College Football Week 0 Predictions

College football season starts on Saturday with week 0, because only a few teams play and it can't technically be week 1 unless every team plays I guess but we are here now. I'm going to throw down my predictions on the 5 best games and one team that should be on upset alert. We will be picking games ATS for this blog (except the upset alert team who will be an outright prediction). So with that in mind, let's begin shall we.

Nebraska (-13) vs Northwestern: On paper this is easy, Nebraska is the better team, just brought in Mark Whipple who turned Pitt's offense into a power house and are playing a Northwestern team who finished outside of the top 100 in both pass defense and run defense last season. Casey Thompson is the day one starter for the Cornhuskers now that Adrien Martinez has transferred to K-State but to be fair, he was probably the day one starter anyway. Thompson started the last 10 games for the Huskers last season and had a very respectable 24 TDs to 9 INTs ratio throwing for over 2000 yards in those 10 games. When these 2 teams played last season, Nebraska would rout Northwestern 56-7, with freshman RB Jaquez Yant going off for over 100 yards on the ground. This game however is a little different because it is being played in Dublin, Ireland. This isn't just a road game for both teams, it is an extreme road game for both teams. If you listen to any NFL player talk about the London games they will tell you that a lot of conventional wisdom goes out the window because the situation has changed. Teams who are good teams, often get beat or held to a tight game by significantly worse opposition because of the craziness of the travel and the situation and all the other outside factors that come with playing the game of AMERICAN football on another continent. I think that Nebraska is a much better team this season than the 3-9 team they were last year and I think that Northwestern is about the same team as the 3-9 team they were last year (also last years Nebraska team was one of the most unlucky teams in college football history as proven by the fact that they were a 3-9 team with a +70 point differential) but with all this being said I can't imagine that the Dublin effect doesn't play a factor here. Nebraska wins but I think this will be closer than people think PICK: Northwestern (+13)

Wyoming vs Illinois (-10): Wyoming has suffered a ton of turnover on the offensive side of the ball however maybe this is a good thing considering the fact that Wyoming had the 84th best offense in terms of yards gained and were 85th in scoring offense last season. The interesting thing going into this game is neither team has chosen to announce who their starter will be. You would expect grad transfer Tommy DeVito to get the ball for the Illini but they have had him and Art Sitkowski in competition all spring long while Wyoming have a similar competition going on between transfer QBs Andrew Peasley and Evan Svoboda. Don't be surprised if one or both of the starting QBs do not finish this game as both these teams offenses are in flux at the moment. One thing we can be sure of is that Illinois will run the ball well thanks to JR RB Chase Brown. Brown was 51st in FBS last year running for over 1000 yards and 5 TDs and had 5.9 yards per carry good for 27th best in FBS. The 26th best yards per carry RB last season was new Wyoming number 1 Titus Swen. Swen started last season behind Xazavian Valladay however by the end of the season it had become much more of a split backfield and Swen had proven to be the more consistent back running the ball. Swen has not shown much ability as a pass catcher but he will be the guy for sure for the Cowboys to start this season. Look for a tightly contested match here between 2 teams who are looking to find their identity under center and will really look to utilize some strong running backs to give some new quarterbacks time to adjust to new systems. Illinois will probably end up having a little too much for Wyoming but 10 points is too much of a spread for me PICK: Wyoming (+10)

Vanderbilt (-6.5) vs Hawaii: Vandy is the favourite in this first time matchup between programs but the line is close and for good reason. The SEC's perennial whipping boy comes into this matchup returning a large portion of their offense from last year and although that may seem like a good thing, Vandy's offense last season was 118th in the nation ... that is bad. Vanderbilt also had the 3rd worst scoring offense in the FBS (15.8 points per game) while allowing the 3rd most points per game (35.8) ... that is also bad. With former QB Timmy Chang now taking the reigns for the Rainbow Warriors (thanks to the old coach being fired for potential mistreatment of players) you know that Hawaii will test Vanderbilt's secondary and speed, however SO QB Brayden Schager is a relative unknown, only starting 3 games in his freshman year and despite authoring a massive upset over Fresno State, Schager followed his breakout performance by throwing up 4 picks against Nevada. This is a hard game to call because the question really boils down to, how good would Vanderbilt be if they didn't have to play SEC teams the whole time? I think Vandy will have enough to get passed a Rainbow Warriors team that has had a weird offseason and will need a little bit of time to find the identity of the team under a new head coach PICK: Vandy (-6.5)

UConn vs Utah State (-27): I'm not going to waste much time on this one, UConn got the brakes beaten off of them last season by such powerhouse football schools as Army and Midd Tenn State. They beat Yale by 6 ... THEY COULDN'T EVEN BEAT YALE BY DOUBLE DIGITS! Utah State is a good team, they aren't a fluke and they are bringing back Logan Bonner who is a good QB. I would need about 10 more points on the board before I start seriously considering UConn, that being said never bet on these games people PICK: Utah State (-27)

North Texas (-1) vs UTEP: This is a spicy little conference matchup here in week 0 and one that I think could be very interesting in the C-USA. UTEP has been a team on the rise over the last couple of years and despite a bad finish to last season bring back a roster that is largely in tact considering the volatility of college football. 8 starters returning on defense means that UTEPs 35th ranked defense in the nation should continue to be a presence for them this season. The big question is how do they replace Jacob Cowing? The SO WR was huge for them last season with 1354 yards and 7 TDs. QB Gavin Hardison is going to have to find a new favourite target this season with Cowing transferring to Arizona however if they can find a replacement (or more likely a committee of guys to recreate Cowing in the aggregate) UTEP could be a team who could make a huge stride in the C-USA as they have been on the rise over the last couple of seasons. North Texas is coming off of a Frisco Football Classic defeat to Miami (OH) where Brett Gabbert really outgunned Austin Aune. Aune ran hot and cold last season but ultimately his big problem was the turnover bug. This season, North Texas will not have Deandre Torrey to bail out Aune if he turns the ball over, North Texas will always be more dependent on the run than the pass but I wonder if maybe UTEP continues to take the strides they have been over the past few season and finally gets over the North Texas hurdle here PICK: UTEP (+1)

On Upset Alert: I watch a lot of college football ... I feel like I need to emphasize this because I'm about to write a sentence that will make me look like an idiot and I probably will end up looking like an idiot but there is a feeling I cannot shake and it's the only team I can think of that really fits for this section. My upset alert team this week ... is Florida State. The Duquesne Dukes went 7-3 last season in the NEC (which is really like the SEC of FCS man shoutout to Wagner and Merrimack) and did have a win last season over Ohio, an FBS school. Florida State is better in every facet of the game but they weren't world beaters last season and coming into this season how much better are they going to be? 7-5? 8-4? at best this team is 9-3. They also have a match up in 8 days, in Tiger Stadium, against a very good LSU team. Florida State should handle Duquesne but, if they are not careful, they are playing a strong FCS side who will not hesitate to capitalize on any mistakes Florida State gives them. Florida State lost to an FCS school last season in Jacksonville State but there is no way that happens 2 years in a row ... right?