BOSTON COLLEGE (-6.5) at NORTH CAROLINA STATE -- The boo birds are certainly out for NC State coach Chuck Amato, who hasn't made significant progress lately with his program. One of the reasons might be that his most familiar recruiting ground - the south Florida area - has become somewhat diluted because of the emergence of other programs in the Sunshine State, including Central Florida, South Florida, and the two upstarts, FIU and FAU, that are competing with players left over from the "Big 3" (Florida, FSU, Miami). Amato has made a change at quarterback in an effort to kick-start his anemic offense, inserting Daniel Evans in place of Marcus Stone (less than 50% accuracy). But many feel that was just a way of taking the heat off for another week, since Evans is a local Raleigh prospect whose father is a radio commentator for NC State games. Evans does not possess ideal size for a QB (6'2", but just 190 pounds) and has thrown only eleven passes as a collegian (all last week against Southern Miss). He'll have to do without starting WR Darrell Blackman, who is likely out with injury. His counterpart, Matt Ryan, is 8-0 as a starter for BC and threw for 356 yards last week in the double-OT win over BYU. His Eagle offense has been getting good field position from kick returner Jeff Smith ( 42.6 yds. per return). The Wolfpack's run defense allowed 261 yards against Southern Miss, providing a possible avenue for BC to establish some balance. And although BC is ranked past in the country in pass defense (341 yds/game), that figure is a bit deceiving, since the Eagles have played two double overtime games already. Indeed, its yards-per-attempt figure ( 7.2) is actually less than NC State's (7.7). Ont he technical side, the road has been good to Boston College (17-7 ATS last 24 road games), while NC State has had trouble covering in Raleigh (4-14 ATS last 18).
JAY'S PLAYS: OVER 41.5 **** and BOSTON COLLEGE *** |
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