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.