Penn St. @ Purdue Opening Odds: Thursday Night College Football

Purdue opens the 2022-23 season as 3 point underdogs to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Thursday at 8:00 in Ross-Ade Stadium.

While the players might need time to adjust back to competitive play, DraftKings is back in full force and this might be the best time to jump on the Boilers before an easy schedule and big time opportunity to set expectations collide on a Thursday night in West Lafayette.
The Boilermakers will open the season as 3 point home underdogs to a Penn State team that started last season with an early road win in a Big Ten opener against #12 Wisconsin on their way to a 5-0 start to the season. Less fortunate for Penn State, that early start was the highlight to their season as their offense stalled out to end the season and they went 2-6 to end the season.

Purdue and Penn State have not played since 2019. Purdue’s last victory against Penn State came in 2004.

So why would you want to jump on Purdue and the points?

Both teams bring back their starting quarterbacks. For Penn State, the familiarity of Sean Clifford has not always resulted in an offense with much efficiency or scoring power. Uncharacteristically, Penn State didn’t have much of a running game to fall back on last season. They were 115th worst rushing team in yards per rush last season, and 98th in yards per pass. Penn State’s offense lost their best weapon last year in Jahan Dotson.

For Purdue, Aidan O’Connell took over for Purdue’s offense at quarterback a handful of games into the season and the Purdue offense hasn’t looked back since. Purdue had one of the most efficient Purdue offenses with O’Connell under center. He now gets the benefit of a full off season as being the guy.

He did lose an NFL wide receiver as well, in David Bell, but Purdue’s hoping their bevy of wide receiver talent can continue Purdue’s offensive momentum.

But sometimes you have to bet with more than your heart. Special things happen at Ross-Ade deep under the lights. West Lafayette has bought back into this team and Coach Brohm is working on building momentum from a surprise 9 win season. Purdue’s defense will be tested with the loss of their three best defenders last season, but energy and atmosphere and an anemic Penn State offense should be enough for Purdue to get a big opening win before a stretch of very real winnable games.

If you feel good about Purdue’s chances against Penn St. on Thursday, you might want to go ahead and run to DraftKings future bets and put some extra coin down on Purdue winning the Big Ten West.

Welcome back to College Football. Boiler Up.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.