Wisconsin -140 5.5% NCAAF POD
Utah getting crushed by Texas last night was not a good look for the Pac 12, and Oregon backers are going to point to Oregon's close loss to Auburn, but to be honest they got Auburn at the right time with a true freshman QB playing in his first game. Jack Coan is one of the more underrated QB's in the nation, and I like for him to have a nice game here. It's impressive that Wisconsin QB's have a 16th ranked QB Rating against an average 42.38 defense. Compare that with Herbert's 13th ranking against an average 77 opponent QB defense. Coan really only struggled against Ohio State, whom he had to face on the road and a second time on a neutral field.
Personally I think this is a bad matchup for Justin Herbert. Herbert over his career has been great against man defenses, but struggles against zone defenses or defenses that try to confuse you and are not straight forward, which is exactly how Wisconsin is going to play him. Wisconsin will also shut the running game of Oregon down, which will put even more pressure on Herbert. Wisconsin also sports the 5th ranked pass rush, and that comes against some pretty good offensive lines in the Big 10.
It's nice to see Herbert returning to play in the Rose Bowl instead of preparing for the NFL draft. I always like when teams do that, but I think after this game he might wish he hadn't. Jonathan Taylor has been able to run the ball on better defenses than this, and Ohio State has actually let Jack Coan throw the ball a bit making Taylor more dangerous. Wisconsin is 4-0 in bowl games now under Chryst, and this would be a big win for the program.
