Week 0 is light on games and also situational spots, but it’s good to get in the habit of getting into the fall schedule. I’ll be writing up interesting spots all season long, ranging from revenge or rivalry games to awkward travel situations and potential lookahead scenarios. With only 11 games this week, these angles aren’t terribly strong, but there are some concepts to use as part of your handicap or file away when those types of spots come up in other weeks.
These angles will never be sole justifications for making a bet, but will be something that you want to consider as you think about a game.
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Northwestern Wildcats vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers (-13.5, 49.5)
Safe to say that starting the season in Dublin, Ireland classifies as a unique situational spot. Nebraska only won three games last season, but racked up 657 yards in a 56-7 win over the Wildcats last season, so Northwestern is out for revenge, but appears unlikely to get it. With both teams dealing with the same logistics and travel, my bigger takeaway here is possibly fading Nebraska next week laying a number against a pretty decent FCS program in North Dakota. Northwestern has a bye.
UConn Huskies at Utah State Aggies (-27, 59.5)
There are a lot of unique travel spots during the non-conference portion of the season. Teams unaccustomed to playing in extreme heat will be asked to do so or, in this case, teams that don’t play in elevation wind up going to play in the thin air. That is the situation here with UConn, a depth-shy team with a first-year head coach and a vacancy at defensive coordinator because Lou Spanos took a leave of absence last week. UConn may be able to hang around early, but the fatigue of not being fully in game shape coupled with the altitude factors could make Utah State a fine second-half bet.
North Texas Mean Green (-1, 55) at UTEP Miners
After UTEP tied last year’s game on a field goal with 55 seconds left, North Texas went 72 yards in just 42 seconds to kick a game-winning field goal. That was the third of five straight must-win games for the Mean Green in order to make a bowl game following a 1-6 start and their fifth straight win over the Miners. UTEP has lost the last two by just five combined points. With the game now in El Paso, and a little bit of elevation early in the season, UTEP looks like a rather interesting home pup in a revenge spot.
Vanderbilt Commodores (-8.5, 54) at Hawaii Rainbow Warriors
Vanderbilt’s road game at Colorado State last season marked the longest regular season trip out west for the Commodores since a 2003 game in Fort Worth against TCU. This season, the ‘Dores start their schedule with a trip to Honolulu to take on the Rainbow Warriors. It is a long trip for Vandy to say the least and will be more like a 9:30 p.m. start time for the boys from Nashville. However, Hawaii is not getting any respect on this line and it’s hard to even find somebody willing to bet on the home team, as we’ve seen this line blow right through a touchdown early in game week.
