College Football

Week 8: Liberty vs BYU 10/22/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

BYU Cougars (4-3) vs. Liberty Flames (6-1)
October 22, 2022 3:30 pm EDT
The Line: Liberty Flames +6.5 / BYU Cougars -6.5; Over/Under: +58.5
(Get latest betting odds)

The Liberty Flames and BYU Cougars square off Saturday in week 8 college football action from Williams Stadium.

The BYU Cougars come into this game at 4-3 on the year after back-to-back losses, most recently a 52-35 loss to Arkansas last time out. Jaren Hall’s thrown for 1,914 yards, 17 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 67.7% passing while Christopher Brooks has 437 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns to lead BYU on the ground. Kody Epps leads BYU’s receivers with 34 catches for 423 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns while Keanu Hill has 395 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns as well this season. On defense, Ben Bywater has a team-high 53 total tackles while BYU’s whole unit has combined for 9 sacks and 5 interceptions.

The Liberty Flames will be out to build on their 6-1 record after a narrow 21-20 win over Gardner-Webb last time out. Johnathan Bennett has thrown for 692 yards, 6 touchdowns and 6 picks on 50.5% passing this season. Dae Dae Hunter has a team-high 608 rushing yards with 7 touchdowns while Shedro Louis has 298 rushing yards and 5 scores as well this season. Demario Douglas leads Liberty’s receiving group with 34 grabs for 546 yards and 5 touchdowns this season. On defense, Mike Smith Jr. has a team-high 50 total tackles Dennis Osagiede has a team-high 6 sacks, Durrell Johnson has 5 sacks and TreShaun Clark has 4 sacks as part of Liberty’s 28 sacks as a team this season. Robert Rahimi also has 4 interceptions as part of Liberty’s 11 interceptions this season.

BYU is 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games overall and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 road games while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games following a double-digit loss at home. Liberty is 10-4 ATS in their last 14 home games and 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 conference games while the over is 4-1-1 in their last 6 games in October.

I get why you’d look at either side here, as Liberty’s missing their starting QB and Bennett hasn’t been the most effective QB in relief, while BYU’s reeling after back-to-back losses and the defense was even worse than the lacklustre showings we’ve seen pretty much all year long. Instead, I’m going to side with the over. I think Liberty will try to work a gameplan that will put Bennett on the best path to succeed, and BYU’s going o get their points as well it’s just a matter of if either defense can get the necessary stops, which I’m not sure they can. Give me the over here.

Chris Ruffolo's Free Pick: Over 58.5

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Chris Ruffolo

Chris joined the Sports Chat Place team in August 2016 and has a proven system that combines multiple analytical and situational statistics and trends to give out thousands of winning picks over the last three years with winning records across all of the top leagues, Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg

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