The No. 20 Boise State Broncos will host the UConn Huskies on Saturday night. Here is the game preview, odds, tv channel, live stream and score prediction.
In one of the later games of the Week 2 college football slate, the No. 20 Boise State Broncos (1-0) will host the UConn Huskies (0-1) for a Group of 5 bout on Saturday night.
Kickoff from Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho will be at 10:15 p.m. ET/8:15 p.m. MT on Saturday, Sep. 8. ESPNU will have the telecast. You can find the available live stream on WatchESPN.
Boise State enters play at 1-0 on the year. The Broncos are the No. 20 team in the nation. They are fresh off a 56-20 stomping of the Troy Trojans in Week 1. Quarterback Brett Rypien led the way with 20-28 passing for 305 yards and four touchdowns. This easy victory over Troy had the Group of 5 powerhouse move up two spots in the AP Poll from No. 22.
UConn was not as fortunate as Boise State in Week 1. The Huskies lost their season opener at home versus an AAC rival in No. 21 UCF. UCF continues its winning ways under new head coach Josh Heupel by dominating UConn 56-17 in the Civil Conflict. Getting arguably the two best Group of 5 teams in back-to-back weeks is not how a struggling program like UConn looks to build confidence at the start of the season.
TV Schedule
Date: Saturday, Sep. 8
Time: 10:15 p.m. ET, 8:15 p.m. MT
Location: Boise, Idaho
Venue: Albertsons Stadium
TV Info: ESPNU
Live Stream: WatchESPN
According to OddsShark, the Broncos will be laying a whopping 31.5 points at home to the visiting Huskies. The associated moneylines for this game are Boise State -20,000 and UConn +7,500. This game’s over/under comes in at a combined 64 points.
Betting Odds
Point Spread: Boise State -31.5
Moneylines: Boise State -20,000, UConn +7,500
Over/Under: 64
Just looking at the odds says that Las Vegas has little hope in a road upset for UConn. It’s not really UConn’s fault, as they have to travel to the other side of the country to play Boise State on its one-of-a-kind smurf turf. That’ll be an interesting experience for the Huskies to say the very least.
As for Boise State, this game has significance to some degree. It would essentially be a measuring stick game with fellow Group of 5 contender UCF. Both Boise State and UCF have high hopes of making the New Year’s Six. A rare common opponent in the form of albeit a bad UConn team could be a way to discern these two solid mid-major programs should it come down to the wire for the Selection Committee.
But that’s just way too down the road at this point. Regardless, look for Rypien to rip through the bewildered UConn secondary. This is a UConn team that gave up over 50 points at home to a comparable team in UCF. We can only begin to imagine what the Broncos offense could do at home versus the visiting Huskies.
While we would hope for a close game that late into the evening, we’re just not going to be getting that. Look for Boise State to rout UConn in the hopes of climbing up the AP Top 25 Poll into Week 3. Maybe Rypien could put up some stats to boost his climbing national relevance? Having a Super Bowl winning quarterback dad only helps his notoriety.
Prediction: Boise State 55, UConn 21