An injury that is going to go unnoticed by many online betting gamblers is the one that rocked the Purdue football team. Purdue star wide receiver Keith Smith tore his ACL and MCL in his right knee and is out for the season. Purdue is not a high profile team but they are on the Internet betting board every week so you might want to bet against them at SBG.
One reason that many people won’t know about this injury is because Smith got hurt late in Purdue’s win over Western Illinois last week.
Big Ten’s Leading Receiver – Just how good was Smith last year? He led the Big Ten in both receiving yards (1,100) and receptions (91). Head coach Danny Pope called him one of the best players in the country at wide receiver and one of the best players on Purdue’s team. His loss is huge. The Boilermakers have a young quarterback in Robert Marve and he was going to lean heavily on Smith in the passing game. That option is now gone and it is very likely that Marve will make more mistakes without his top receiver and have fewer passing options.
This Week – Purdue is hosting Ball State this week and they are laying 17 points in Internet betting college football odds. That might be too many considering how important Smith was to the offense. For Purdue to cover this number they have to blow out Ball State and that is going to be a lot more difficult without Smith making big plays.
Upcoming Schedule – Purdue has a couple of games coming up they should win but that doesn’t mean they will cover. They should beat Ball State and Toledo the next two weeks since those games are at home. They then go to Northwestern and host Minnesota. It is these four games where Purdue could be overvalued. The game where a top receiver is really going to be needed is when a team is expected to win. Against teams like Ohio State or Wisconsin it doesn’t matter as much since Purdue is expected to lose. It is when they are favored in online betting that the loss of a key player is big.