The Elldee Sports Game of the Week for College Football is the Stanford Cardinal at the Central Florida Golden Knights. Stanford must travel from the friendly confines of Stanford Stadium, 2,800 Miles, to sunny Orlando, Florida. A prominent Power Five school going on the road to a Group of Five school is not usual but this is not a usual Group of Five school.
The Cardinal (1-1) are coming off of a humiliating 45-20 loss to conference rival USC. To make matters worse, they were leading early 17-3 before being outscored 42-3 for the rest of the game. The reason for the drubbing may have been due to the fact that K.J. Costello, the starting quarterback, was out with a head injury. The good news is that he has been cleared and will be back this week, the bad news is that even when he played in Week 1 against Northwestern, the offense struggled. UCF is not known for defense so this may be just what the doctor ordered for the floundering unit.
The UCF Golden Knights (2-0) have not had the problems that Stanford has on the offensive side of the ball. They are averaging 55.0 points per game but have not faced anywhere close to the competition as the Cardinal, playing against FCS foe Florida A&M and Florida Atlantic. Although the competition was weak, they handled the opponents exactly as they should have, winning by 62 and 34 respectively. The biggest question for the Golden Knights is who their starting quarterback will be, as they have rotated between the experienced transfer in Brandon Wimbush and the explosive freshman, Dillon Gabriel.
So who wins out? Tradition or Johnny-Come-Lately? Power Rushing and defense or Flashiness and Speed? Stanford or Central Florida? Playing in Spectrum Stadium, aka “The Bounce House”, gives UCF a decided advantage. The Golden Knights have won 17 consecutive matches at home and look to extend that this weekend to 18. The offense is proven and this team is confident. That should be enough to propel them to victory. The Elldee Sports Formula is calling for a 37-8 Golden Knights victory. That final score lends itself to taking UCF -7 and under the total of 58. Until next time, good luck!
UCF 38 – Stanford 7
UCF -7 & Under 58
Elldee Sports
Elldee Sports 