The Big Ten Conference will have its league showcased tonight when the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (4-3) travel across the country to face off against the Southern California Trojans (3-4) in a conference matchup.
Rutgers has shown significant improvement in its fifth season under Greg Schiano. The Scarlet Knights are primed for a second consecutive winning season, something the program has not achieved since Schiano’s first stint at the school.
USC is trending in the opposite direction during its inaugural season in the Big Ten Conference. The Trojans started the year in promising fashion, defeating LSU in the season opener. Since then, USC has won only two of its six games and only one contest against conference foes.
Will the Trojans right their vessel against Rutgers, or is USC heading toward its fifth loss against the Scarlet Knights? We’ll cover that and three of our best player prop bets for tonight’s action.
The Trojans may have a losing record, but the losses aren’t on junior quarterback Miller Moss. The 6-foot-1 signal-caller has waited his turn to start for USC, and he’s made the most of it. In seven games, Moss has completed 64.4 percent of his passes for 1,954 yards and 14 touchdowns against only two interceptions.
On Friday, expect Moss to continue leading the Trojans through the air. Last week, UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers torched the Scarlet Knights for 383 passing yards and four touchdowns as he completed 32 of his 38 pass attempts. Expect Moss to post similar numbers and cover this player prop bet.
Rutgers has a weapon in senior running back Kyle Monangai. The 5-foot-9 athlete has hit the century mark in four of his seven contests this season, including the 35-32 loss to UCLA last weekend.
While the Trojans know Rutgers prefers to run the football, it’s hard to see this team stopping the Scarlet Knights’ rushing attack. Still, USC has allowed only two rushers to record over 100 yards this season, and projecting Monangai to record nearly 90 yards seems like a tall task.
Bettors should expect Monangai to be the Trojans’ focal point on defense and keep him from covering this player prop bet on Friday.
Moss has been spreading the football around the field as eight players have at least 135 receiving yards this season. The team’s second-leading receiver – sophomore Ja’Kobi Lane – has been his primary scoring threat with five touchdowns to go with his 303 receiving yards.
After back-to-back performances where Lane recorded two receptions and less than 20 yards in each outing, the sophomore came to life against Maryland. He recorded four passes for 51 yards and a touchdown against the Terrapins in a 29-28 loss.
Bettors should expect more of the same against Rutgers. The team has allowed over 300 passing yards twice the season with Washington’s Will Rogers and Garbers achieving that mark. Both times, three receivers finished with 50-plus receiving yards, giving Lane an excellent chance to meet this minuscule receiving mark.
It’s hard for me to reconcile how oddsmakers believe a team that has battled nearly every opponent to a close loss is more than a two-touchdown underdog.
Rutgers looked bad against Wisconsin at home two weeks ago, but the Scarlet Knights rebounded to make their game against UCLA close last weekend.
While I get cross-country games have been disastrous for the team making the trip in the Big Ten Conference, there’s little reason to believe Rutgers will fall to the Trojans by such a large margin – if the team loses the game at all. Take Rutgers and the points in this contest.