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Expect a lot of points to be scored in the first college football matchup of Week 2 as Louisville of the ACC visits Central Florida of the AAC on Thursday. The Knights are nearly TD favorites on the NCAAF odds.

How to Bet Louisville at Central Florida NCAA Football Odds & TV Info

When: Thursday, 7:30 PM ET
Where: Bounce House, Orlando
TV: ESPN2
Stream: ESPN app
Radio: Tunein.com
Opening NCAAF Lines: UCF -6.5 (total 61.5)

Series History

Louisville leads 2-1. Last year, the Cardinals beat visiting UFC 42-35. Jaylin Alderman returned an interception off a tipped pass for a 66-yard touchdown with 13 seconds remaining for the win. UCF attempted several laterals on the game’s final play before being penalized for an illegal forward pass that closed the victory for Louisville. Cards QB Malik Cunningham ran for two touchdowns and threw for another TD in helping Louisville. He was 23-of-38 passing 265 yards and rushed 13 times for 99 yards. UCF drove 87 yards in eight plays to tie the game at 35 as Dillon Gabriel scored on a 6-yard touchdown run with 1:21 left in the fourth quarter and the lead. Gabriel passed for three touchdowns and ran for another, completing 21 of 28 passes for 188 yards.

Why Bet on Louisville?

The Cardinals were favored in their series opener at Syracuse but looked terrible in a 31-7 loss. Louisville had won the past three meetings in the series — all at Cardinal Stadium, — averaging 42.3 points, and was 7-1 against the Orange since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2014. The 7 points scored by the Cardinals tied the lowest total under Scott Satterfield, matching the 12-7 loss at Notre Dame in 2020.

QB Malik Cunningham finished 16-of-22 for 152 yards passing with two interceptions in addition to 34 rushing yards. Cunningham saw his 30-game streak of rushing or passing for at least one touchdown come to an end. Cunningham moved into third place on Louisville’s career list for total offensive yardage with 10,901 yards, trailing only Lamar Jackson and Chris Redman.

RB Tiyon Evans rushed for 89 yards on 13 carries in his Louisville debut, the most rushing yards by a running back in his first Louisville game since Eric Shelton rushed for 151 yards vs. Kentucky in 2003. Evans scored the Cards’ only touchdown on a 36-yard run in the first quarter that closed the Syracuse lead to 10-7. WR Tyler Hudson caught 8 passes for 102 yards in his first game after transferring to Louisville from Central Arkansas.

The Cardinals are 25-36-1 all-time versus teams from the state of Florida and have won the last three games, one coming last season versus UCF. Louisville is 12-26-1 in games played in the state of Florida. Louisville is making its first trip to Florida since defeating Florida State last season in Tallahassee.

The Cards are 52-32-1 all-time in Friday night games, winning the last two contests — one coming last season in the 42-35 win over UCF. Satterfield is 2-1 at Louisville playing in Friday games. This will be Satterfield’s second road non-conference game since becoming the program’s head coach in 2019.

Why Bet on UCF?

UCF routed FCS school South Carolina State 56-10 in Week 1. Making his debut in a UCF uniform, QB John Rhys Plumlee turned in a career outing, as he finished the night 20-of-31 passing for 308 yards and four touchdowns. He was also a factor in the run game, accounting for 100 yards rushing on 16 attempts with another score to account for five of UCF’s seven offensive touchdowns in the season-opening victory over the Bulldogs.

A little rusty from not having played the position much the last two seasons (instead working as a receiver for Ole Miss in 2020 and 2021)? It hardly showed. Plumlee led a Knights offense that piled up 605 total yards, the most by an AAC team in Week 1 or Week 0. UCF is one of just eight teams nationally to compile 600 or more yards of total offense in a game this season.

Plumlee, running back Isaiah Bowser, wide receiver Javon Baker, and tight end Kemore Gamble combined to be involved in six of the Knights’ seven touchdowns. All four of these players share the common trait of being recruited from the transfer portal by head coach Gus Malzahn in his first two years as UCF’s head coach.

“I think it just shows you can come here and get integrated really quickly and you can come out here and make plays for us,” Bowser said.

The Knights added both starting tackles in January with left tackle Tylan Grable arriving after a FCS All-American season with Jacksonville State, while right tackle Ryan Swoboda came to UCF having been one of the better tackles in the ACC while at Virginia.

The UCF defense permitted 29 first-half total yards—none in the second quarter. The Bulldogs’ final tally of 91 net yards represented one of the most dominant defensive statistical performances in UCF history. UCF finished with final advantages of 29-9 in first downs and 600-91 in total yards while running 25 more plays than the visitors. South Carolina State had little to no success on third down with its two-for-16 conversion rate.

vThe offense was not the only unit to have a new face lead the way. Linebacker Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste, one of the Knights’ captains, leads a linebacker room consisting predominantly of transfers. One of them, Walter Yates III from Savannah State, led the team with seven total tackles.

UCF has the speed to create game-changing plays on offense and defense. Most ACC teams should not honestly be concerned about speed from a non-Power 5 opponent. Louisville, however, will once again see the speed and quickness that they are accustomed to seeing from certain ACC schools when playing UCF.