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No. 20 Louisville faces UConn Friday night
By: Robert Livingston - StatFox
Published: 11/8/2013  at  5:36:00 AM
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LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (7-1)
at CONNECTICUT HUSKIES (0-7)

Kickoff: Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET
Line: Louisville -28, Total: 49

No. 20 Louisville should be able to earn an easy SU win Friday night when it travels to winless Connecticut.

Teddy Bridgewater and Louisville have just one loss this year, falling two games ago to 14.5-point underdog UCF by a score of 38-35. The Cardinals bounced back well though, with an easy 34-3 win against South Florida for their first ATS win in their past four contests. Overall, they are 4-4 ATS this year. Then there’s UConn, which is not only 0-7 SU this season, but also 1-6 ATS. The Huskies have given up 103 points in their past two games and are 0-4 ATS in their past four contests, dropping them to 8-20 ATS over the past three seasons. However, don't forget last year when double-digit underdog UConn shocked the world with a triple-overtime upset of Louisville. The bad news is that the Huskies haven’t won a game since that dramatic conquest.

Can Louisville cover the monster spread on Friday night? For the answer, connect to College Football Best Bets for all the StatFox Experts picks throughout the 2013 regular season and bowl season. The four experts are a combined 55.3% ATS (94-76-7) in college football Best Bets for the season, led by StatFox Dave who is 59% ATS (30-21-2) in Best Bets this season, including 71% ATS (17-7-1) during a run of six straight weeks of .500 or better. StatFox Brian is 57% ATS (24-18-1) in college football Best Bets this year, while StatFox Gary is 56% ATS (15-12-1) for yearly CFB Best Bets.

QB Teddy Bridgewater is a one-man highlight reel for Louisville, completing 74% of his passes with an incredible 23 TD and 2 INT. He’s averaging 10.5 yards per pass attempt. He was even pretty good in last year’s loss to UConn, completing 30-of-53 passes for 331 yards, 2 TD and 1 INT. He has three receivers with more than 400 receiving yards with DeVante Parker being his favorite red-zone target, catching a team-high 7 TD in 2013. He caught both of Bridgewater’s touchdown passes last year against the Huskies. In the backfield, Dominique Brown (75 carries, 484 yards, 4 TD) and Senorise Perry (88 carries, 455 yards, 5 TD) split the carries. They must play a bigger role than the Cardinals rushing game did last year, when the unit was limited to a pathetic 27 yards on 28 carries. Louisville’s rushing defense has been fantastic this year, holding foes to 2.7 YPC, while the passing defense has been nearly as dominant, keeping opposing quarterbacks to a 51.3% completion rate.

There’s no getting around how ugly the UConn offense has been this year, and it hasn’t gotten better with Tim Boyle under center. Taking the majority of the snaps the past three games, he has completed just 42.7% of his passes while not scoring a TD and throwing five picks. The Huskies may look to Casey Cochran more under center, as he has been better in limited action. The rushing game is no better, averaging 2.4 YPC on the season. Lyle McCombs is the bright spot of the group, averaging 4.7 YPC and scoring a team-high 4 TD on the ground. Opposing rushers have gained a modest 4.1 YPC against UConn this year, but the passing defense has yielded a whopping 8.6 yards per pass attempt and 15.3 yards per completion, meaning Teddy Bridgewater could be in for a career day.


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