KENT ST vs ILLINOIS
When: 12:00 PM ET, Saturday, September 1, 2018
Where: Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois

TV: 12:00 PM
LINE: -15.5
PREDICTION: ILLINOIS , KENT ST

Oddsmakers currently have the ILLINOIS listed as -15.5 point favorites versus the KENT ST, while the game’s total is sitting at 55.5.

Two teams looking to bounce back from ugly two-win seasons face off when Illinois hosts Kent State on Saturday afternoon in a non-conference season opener for both squads. Coach Lovie Smith is in his third year at the helm of the Illini, and he’ll look for his first winning season at the school with a team that has only eight seniors — the least of any team in FBS.

One of those seniors will start under center as Smith named AJ Bush Jr. as his quarterback days before the opener. Another player in his final season at Illinois, wide receiver Mike Dudek, is hoping to recapture the form that he had as a freshman (76 catches, 1,038 yards) before injuries limited him to seven games over the last three seasons. Smith will need to find some defense to keep the Illini in games after they allowed 31.5 points last season, and Smith is looking at another senior, linebacker Del’Shawn Phillips (85 tackles), to lead the way. Sean Lewis, the youngest head coach in FBS at 32, brings the fast-paced offense he ran as offensive coordinator at Syracuse to his first year with the Flashes, promising a much more uptempo attack than years past.

TV: Noon ET, Big Ten Network. LINE: Illinois -16.5

ABOUT KENT STATE (2017: 2-10): Lewis is trying to bring a new attitude to Kent State, looking to ignite the program with his offense that topped FBS in snaps per game with 87.8 at Syracuse a season ago. The Golden Flashes didn’t know who their starting quarterback would be days before the opener — sophomores Woody Barrett and Dustin Crum were the top candidates — but whoever starts at each of the offensive positions on the field had better be ready to play, because Lewis doesn’t like substitutions that slow down his offense. Kent State scored only 12.8 points per game a season ago — second-fewest in FCS to UTEP (11.8), including five contests with three points or fewer, but Lewis is banking on that changing quite a bit in 2018.

ABOUT ILLINOIS (2017: 2-10): Though he’s a senior, Bush Jr. doesn’t have a lot of playing experience at the collegiate level, having played at three other schools before making his way as a graduate transfer to Champaign for his final campaign. Bush spent two years at Nebraska without seeing the field before spending a season at Iowa Western, which led to a season at Virginia Tech, where he played in five games and attempted 11 passes. Smith likes Bush’s experience, though, saying that he trusts the dual-threat signal caller in his first collegiate start because he’s learned how to handle himself throughout his time in college, even if he hasn’t spent a lot of it on the field.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Illinois WR Ricky Smalling ranked fourth in the Big Ten with 16.5 yards per catch as a freshman, finishing with a team-high 510 receiving yards.

2. Kent State LB Jim Jones leads the team’s defense, coming off a junior season in which he paced the Flashes with 98 tackles and six sacks.

3. Illinois has won 20 consecutive home openers, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation.

PREDICTION: Illinois 35, Kent State 21

The post KENT ST vs. ILLINOIS 9/1/2018 Free Pick & CFB Betting Prediction appeared first on IdealCapper.

Illinois Fighting Illini vs Nebraska Cornhuskers
When: 7:30 PM  ET, Sunday, February 26, 2017
Where: Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, Nebraska

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network
LINE: -4
PREDICTION: Nebraska 70, Illinois 67

Oddsmakers currently have the NEBRASKA listed as -4 point favorites versus the ILLINOIS, while the game’s total is sitting at 133.

Illinois has reached the breakeven mark in conference play only once since coach John Groce arrived in 2012-13, and a second such season appeared highly unlikely as recently as three weeks ago when it fell to 3-8 in league play. The Illini have since rebounded with three victories in their last four contests and will continue their pursuit of a .500 record in Big Ten action Sunday when they visit Nebraska.

Following a Feb. 4 defeat to Minnesota for its sixth loss in seven tries, Illinois stunned Northwestern three days later for its first road win of the season before also winning at Iowa on Feb. 18, which came after a disappointing home setback to Penn State exactly one week earlier. The Illini, who host Michigan State on Wednesday prior to closing out their regular-season schedule at league-worst Rutgers next weekend, continued their recent strong play by holding the Wildcats to 18 second-half points in Tuesday’s 66-50 victory to complete a regular-season sweep of their instate rival. The Cornhuskers saw their modest two-game winning streak snapped Thursday at Michigan State, falling into a ninth-place tie with Illinois and Penn State after suffering an 88-72 defeat against the Spartans. Nebraska has dropped nine of 12 overall since a 3-0 start to conference play, but a win would go a long way in helping it secure a first-round bye in the upcoming Big Ten tournament, as the Cornhuskers would hold the tiebreaker edge over the Nittany Lions and Illini.

ABOUT ILLINOIS (16-12, 6-9 Big Ten): The Illini have improved markedly on defense over their last six games, limiting their opponents to 64.2 points on 39.7 percent shooting after allowing their first nine league foes to score 74.8 points per game on 49.2 percent from the field. Malcolm Hill (team-high 17 points per game) who is the only Illinois player to start every game this season, has led the team in scoring 17 times this season and is shooting 51.4 percent from the field over the last three games. The Illini received only two minutes from sophomore guard Jalen Coleman-Lands (8.1) on Tuesday as he suffered an early mild left ankle sprain, but the team’s leading 3-point shooter is expected to return to his normal role Sunday.

ABOUT NEBRASKA (12-15, 6-9): Senior guard Tai Webster (team-high 17.8 points), who is the conference’s third-leading scorer and one of only two power-conference players (Villanova’s Josh Hart) to reach double figures in every game this season, posted his first career double-double Thursday with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Second-leading scorer Glynn Watson Jr. (13.7 points) has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.3 over his last eight outings, and the sophomore guard ranks seventh in the Big Ten in 3-point accuracy (45.6 percent) during league play. Sophomore forward Michael Jacobson leads the conference in offensive rebounds in conference action (3.7), helping the Cornhuskers record a plus-5.3 margin on the boards over the last seven contests (minus-2.4 over the team’s first eight league games).

TIP-INS
1. Illinois is seeking its first three-game winning streak in conference play since 2015 and first three-game league road winning streak since 2014.
2. Webster is 20 points shy of becoming only the fourth Cornhusker to amass 500 points and 100 assists in a season, joining Erick Strickland, Jaron Boone and Tyronn Lue.
3. Coleman-Lands’ 143 career 3-pointers leads all sophomores from the six major conferences.

The post Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers Odds & Prediction appeared first on IdealCapper.