College Football

Bettors hoping for a bounce back week for Caleb Williams, USC

Published Oct. 20, 2023 12:36 p.m. ET

Following last week's loss to long-time rival Notre Dame in South Bend, Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans are preparing for a home matchup against Utah, where they are favored by -7; the opening point spread for the matchup was USC -5.5.

Against the Fighting Irish, USC was 3-point underdogs, but Notre Dame ultimately covered the spread with a comfortable 48-20 victory. Their defensive line pressured Williams, prompting him to throw three interceptions.

Per BetMGM, USC (+120) received the most tickets to win outright last week against Notre Dame.

This week, bettors are hammering the Over, with 70% of tickets on this to be a high-scoring game.

However, FOX Sports Gambling Analyst Geoff Schwartz sees this game as a mismatch in the trenches favoring Utah, prompting him to take the Under in this week's game.

On the "Bear Bets Podcast," he said, "USC's offensive line is a disaster right now, and guess who has the best defensive line in the Pac-12 Conference? Utah does. It's going to be a low-scoring, grind-it-out game, where Utah will try to run the football and not make mistakes on offense."

Joel Klatt also expressed issues with USC's offensive line on "The Herd" this week.

"Do you know [Caleb Williams] has been pressured 58 times in the last four weeks? That's fifth in all of college football. They can't block anybody."