College Football Predictions – Miami Redhawks 2017 NCAA Football Preview
2016 Recap
2016 Record – 6-7
2016 ATS – 9-4
Yes, guy.
Those wacky Redhawks turned the college football world on end last season by starting out at 0-6 and then rattling off SIX consecutive wins to end the regular season. They just about SHOCKED THE WORLD in the St Petersburg Bowl (darn Russians) but fell to Mississippi St by a score of 17-16. Any team that can go on that kind of run when the season was all but lost gets a TWO THUMBS UP from our staff. Expectations just got higher.
2017 MEGALOCKS Opening Power Rating
MAC – TBD
East Division – TBD
OFFENSE
QB Gus Ragland was pretty spectacular down the stretch last season leading the Redhawks to a bowl game. Ragland finished up with a sparkling 17-1 (!) TD to INT ratio and completed 64% of his passes. There is no doubt that Miami boasts one of the best QBs in the MAC. The offense also features one of the conference’s best WR duos in James Gardner and Jared Murphy who combined to catch 88 balls and 11 TD passes in 2016. Giving up sacks was a problem. 42 is not good. Hopefully they can clean that up with 4/5 returning starters back on the offensive line.
More good news ? The RB unit returns essentially intact with depth and a couple of players who averaged over 6 yards per carry in 2016. The offense should pick up where it left off last year and be really effective.
DEFENSE
The Redhawks were NUMERO UNO in the MAC last season in total defense allowing just 353 yards per contest. They were especially good down the stretch and held Mississippi St to just 335 yards in their bowl game. The stop unit is shaping up to be another good one despite losing their top two sack leaders from 2016. The DL should still be decent but the strength of the defense will be at LB with all three starters returning and in the secondary. CB Heath Harding is excellent and garnered 1st Team MAC honors last season.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Redhawks should be fine in the kicking game and Maurice Thomas is a very good kick return specialist.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot
Nothing jumps off the page. The schedule looks very manageable. They will log a lot of time on the road in the middle of the season.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
Miami is tied with Central Michigan for program all-time win % (.598) among MAC schools. They have the most MAC titles (15).
MEGALOCKS ATS Value Rating (10) 9.0
MEGALOCKS says:
Overall, we give the REDHAWKS a 9.0 ATS Value Rating (Excellent) this season.
MEGALOCKS NATION was impressed with our call on Miami last year. 7.0 ATS Value Rating…..HC Chuck Martin has a nice 14-9-1 ATS record (61%) so far with Miami and we feel confident that he will lead them to another bread-winning season against the point spread.
They ended up 9-4 ATS. What about 2017 ?
This team looks loaded for a MAC East run. The offense should be nice and balanced with a rock solid QB. The defense will be one of the best in the conference. It seems as though the Redhawks are headed for a SPOOKY MACTION HALLOWEEN SHOWDOWN with Ohio on October 31. We will be watching.
From a point spread perspective the only thing we are not crazy about is that people may get on to this team and drive out the value. The good news is that Chuck Martin is 23-13-1 (64%) ATS in his time as HC. We like that.
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