Take the Points in a Battle of Two Bad Teams

Temple vs. Duke, Friday, 9/2, 7:30 PM ET

Ah, the storied history of Duke. So many big names have walked that campus, producing great results and championships. Unfortunately, none of that has come from football. That doesn't mean they are terrible though. Still, the beginning of the season always provides hope that Duke be a decent team this year and at least put up a bit of a fight in the ACC. That battle starts Friday against Temple.

Starting with Duke, they have a new quarterback taking over for them. Riley Leonard beat out Jordan Moore for the starting gig this summer. However, I am not convinced that Leonard doesn't have anything to worry about. In situations like this, he really needs to perform in order to stay under center. He has seen some game experience last year, and I felt like he was more impressive with his legs than he was with his arm. He will need to change that this year if he wants to remain. Almost anything would be better than last year. Aside from a three-game winning streak in their second through fourth game, they lost everything. None of those games were particularly close, either.

Temple was equally bad last season. They also went 3-9 and didn't see a win after their fifth week. Most of the games were blowouts as well. This is a good game for both teams to try and figure out their identity and take home a victory to start the season. They have D'Wan Mathis taking over the team, he was not great last year and couldn't effectively move the ball often. I do think that their running back combination of Jakari Norwood and Darvon Hubbard might be able to make some noise against the Blue Devils as well.

I am not confident in Duke being able to move the ball well against Temple. I don't think either of these teams are going anywhere, this might be one of a few games either team wins. Temple has less to figure out in this game. Duke still needs to get together offensively. Even with Leonard in the system last year, he wasn't particularly impressive. It does help that they are at home, but Temple is probably the better team in this game. Still, I can't pull the trigger on them winning. I will take the points though. Give me Temple +9.5 at -110.

For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on Twitter: @futureprez2024