 144 yards. The Crimson Tide are 10-4 ATS in their last 14 conference games, and are 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games as a road favorite. My final score prediction is Alabama 27, Arkansas 16.
If you are looking for some help with your college football betting this season, check out what our expert college football handicappers have to offer in their weekly college football picks. The latest college football odds over at Betfirms.
