The good news: Western Kentucky has a 5-1 conference record. The bad news: that conference is the Sun Belt. More bad news: WKU plays this Saturday night against the #1 team in the nation. Yet more bad news: the Hilltoppers travel to LSU to play in one of, if not the most daunting venues in America. Whoa boy. <\/p>\n
Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge LA If you\u2019re LSU in the game, the main focus ought to be to avoid any major injuries. The Tigers shouldn\u2019t have to play their starters beyond the first half (in reality, they could probably squeeze out a win playing back-ups for the duration). True, WKU has won five straight ballgames after opening the season 0-4, but those victories have come against the likes of UL-Monroe, UL-Lafayette and a two-OT \u201cnailbiter\u201d against Middle Tennessee State. I\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t mean to be an elitist. But it is hard not to be when a scrappy Sun Belt team travels to the most elite team in the nation.<\/p>\n To be fair, the Hilltoppers played a competitive game against the SEC\u2019s Kentucky in the first week of the regular season, losing just 14-3. But the Kentucky Wildcats are decidedly not the same opponent as the LSU Tigers, despite them sharing a conference. Western Kentucky has a half-decent defense by Sun Belt standards, but they haven\u2019t yet faced an offensive line like LSU\u2019s nor a punishing run game spearheaded by Spencer Ware and Michael Ford.<\/p>\n Perhaps most telling is this: WKU ranks 104th<\/sup> in the nation in passing, 57th<\/sup> in running the ball and 101st<\/sup> in points for. This ineffective offense travels to Baton Rouge to face what is statistically the second-best defense in America. That\u2019s not a misprint: LSU gives up less than 11 points per game on average, and held #2 Alabama to less than a converted touchdown last week. Basically, if Western Kentucky came into Death Valley and earned a win, pigs would be taking after the Wright Brothers. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n For what they\u2019ll need of them, the Tigers should see the QB combo of Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson work well, perhaps hooking up with WR Reuben Randle, as he was muffled in last week\u2019s classic. Ware and Ford should both find the endzone, but LSU has strong depth at running back, so they shouldn\u2019t use either player much at all. The defense should terrorize WKU early and often; it will probably be an excellent opportunity to give some playing time to underclassmen that usually find their home on the sideline.<\/p>\n With middling Troy and North Texas on the slate after this game, Western Kentucky may well finish with a tidy little season under its belt in 2011, especially after starting the season so miserably. But if the Hilltoppers can go into Tiger Stadium and avoid being completely and utterly embarrassed, they should consider that a huge victory in itself.<\/p>\n So long as the Tigers aren\u2019t caught completely napping, they should toy with the visitors much like a real tiger would toy with\u2026 a native Kentuckian that climbs hills?<\/p>\n In either scenario, it ends in carnage.<\/p>\n Score Prediction: LSU 48, WKU 9<\/strong> The CappersPicks.com college football weekly predictions pages! We KNOW you will find our FREE weekly college football picks<\/a>, tips, betting advice, strategies, CFB gambling articles and more to help you become the best College football bettor on your block!!<\/p>\n Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (5-4, 5-1 Sun Belt) vs #1 LSU Tigers (9-0, 6-0 SEC) The good news: Western Kentucky has a 5-1 conference record. The bad news: that conference is the Sun Belt. More bad news: WKU plays this Saturday night against the #1 team in the nation. Yet more bad news: the Hilltoppers travel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":24479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45606,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45588\/revisions\/45606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSaturday, Nov. 12, 7:05 pm EST
\nNCAA Odds from Sportsbook.com:
\nMoneyLine: OFF
\nSpread: WKU +42, LSU -42
\nOver\/Under: 48.5<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nOver\/Under Prediction: 57<\/strong> <\/p>\nClick here to CHECK OUT OUR CFB HANDICAPPERS PICKS for the 2011-2012 NCAA Football Season!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"