Temple at Army in NCAA Opening Week Football

The Temple Owls (4-8 SU, 8-4 ATS in 2007) certainly hope it's a new era for them as they travel up the Hudson River and tackle the Cadets of Army (3-9 SU, 4-6-1 ATS in 2007) in an NCAA football matchup that is set for Friday and a 7 PM ET kickoff at Michie Stadium (artificial turf) in West Point, N.Y.

BetUS NCAA Football Betting Odds: TEMPLE -7, Total 41

Here are some of the NCAA football betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* TEM has covered five of its last seven games

* TEM has lost 20 of its last 25 games SU

* TEM has played the last five games UNDER the total

* TEM has covered four of its last six road games

* TEM has lost 24 of its last 25 road games SU

* TEM has played five of its last seven road games UNDER the total

* ARMY is 1-5-1 ATS in its last seven games

* ARMY has lost its last six games SU

* ARMY has played four of its last five games UNDER the total

* ARMY has lost 15 of its last 18 games SU

* ARMY has lost 17 of its last 25 home games SU

Army's offense was ranked 116th in the country last season, and the Cadets, under second-year coach Stan Brock, who just beat cancer, are going to move back to more of an option-oriented attack. But questions revolve around whether Carson Williams, who completed 52.6% of his passes last year, is the right guy to run that offense. Growing pains are likely, And the leading receiver coming back for Army is Mike Wright, who made only 12 catches all season. If Brock's new approach creates more of a culture of running the football, that would be a good thing, because the Cadets ran for only 2.6 yards a pop in 207, compared with the five yards a carry they yielded to opposing offenses. One of the teams Army was able to run the ball on last year was this Temple squad, and indeed Brock's team put together its best effort of the season in handing the Owls a 37-21 defeat, ambling for 154 yards on the ground.

Temple is coming back this season with 21 returning starters, which obviously makes them more formidable. It's not as if coach Al Golden, who, with four wins last year, matched the effort of the last four years combined, has hit the mother lode in recruiting, but he's got all the top rushers and all the top receivers back for QB Adam DiMichele (61.9%, 12 TD's in 2007), who survived a challenge from Vaughn Charlton to hold on to his spot. But this offense still has a lot of work to do, as it averaged just 16 points last season. And Temple is not going to extract an edge with its poor special teams.

Army is not a good team, but Temple is in a very unfamiliar position, having been favored just one time in the last five years. Even with all those starts having come back, we're still not convinced enough to lay this number with a program that has lost 24 of its last 25 road games. Yes, you heard that right.

Let's take Army, the seven-point underdog in the BetUS NCAA college football betting odds.

JAY'S PLAY: ARMY +7 **

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

(Charles Jay of http://www.ebookies.com gives it more than the old college try as a contributor to the BetUS Locker Room)