No team made a stranger hire than the Arizona State Sun Devils this offseason. Parting ways with Todd Graham after he went 7-5 and beat Washington was curious enough, but hiring Herm Edwards to replace him raised eyebrows throughout the college football world. Edwards is going to have his work cut out for him as he has not been a head coach for a decade and will have to hit the ground running. He will face a tough test in his first game as the North Carolina State Wolfpack have no such turnover to worry about.
Watch the Sun Bowl live on Friday, December 29, 2017, at 3 p.m. ET at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. This game will be broadcast on CBS.
College Football Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
North Carolina State -6.5
Arizona State +6.5
Over/Under 60
Odds Analysis
The Sun Devils did not fare well in non-conference play, but covered the spread in seven of their nine PAC 12 games. Arizona State won outright as a dog four times, beating Oregon and Washington as a double-digit dog and Utah and Arizona as a single-digit dog. This offense turned it on at the end of the season and four of their last five games went over the total.
North Carolina State was highly touted as one of the breakout teams of 2017, yet couldn’t seem to get over the hump. The Wolfpack lost their first game of the season against South Carolina and lost three of their last five to end the year too. A good defense and underachieving offense led to the under being a great bet in NC State games, with the under going 8-1.
Coaching Angle
Arizona State has had the weirdest last few weeks of any team in college football. The Sun Devils parted ways with Todd Graham after he went 7-5 and brought in former NFL head coach Herm Edwards. Edwards hasn’t coached at any level of football in 10 years and has not coached at the collegiate level since he was a defensive backs coach for San Jose State in the 1980s.
The plan was for all the other assistants to stay while Edwards got back into it, but that has blown up in Arizona State’s face. Defensive coordinator Phil Bennett left the team a week ago for personal reasons and offensive coordinator Billy Napier resigned a few days later to become the new head coach at Louisiana-Lafayette.
Now, the Sun Devils are scrambling and have had no choice but to promote assistants to interim positions in the meantime. With so little time before the bowl game that puts Arizona State in a really tough spot in this one.
Player to Watch
Bradley Chubb has been amazing this season. Chubb is the leader of the defense and made this one of the tougher teams to run on this year because of his play.
A few weeks ago, Chubb was awarded the Bronko Nagurski Award for being the nation’s top defensive player. It’s hard to find fault with the selection after he led the country in tackles for loss with 23.5 this year. He was able to beat double teams and disrupt plays all season long for the Wolfpack, and defenses had to constantly be aware of where he was on the field.
Free ATS Pick
Typically, I like to bet on underdogs during the bowl season. Some teams just aren’t motivated because of many factors, so grabbing the points isn’t usually a bad idea.
However, this is a great chance to lay the points. It’s hard to imagine that Arizona State has been able to do the requisite preparation heading into this game with all that has been going on in Tempe. North Carolina State should be able to name the score in this game.
College Football Odds: North Carolina State 41, Arizona State 17
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