The college football season is flying by faster than fans might want, as we’re already entering Week 5! Some teams have established themselves as legitimate contenders, while others have taken some time to warm up, hoping to catch fire in the back half of the season.
One game that is on a lot of people’s radars is the awesome matchup between No. 21 USC and No. 23 Illinois. Both teams have a lot to prove, especially Illinois, who already have a loss on their resume.
With a staggering over/under projection of 61.5 points, oddsmakers are expecting this to be a hard-fought, shootout of a game between some high-flying offenses.
We’re excited to watch it all play out. To make it that much more exciting, we’ve put our favorite Underdog player props together, so let’s go through our best picks!
If this game is going to be a shootout, both quarterbacks will be ready to sling the pill all around the field, which puts Jayden Maiava, especially, in a strong position to have a big day on the stat sheet.
Maiava has three games this season with 282+ passing yards, including a staggering 412-yard performance against Georgia Southern. It’s foolish to project a game of that magnitude, but considering Illinois’ defense isn’t a lockdown unit by any means, it’s not out of the question for him to have 300+ in this one. With that in mind, we’re riding with the over on his passing yardage total.
We were high on Kaden Feagin’s rushing total heading into last week’s matchup with Indiana, and let’s just say that it flopped in a major way. Indiana’s rushing defense came to play, and while he only had five rushing attempts, his 3.6-yard average per carry wasn’t ideal.
USC’s defense against the rush is 20th-best in the country in terms of yards allowed per game, putting him in another tough position this week. We can’t trust him to have a big rushing performance in this one, especially if it’s going to be as pass-heavy as many are predicting.
This line is really high for a receiver, and you might be thinking that because it’s so high, it’s a great line to fade. However, Makai Lemon’s connection with Maiava is undeniable, and his target share in this offense is massive.
For context, he has 24 receptions on the season, and the next-closest USC pass-catcher has 9. Maiava trusts him, and considering our projection of him to have a great passing performance, it only makes sense for us to pair Lemon’s receiving totals with it, even if the line is almost at 100.