The Arizona Wildcats are coming off a big 47-30 win over the UCLA Bruins to improve to 4-2 on the season. They will look to stay perfect on the road and build on a strong start to the year when they visit the California Golden Bears this Saturday night. Arizona has won two in a row to climb back in to what has become a wide-open race in the Pac-12 standings. The next four weeks will determine their fate as they visit California and then host Washington State before visiting USC and hosting Oregon State the following two weeks.
Details
Odds: Arizona -3
Date & Time: Saturday October 21st, 2017 – 8:00 PM ET
Location: Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, California
Broadcast: Pac-12
Reasons To Bet On The Arizona Wildcats
Arizona has been one of the pleasant surprises in the Pac-12 early on this season. The Wildcats racked up 605 yards of total offense in last week’s blowout win over UCLA and there is no reason to expect them to slow down this week. Sophomore quarterback Khalil Tate has 557 rushing yards and eight total touchdowns over his last two games alone. While it will be difficult for him to continue to produce at such a high level there also isn’t much reason to expect the Golden Bears will significantly slow him down. Arizona is now in control of its own fate in the Pac-12 so the urgency and focus will be ramped up once again this week on the road.
Reasons To Bet On The California Golden Bears
For as impressive as the Wildcats have been, each of their last two wins have come against teams sitting in the bottom third of the conference standings. The Golden Bears are coming off an absolutely dominant win of their own over Washington State so perhaps there is reason to believe this team has turned the corner after they dropped their first three conference games by double-digit margins. The California defense was outstanding in last week’s win as they forced Cougars quarterback Luke Falk in to five interceptions. If the defense can deliver another dominant performance this week then they will be tough to beat at home. At the same time, the Golden Bears need sophomore quarterback Ross Bowers to be more efficient. Bowers has completed just 55.8-percent of his pass attempts with 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions so far this season.
Outlook
We’ve seen a ton of movement on this betting line as there have been huge swings. California actually opened as a 1.5-point favorite but clearly, bettors don’t have much faith in them at this point. All of the pressure (and action) has been on Arizona, which has shifted the line as high as -3 (a total of 4.5 points). We’ve also seen a big move in the total too as it opened up at 63. Now the over-under sits at 58.5, which shows you that – at least right now – bettors are looking at a Wildcats cover in a lower scoring game.
For as impressive as last week’s win over Washington State was, California has been far too inconsistent against Pac-12 competition this season and it’s difficult to trust them this week at home. They caught the Cougars half asleep (or completely asleep) last week and benefited from all sorts of penalties, turnovers and mistakes that really cost the Cougars. If the Wildcats don’t shoot themselves in the foot as badly as Washington State did, they’ll be in much better shape.
The Wildcats are rolling following a pair of conference wins and with the Pac-12 now wide open they have an excellent opportunity to make another statement this Saturday. The Golden Bears will keep it close but Arizona will win as a three-point favorite on the road to improve to 5-2 on the season. It’s still fairly early but after some surprising starts throughout the conference it seems as though we can’t sleep on the Wildcats any longer. It seems like Rich Rodriguez’ team may have finally turned a corner.
Prediction: Arizona -3
Click here to bet on the college football season right now. DSI has a full list of spreads, totals and props for every single game on the board. Get all of the latest lines that you need to get a piece of the action!
