Wisconsin Opens Paul Chryst Coaching Era Versus Alabama
College Football opens its regular season this weekend. While many teams open with inferior opponents, the No. 18 ranked Wisconsin Badgers are traveling to Arlington, Texas and AT&T Stadium to take on the  No. 3 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.
Paul Chryst will make his debut as the Wisconsin head coach, while Nick Saban will once again be roaming the sidelines for Alabama.
Chryst comes to Wisconsin after coaching the Pittsburgh Panthers. The Badgers will not change their offensive philosophy under Chryst, as the offense will attempt to run the ball on as many plays as the defense will allow.
However, that might not be as successful in this game as it has in other due to the strong defensive line and linebackers of Alabama.
Joel Stave will start at quarterback and when necessary can drop back and hit his pass receivers especially if the Crimson Tide defense is spread out.
Defensively, the Badgers need to get to the Alabama quarterback as quickly and as often as possible.
The Tide has high expectations again this season, though their quarterback situation still remains somewhat up in the air.
Saban has yet to announce who will start for Alabama as the signal caller. There is Jake Coker, Cooper Bateman, David Cornwell, Blake Barnett or even a dark horse in Alec Morris all in the running.
Derrick Henry the starting running back will likely see a great deal of action on Saturday, taking the ball from his quarterback and gaining yards while running time off the clock and wearing down the defensive opponent.
Defensively, the Crimson Tide must contain the running game of Wisconsin. Melvin Gordon is now in the NFL, but Wisconsin will have Corey Clement who happened to run for 949 yards with 9 touchdowns last season as a backup to Gordon. However, Jonathan Allen returns for Alabama and he had 11 tackles last season for a loss. Look for Alabama to get the best of Wisconsin’s offensive line.
The current line has Alabama -13.5, with the moneyline at Alabama -450 and Wisconsin +375. The over/under point total is 49.
This is a great way to open the college football regular season in prime time on Saturday. Many bettors will take Alabama since they are such a popular team with the public bettor.
However, Wisconsin will not just roll over for Alabama and will be a tough game for the Crimson Tide.
In the end, Alabama will win, but Wisconsin will keep it close and cover the 13.5-point spread in this.
Pick: Alabama 27-17Â with the UNDER
