Conference USA Wednesday Match-Up: UAB vs. UCF

The Alabama-Birmingham Blazers have bitten off more than they could chew so far this season. An opening loss to Florida Atlantic was somewhat of a surprise, but losing to SMU and Tennessee was expected. The Blazers are predicted by most college football handicappers to finish in the middle of the pack in the Conference USA standings. Now that they have already faced one of the favorites for the conference title in SMU, they will need to win the majority of their games the rest of the wady if they are to have any chance of getting a Bowl bid.

UAB’s first order of business will be to take down a fellow Conference USA East team that is off to a 2-2 start. The Central Florida Knights may be .500 at this point of the season, but they have played far better than that record indicates. Like UAB, the Knights have scheduled a couple of BCS conference team’s early on. However, unlike the Blazers, UCF has played well in those games. They played what has turned out to be a very good North Carolina St team close in week 2, and lost on the road to Kansas St by just 4 points.

The Knights are a defensive oriented team, but do have a couple of solid running backs that keep them afloat on offense. Ronnie Weaver and quarterback Jeffrey Godfrey have combined for over 400 yards and 5 touchdowns thus far, and that’s against far better defenses than they will face on Wednesday. Godfrey isn’t in the same class as Andrew Luck, but he does just enough passing the ball to keep defenses honest.

UAB’s strength on offense is the Knights weakness……passing. Quarterback Bryan Ellis has been an absolute beast over his last 2 games as he has completed 52 of 92 passes for 733 yards. Tennessee is obviously having a “down” year, but they still have top rated athletes. If Ellis can keep up his current pace then he will have a ton of success against UCF’s defensive backs.

Apparently the Vegas oddmakers feel very differently about UAB’s chances as they have listed them at 12.5 point dogs on Wednesday. The strength of schedule for UCF is much greater than that of the Blazers, and that’s the reason for the sportsbooks prediction in this match-up. It should be an entertaining game with a fair amount of scoring as the over/ under is set at 48.5. My opinion is that the Blazers defense will not be able to stop the rushing attack of UCF which will result in 30-40 points. UAB can throw the rock, but it will be a matter of time before Ellis starts to force balls into tight areas and gets picked. Tune in Wednesday for this Conference USA contest.

Related posts:

1. Conference USA Showdown: Marshall vs. UCF
2. UAB vs. Clemson in Play-In Battle for 12 Seed
3. Houston & Central Florida in Conference USA Fight
4. Temple and Ohio in MAC Conference Grudge Match
5. Pittsburgh hosts UCONN in Wednesday Big East Battle

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