BLOG: UNLV fails to cover for 1st time; tough beats for Pitt, Navy

The Review-Journal’s Todd Dewey will track the biggest betting storylines every Saturday of the college football season.

A controversial slide by Pittsburgh quarterback Christian Veilleux led to a brutal bad beat for Panthers bettors.

Pittsburgh, which closed as a 2½-point favorite over Wake Forest after opening as a 2-point underdog, led 17-14 with 1:01 left and needed to pick up a first down on third-and-8 to run out the clock.

Veilleux appeared to seal the win when he went down well past the first-down marker. But officials ruled that he had begun to slide a yard short of the first down.

Pittsburgh punted the ball back to the Demon Deacons, who took over at midfield with 40 seconds left. That was more than enough time, as Santino Marucci threw a 15-yard TD pass to Cameron Hite with seven seconds left to lift Wake Forest to a stunning 21-17 triumph.

It was a wild final few minutes. The Demon Deacons scored a TD to go ahead 14-10 with 3:02 left, and the Panthers answered with a TD with 1:30 left to go up by three.

Wake Forest then quickly marched to the Pittsburgh 37 with 1:03 left when Marucci threw an interception.

Navy sinks bettors

It was a rough start to college football Saturday for bettors who backed Navy +10½ over Air Force, including a BetMGM gambler who wagered $46,000 on the Midshipmen at that number before the line closed at 11.

Navy was covering the entire game until Air Force scored on an 18-yard interception return for a touchdown to go ahead 17-0 with 3:51 left to play.

With Midshipmen bettors needing a touchdown and extra point for a backdoor cover, Navy drove 78 yards for a TD on Tai Lavatai’s 10-yard pass to Eli Heidenreich with 50 seconds left.

But rather than kick an extra point to make it a 10-point game, Navy inexplicably went for two. The conversion attempt failed, dealing Midshipmen backers a tough beat — despite the fact that they produced only 46 yards of total offense before their scoring drive.

The Falcons’ only offensive TD came in the first half on Zac Larrier’s 94-yard pass to Dane Kinamon — the longest pass in Air Force history.

The game easily stayed under the total of 34. The under is now on a sizzling 44-10-1 run (81.5 percent) in Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy games (meetings between Air Force, Army and Navy).

No more unbeatens ATS

UNLV, Penn State and Oklahoma each started the day as the only Football Bowl Subdivision teams with 6-0 records against the spread, and Oregon was 5-0-1 ATS.

None of them covered Saturday, though Penn State was the only outright loser.

Ohio State beat Penn State 20-12 to cover as a 4-point favorite.

Central Florida cruised to a cover as a 17-point underdog to Oklahoma in a 31-29 loss.

Washington State covered as a 20-point underdog to Oregon in a 38-24 defeat.

UNLV outlasted Colorado State 25-23 as the teams kicked three field goals in the final 1:27. Jose Pizano kicked a 28-yarder with three seconds left to lift the Rebels to their sixth victory in seven games. But UNLV failed to cover as a 6½-point favorite.

The Penn State-Ohio State game stayed well under the total of 46½.

“We did pretty well on Ohio State because Penn State was such a popular underdog play. But we didn’t make too much money on the game because we really needed the game to go over,” Westgate SuperBook director John Murray said. “We had a lot of money on the under.

“We did pretty well on UCF. That was probably our best morning game.”

Station Casinos also won big on UCF, which had a chance to tie with 1:16 left after scoring a TD on fourth-and-10. But its 2-point conversion try failed.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.