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Carrie Stroup here with your Fighting Irish vs. Cavs betting line for Week 2 College Saturday. Sportsbook.ag Line: Notre Dame -12.5, Total: 48.5
NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH (1-0) at VIRGINIA CAVALIERS (0-1)
No. 9 Notre Dame looks to build on its impressive season-opening win when it travels to 0-1 Virginia on Saturday afternoon.
The Fighting Irish destroyed 9-point underdog Texas in their season opener by a 38-3 score as they piled up 527 total yards and held the Longhorns to 163 total yards. The win did come at a steep price though, as top RB Tarean Folston (1,079 total yards last year) suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Even without Folston, the Cavaliers will certainly have their hands full on defense having just allowed 503 total yards in a 34-16 season-opening loss (and ATS push) at UCLA. Although Mike London is 11-3 ATS as an underdog of 10.5 to 21 points as the Virginia head coach, he is also 15-31 ATS with the Cavaliers when playing with six or less days of rest.
In addition to the Folston injury, the Irish will be without DB Avery Sebastian (foot) for at least one month, and they already lost three defenders for the season in DB Shaun Crawford (ACL) and DLs Ishaq Williams (eligibility) and Jarron Jones (knee).
Virginia lost three players indefinitely last week in WR T.J. Thorpe (collarbone), C Eric Tretlow (undisclosed) and OT Jake Fieler (undisclosed), and both WR Doni Dowling (knee) and OT Sadiq Olanrewaju (shoulder) are questionable for Saturday.
Junior QB Malik Zaire completely picked apart Texas last week by throwing as many touchdowns (3) as incompletions (19-of-22 passing), gaining 313 yards on 14.2 yards per attempt. With Virginia allowing a subpar 233 passing YPG and 7.1 YPA last season, the Irish will likely call more passes than runs.
With the devastating injury to top RB Tarean Folston, the Irish turned to senior RB/WR hybrid C.J. Prosise who carried the football 20 times for 98 yards against Texas. Zaire (9 carries) and freshman RB Dexter Williams (7 carries) were the only other players to surpass five rushes last week.
After surrendering a hefty 29.2 PPG (82nd in nation) and 404 total YPG (71st in FBS) last year, the Irish defense was relentless against the Longhorns, holding them to 2.1 yards per carry and 3.8 yards per pass. But considering Texas held the ball for just 20:50 and had no drive longer than 2:35, the Notre Dame defense wasn't really tested. Virginia will try to control more of the clock and attack what it hopes will be a more tired Irish stop unit.
Virginia was able to move the ball effectively through the air with 238 passing yards on 6.6 YPA, but the ground game was held to a meager 98 yards on 34 attempts (2.9 YPC). Junior QB Matt Johns completed 60% of his throws with 1 TD and 1 INT, and also connected with eight different receivers. His favorite target was junior RB Taquan Mizzell who caught eight passes for 100 yards and a touchdown. That was much more productive than his weak 45 rushing yards on 16 carries (2.8 YPC).
One player who really shined last week was freshman TE Evan Butts who caught two passes of 28 and 14 yards.
Defensively, the Cavaliers allowed five different UCLA players to rack up a reception of 30+ yards as Bruins QB Josh Rosen threw for 351 yards (10.0 YPA), 3 TD and 0 INT. The unit didn't do a great job stuffing the run either, allowing 152 yards on 34 carries (4.5 YPC). Last season, Virginia gave up 121 rushing YPG and 3.4 YPC, both of which ranked among the top-20 teams in the nation.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
