Week 2 College Football Best Bets, Predictions and Picks from Wes Reynolds:
Here are my Week 2 college football best bets:
Rutgers +3.5 at Boston College
This week is BC’s annual “Red Bandanna” game, where they honor 9/11 hero and former BC lacrosse player Welles Crowther, who saved as many as 18 lives before tragically losing his own in the collapse of the World Trade Center’s South Tower on September 11, 2001. Rutgers is also recognizing the 25th anniversary of 9/11 by wearing special uniforms to honor the 37 Rutgers alumni who were killed on that fateful day.
It will certainly be an emotional atmosphere in Chestnut Hill on Friday night between two teams that struggled in their respective openers. BC outgained Cincinnati 388-339 but were seemingly never in the game, ending in a 34-15 defeat. That loss was expected, but Rutgers was nearly a 30-point favorite and lost at home to U Mass and were dominated in a 37-21 loss.
This was supposed to be Dylan Lonergan starting for Rutgers at QB and returning to play Boston College, where he started nine games last season. However, Lonergan turned it over four times and left the game in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury. AJ Surace, who is in his third season as a Scarlet Knight, will get the start.
The QB change could give Rutgers a little bit extra here, considering they were not only the laughing stock of Week 1 in college football, but they have a QB in his third year with the program who waited his turn behind Athan Kaliakmanis and finally gets his opportunity.
Obviously, the “Red Bandanna” game is special for Boston College, but they are just 5-7 in those games.
Kansas +5.5 vs. Missouri, OVER 51
Kansas will host Missouri in the Border War for the first time in Lawrence since 2005. Missouri barely leads the all-time series, 57-55-8, and the Jayhawks will try to win the Lamar Hunt Trophy after losing last year in Columbia, following a 15-year pause in the series.
With the Tigers visiting for the first time in over 20 years, this will be a big deal in Lawrence.
Both clubs are off lopsided victories over FCS teams, and Mizzou is coming into this one ranked No. 23, but the Tigers were slotted at just No. 107 in defensive returning production while Kansas is No. 10.
Missouri is also in its first season with offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, the former Troy head coach who was at Michigan in the same role last season and North Carolina the season prior. Meanwhile, Kansas welcomes back its former offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who spent the last two years in the same role at Penn State. Kotelnicki was a great fit for this offense with former KU QB Jalon Daniels and has a similar signal-caller now with Isaiah Marshall.
Jayhawks head coach Lance Leipold is 9-4-1 ATS here as a home dog and 19-7-1 during his career.
Michigan +5.5 vs. Oklahoma
Perhaps no program was put through the ringer after Week 1 more than Michigan, and they won! Well, kind of.
The Wolverines were headed to certain defeat as nearly four-touchdown favorites before Bryce Underwood connected with JJ Buchanan on a 47-yard Hail Mary to give Michigan a 13-12 victory. The victory did, in fact, appear to be a gift, as that play should never have happened: the clock appeared to expire on the previous play, but one second was put back on the clock. The debut of the Kyle Whittingham era in Ann Arbor was so unimpressive that Michigan dropped out of the AP Top 25 from No. 16 despite the win.
This week, the Wolverines, especially Underwood, whom Whittingham referred to as “the QB for now,” will have to be much better as No. 11 Oklahoma, who won 24-13 last year in Norman, pays the return visit. There was not much to learn about the Sooners in a 51-0 thrashing of UTEP.
Michigan was a 2.5-point favorite last week on the lookahead but rose to as high as a 6.5-point underdog before some buyback came in the market.
Social media clearly exploded during last week’s controversy, and the common refrain was that Oklahoma was going to crush Michigan, and one could certainly understand it, but it looks way too easy here for Boomer Sooner.
Nevertheless, we rarely see Whittingham’s teams get out-toughed, and this is a “toughness game”
Old Dominion/Virginia Tech UNDER 49
Last year, Old Dominion went into Lane Stadium and shocked the Hokies, 45-26. That game ended Brent Pry’s tenure as Virginia Tech head coach after an 0-3 start. However, Pry is still a part of this year’s game as the defensive coordinator for first-year head coach James Franklin. Pry goes back with Franklin well over 30 years, when Pry coached Franklin at D-II East Stroudsburg.
While Franklin does not go as far back with ODU head coach Ricky Rahne, Rahne was a GA under Franklin when he was the offensive coordinator at Kansas State in 2006. So, there is a lot of familiarity here amongst the coaching ties.
ODU has a new offensive coordinator, and the Monarchs only return 23% of their offensive production, so this is big for Pry to shut down the school that got him canned last season.
Furthermore, everything is new at Virginia Tech, and Franklin certainly has something to prove after his termination at Penn State. He has never been shy in the past about running up a score, but will he do so against a former assistant?
QUICK HITS
Iowa -14 vs. Iowa State
Doesn’t this number seem high for the Cy-Hawk Game considering there has not been one of these rivalry games decided by over 10 points since 2016?
The Cyclones have gotten the better of the Hawkeyes in three of the last four seasons, but Matt Campbell and the majority of the Iowa State roster are now at Penn State, so this will be the first taste of this rivalry for Jimmy Rogers.
Iowa shut out Northern Illinois (40-0) last week and outgained NIU 507-120. The QB competition is still ongoing for the Hawkeyes between Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski, but Iowa is the more stable team this season.
The last time Kirk Ferentz faced a first-year head coach at Iowa State in the Cy-Hawk Game was against Campbell in 2016 when Iowa won 42-3. That margin could be out of reach here, but Iowa should get a rare lopsided win in this series.
Georgia Tech +12.5 vs. Tennessee
The Yellow Jackets struggled up front on both sides of the ball and lost outright to Colorado courtesy of a blocked field goal at the final horn. However, Brent Key is back in the underdog role with 5 outright wins over Top 17 teams in the last three years. True freshman Faizon Brandon is making his first road start at QB for Tennessee. The number is just a bit inflated here.
Charlotte +46.5 at Ole Miss
This is a hold on to whatever you got here, considering that Charlotte is off a 3 OT loss to FCS Citadel, who came in off a 42-14 opening loss to rival Wofford. Ole Miss won the battle of the only ranked teams last weekend by outlasting Louisville in a Music City shootout, 41-38.
So, No. 9 Ole Miss not only had to play on Sunday night last week in a game that they won on the game’s final play with a field goal, but they have LSU and former coach Lane Kiffin returning to The Grove next weekend. This could not be a worse spot here and perhaps Pete Golding exercises some discretion here.
Other selections are available at VSiN.com.
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