College football week 1 part 2

Welcome back for part 2 of college football week 1 picks.  Last night we jumped out to a fantastic start with all 4 Thursday night games cashing as winners. I’m adding 2 games to my Friday night picks:

UConn +17 vs BYU – BYU is 3-9 in road openers, while UConn are 9-2 in last 11 home openers.  BYU is returning 14 starters by are without stud RB Williams and 2 starting WR’s.  UConn new HC was DC at Notre Dame last 2 years when they played BYU and his defense held them to 14 ppg and 329 ypg, so he is familiar with the BYU scheme.  Even though the UConn defensive talent isn’t necessarily on par with ND, I expect them to be able to hold their own.

Arizona -23.5 vs UNLV – AU has won 13 straight home openers by an average of 26 ppg.  UNLV are 1-13 in road openers including 6 straight losses by 23 ppg.  Arizona has 104 starts returning to the offensive line and are going up against a UNLV rush defense that allowed 216 ypg last year.  Arizona will continue to dominate the line up front and run all over UNLV

Now for Saturday’s games

Ohio State -17 neutral site vs Navy – OSU has the best rated defensive line in the country, and they will use that to their advantage to shut down the Navy rushing game.  OSU has incredible depth, and played will while Miller was out injured last year.  The injury to Miller gives an opportunity for some line value in this game

Northwestern -11 home against California – NW is 16-0 in home games and has won 7 straight home openers by an average of 23 ppg.  14 of Cals past 16 losses to FBS teams have been by 14+ points.  Last year NW lost 5 games in the final minute of regulation or in overtime, and they return 16 starters from that team.  NW wins big at home

Nebraska -21 home against Florida Atlantic – FAU is 1-8 in road openers with the only win being by a single point and the average loss is 33 ppg.  Nebraska has won 28 straight home openers.  FAU has a new HC, and last year they fired Pelini (Nebraska’s HC) brother.  Last time these 2 teams played Nebraska was favored by 23.5 points and won 49-3.  This game might be a little bit closer, but NU runs over FAU

Georgia -7 (buy half point) home against Clemson – Clemson is replacing the schools all time leading passer and receiver and a 1,000 yard rusher.  Last year Clemson upset Georgia in this meeting.  Georgia has a Heisman potential player in Gurley, and the new QB played the last 2 games last year.  First collegiate start for Clemson QB Stoudt, and has to do so in a hostile environment on the road. 

Florida State -19 neutral site vs Oklahoma State – OKSU returns just 8 starters, and the loses include every single one of the All-Big 12 players on the team laster year.  Since 1999 the defending national champ is 15-0 with an average score of 44-13.  FSU is returning 13 starters, and have the deepest team in all of college football. 

Sunday games:

Baylor vs SMU over 73.5 – Baylor is opening it’s new stadium and you know they will want to do so in style.  Baylor has won it’s last 12 home games by 38 ppg.  Last year SMU pass defense ranked 93^rd and allowed a 65% completion percentage.  That doesn’t bode well for them as Baylor has the #1 set of WR’s in the country and return the starting QB from a year ago.  Look for Baylor to come close to the game total on their own.

That’s 13 games in total for week 1, plenty for you to choose a few winners from.  We opened the season going 4-0 on Thursday night, so hopefully that momentum continues throughout the weekend.  Good luck this week.  Remember, follow me on twitter @Dustin_Dominiak

College football 2014 week 1 part 1

Below are my picks for the Thursday and Friday night games.  Tomorrow I will post my picks for the weekend games.

Thursday:
South Carolina vs Texas A&M over 61 points - Texas A&M defense has been bad the last couple of years, the only reason they've won games is because of the offense.  No reason to suspect anything different this year.  South Carolina has it's most experience offensive line in school history, and the Aggies are returning 89 starts on it's offensive line.  South Carolina lost 2 All American defensive lineman.  While I do believe South Carolina will win this game, I'm not confident on how many points they will win by.  I am confident that both offenses will take advantage of weak defenses and score lots of points.

Louisiana Monroe -1 vs Wake Forest - Last year Wake Forest won this game, but that was a fluke.  This year, ULM get's revenge.  WF is only 5-20 in it's past 25 openers on the road while ULM is 5-1 in it's past 6 home openers.  WF has a new HC, new scheme, basically a new everything.  ULM HC is entering his 5th year and returning 15 starters.

Tulsa -6.5 vs Tulane - Again another team getting revenge over a loss last year.  Tulane beat Tulsa for the first time in 9 tries last year at home.  Tulsa wants revenge.  Tulsa has 10 starters returning on defense.  Tulane won't move the ball as well against them this year, plus Tulsa has advantage of being at home, and laying less than a touchdown shouldn't be a problem.

Temple +14 at Vanderbilt - this is more a play against Vanderbilt than it is a play for Temple.  The Commodores have a new HC and only returning 10 starters.  Temple played much better than last years 2-10 record, which included 5 games lost by 7 points or less.  Vanderbilt should win the game, but it will be closer than the 14 point spread.

Colorado -3 neutral site vs Colorado State - CSU lost its leading rusher and 4 starters on the O-line.  Colorado leads this series 17-6.  CU won last year by 14 points, and the only reason it was that close was because of 2 big special teams plays by CSU.  CU is returning 16 starters compared to CSU's 12.  Finally CU coach MacIntyre has beaten CSU 3 straight years if you include his tenure at San Jose St.

I tweeted all of these picks the other day, but the lines have changes since my tweets.  I've updated the lines for this blog.  Follow me on twitter @Dustin_Dominiak for more picks.

College Football 2014

College football is back!!  Last night the season kicked off with an entertaining game between ACU and GSU.  GSU squeaked out a win with a last minute field goal, but they had to fight all game to get the victory.  ACU got the cover though, and when it comes to gambling that is all that matters.
Once again I will be releasing my weekly picks here, on twitter, and maybe a few youtube videos this year.  We have a big slate of games tonight, so let the parties begin.  I can already smell the bbq and booze at the tailgates.

Check back later for my picks for tonight and tomorrow nights games.  I'll have another post on Friday for my weekend picks.