The Alabama Crimson Tide is favored by almost 40 points at the online bookmaker on Saturday as they host San Jose State but they will have to win and cover without Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. He had knee surgery on Tuesday and could be out for a few weeks. Alabama is still going to beat San Jose State and the offshore betting odds probably won’t be affected too much.
The college football odds have moved slightly lower on Alabama on Saturday because Ingram is out. The Tide was laying 38.5 points and the line dropped to 37.5 at Sbgglobal. Does Ingram really make a big difference in a game like Saturday’s?
Tide are Going to Roll – The Crimson Tide are going to destroy San Jose State with or without Ingram in the lineup. They have a great offense that won’t miss a beat without Ingram. Trent Richardson is more than capable of filling in as the starting running back and he will have a huge day against the Spartans. Richardson could even get himself into the Heisman discussion with a big performance on Saturday. He will be backed up by redshirt freshman Eddie Lacy.
Forget about Ingram for the Heisman – One thing you can do is forget about Ingram winning the Heisman. We said weeks ago that Ingram wouldn’t win the Heisman anyway and now you can pretty much lock that in. He is going to miss at least one game and perhaps more. Heisman winners can’t get hurt and miss time. Ingram’s chances of repeating were vastly overrated by the offshore betting odds makers anyway. Now he has virtually no shot of repeating.
Upcoming Schedule – Alabama will play at home against Penn State next week and Ingram will probably miss that contest as well. They then go to Duke and if Ingram is held out against Penn State it seems unlikely he would play at Duke either. The normal recovery time after having a knee scope is a few weeks so it is almost a given that Ingram won’t play against Penn State next week or against Duke the following week. Alabama will be favored in both of those games at the online bookmaker even without Ingram in the starting lineup.