College Football is back this weekend for week 1 action! Labor day weekend is chock full of gridiron action and Matt has a pair of best bets for this historic weekend.
Week 1 College Football Picks & Parlays
M. Tennessee St. Blue Raiders v Army Black Knights (-3.5)
The first week 1 college football game I want to focus on today is Saturday’s showdown between Middle Tennessee State vs Army.
Army will be looking to redeem themselves after a disastrous five-win season in 2019. The Black Knights are hoping Junior Quarterback Jabari Laws can build on the five starts he made last season.
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T&C APPLY | NJ, PA, IN, CO, NJ, MI, IA, LA, MS, OH ONLY Join NowIn nine total appearances, Laws completed 16 of 20 passes for 311 yards and a touchdown. Laws is more of a threat on the ground than most QB’s and totaled 484 yards and four touchdowns.
Army was 4-1 in games which Laws started and could be in line for a real breakout season as the new starter.
Tasked with trying to shut Laws down is the MTSU defense which ranked #108 in 2019. The Blue Raiders struggled to stop the run last year, ranking 97th in that category in all of the FBS. A defense which struggles this much is not going to fare well against a well polished triple option.
Army is just a -3.5 home favorite and I will be all over them to cover this game at home to open the season.
Best Bet: Army -3.5 (-108)
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T&C APPLY | NJ, PA, IN, CO, NJ, MI, IA, LA, MS, OH ONLY Join NowBYU Cougars vs Navy Midshipmen (+2.5)
The second week 1 college football game we’re looking at this weekend is between BYU and Navy with the home team currently +2.5 underdogs.
BYU actually opened as a 3-pound dog but was quickly bet down to a road favorite.
Both of these teams had a successful 2019 season with BYU going 7-6 and Navy winning an impressive 11 of 13 games after going just 3-1 in 2018.
The Cougars return junior QB Zach Wilson who passed for 2380 yards in just nine appearances last year. My concern here is that while Wilson returns, BYU has lost their top 4 receivers, including their 1-2-3 WRs and their TE in Matt Bushman. They ranked 25th in passing last year but 76th in rushing. This could be an issue if their passing game can’t pick up where they left off and the ground game continues to struggle.
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T&C APPLY | NJ, PA, IN, CO, NJ, MI, IA, LA, MS, OH ONLY Join NowOn the flipside, Navy is a run first team whose passing game took a big hit this offseason.
They lost stud QB Malcom Perry who broke the rushing record for a quarterback with 2,017 yards in 2019. They also lost a number of actual running backs which will need to be replaced. Luckily, Navy did return 13 starters at a number of key positions and all those players perform well in this high efficiency system.
Based on the Midshipmen’s rushing prowess and BYU’s defensive issues, I really like a pick on the home dog here. I was fine with taking Navy as a slight favorite but after the line moved I am even more confident in this play.
Best Bet: Navy Midshipmen +1.5 (-110)
Well, we are super happy that college football betting is back with week 1 action, good luck everyone!
