Ad Disclosure
Bettors are All Over Penn State to Cover a Large Spread Against Temple
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Penn State will visit Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday to take on the Temple Owls, and there’s not a lot of betting confidence in the home side:
- 94% of the money is on Penn State to cover
- line has moved from moved from PSU -23 to PSU -23.5
- 90% of the money is on the OVER
- total is 49.5 with no movement
BetMGM customers don’t just see PSU winning on Saturday; they see them covering a spread of more than three touchdowns at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Nittany Lions typically dominate in non-conference games. The #16 team in the nation is fresh off a 45–0 shutout over Marshall in their season opener (holding them to 147 total yards). And each of Penn State’s last four non-conference games have been won by at least 34 points (45–0 vs. Marshall, 46–11 vs. Nevada, 34–0 vs. FIU, and 52–6 vs. Villanova).
On the other side, Temple has suffered a number of blowout losses to power conference teams since the pandemic. Oklahoma stomped them 42-3 in 2025 and 51–3 the year before. Then there was the 41–7 loss to Miami in 2023, plus the 36–7 loss to Rutgers that year, too. The 30-0 embarrassment to Duke was in 2022. They played tough against some of these teams in other years, but there are numerous lopsided losses.
Then there’s Temple’s history against Penn State, which is similarly not good. Outside of the famous 2015 upset, Penn State has dominated the series, winning 8 of the last 9 meetings since 2006 by an average margin of over 23 points.
Finally, of course, there’s the actual matchup/schematic discrepancy between these two teams. Penn State has huge advantages across the board:
- Temple relied heavily on running the ball in Week 1 (227 rush yards vs. Rhode Island), but Penn State’s defensive front (anchored by DTs Keanu Williams and Siale Taupaki, DE Ikenna Ezeogu, and LB Tony Rojas) suffocated Marshall in Week 1, holding them to just 44 rushing yards on 26 carries (1.7 YPC).
- Temple surrendered 3 sacks against FCS Rhode Island. They have injuries on the offensive line. Penn State’s pass rush and third-down defense held Marshall to 1-of-12 on third downs.
- Penn State’s passing game was flawless in Week 1, going for 324 yards and 4 touchdowns with zero turnovers.
In short, these teams are in different classes. I’m with the money on this one.
I predict Penn State by a million. We should all probably get those bets in.
SPORTSBOOK
Bet $10 & Get $365 in Bonus Bets Win or Lose!
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com