Week 4: Kentucky vs NIU 9/24/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Kentucky Wildcats and Northern Illinois Huskies meet Saturday in week 4 college football action from Kroger Field.

The Northern Illinois Huskies will try to get back to .500 after falling to 1-2 with a 38-28 loss to Vanderbilt last time out. Rocky Lombardi’s thrown for 530 yards, 5 touchdowns and an interception on 65% passing while Antario Brown and Harrison Waylee have combined for 355 rushing yards this season. Cole Tucker leads the Huskies with 15 catches for 278 yards and 3 scores while Shemar Thornton has 149 receiving yards and Kacper Rutkiewicz has 3 touchdowns. On defense, Daveren Rayner has a team-high 32 total tackles while Eric Rogers has a pair of interceptions and NIU’s defense as a whole has 5 sacks this season.

The Kentucky Wildcats will look to build on their 3-0 start to the year after a 31-0 win over Youngstown State last time out. Will Levis has thrown for 882 yards, 6 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on 67% passing while Kavosley Smoke’s rushed for 178 yards this season. Tayvion Robinson and Dane Key each have a team-high 13 catches for 200+ receiving yards as well to lead the Wildcats’ group this season. On defense, J.J. Weaver has a team-high 15 total tackles with 6 solo tackles and a sack while DeAndre Square also has 15 total tackles and Jordan Wright and Keidron Smith each have an interception this season.

Northern Illinois is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record and 43-19-2 ATS in their last 64 road games while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Kentucky is 5-0-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 10-2 ATS in their last 12 games against the MAC while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall.

I’ll give credit where it’s due as the Huskies have done a good job playing teams tough for much of the year. However, NIU’s really up against it here as they’re going from playing Vanderbilt to a Kentucky team that’s rolling along right now and not just winning games with offense, they’re putting up some strong defensive numbers as well. Northern Illinois has allowed 38 points to each of their first two FBS opponents and a 45-10 win for Kentucky wouldn’t surprise me at all here. Give me Kentucky laying the points.