Week Two College Football Gambling Picks
Here are my three picks for week two of the college football season, do what you want with them.
College football betting has become a large part of many fans Saturdays in the fall over the past few years with many companies like FanDuel, Draft Kings, and Barstool Sports. As a fan of college football, I’ve become more alert to spreads so I decided to give out a few picks a week.
For this new weekly series, I’ll be using FanDuel and looking at the lines that they post.
My first pick, my lock of the week, is Ohio State -14.5 at home against the Oregon Ducks. Ohio State looked like they didn’t skip a beat after losing ten plus starters in the NFL Draft and C.J. Stroud did not look like a quarterback starting in his first college game as he threw for four touchdowns and 294 yards.
Ohio State beat BIG Ten rival Minnesota 45-31 in week one on the road and while Oregon is ranked 12th in the nation, I think that the Golden Gophers posed a bigger threat to Ohio State than the Ducks will.
Another key factor in this matchup is that it is uncertain to very unlikely that the Ducks star defensive lineman, Kayvon Thibodeaux will play as he battles an ankle injury. This is a massive blow to Mario Cristobals defense and the reason I think Ohio State will win by over 14.5 points.
The final factor that I considered when making this pick was how bad Oregon looked in week one against a mid tier Mountain West squad in the Fresno State Bulldogs. Lock it in, Ohio State -14.5 over Oregon.
My next pick will be in the state of Iowa as there is a civil war brewing between the Hawkeyes and Cyclones. While Iowa State is -4.5 at home, I won’t be betting the spread, I’m looking at the over/under and it’s 46.5 points.
While I’m all for banging the over, when two team from Iowa that have big rushing attacks meet, I’ll be taking the under. My pick is Iowa vs Iowa State, under 46.5 points.
The main reason I say this is because both squads have good defenses. The Hawkeyes held Indiana and Michael Penix Jr. to six points while forcing three interceptions.
For the Cyclones, they held Northern Iowa to just ten total points while forcing UNI’s quarterback Will McElvain to throw two picks and sacked him twice.
While the defenses are going to be massive factors in keeping the combined score under 46.5, another big factor is that both squads are run first. Iowa State has one of the nations top backs in Breece Hall, who went for 69 yards and a touchdown last week.
Iowa also has a solid backfield with Tyler Goodson who went for 99 yards and a score against the Hoosiers along with Ivory Kelly-Martin who rushed for 44 yards. This game just gives me low scoring, blood bath vibes. Bet the under, Iowa vs Iowa State under 46.5.
The last game that I’ll be picking is Notre Dame at home against the Toledo Rockets. The Irish are giving the Rockets 16.5 points and I LOVE Notre Dame with this spread.
Notre Dame is coming off a heart racing win against Florida State in overtime and it feels like Coach Kelly will have his squad ready to take on Toledo. Their offense was on point as Jack Coan threw for 366 yards and 4 touchdowns, one of them to Michael Mayer who racked up 120 receiving yards.
Defensively, the Irish struggled vs the run as FSU backs Jashaun Corbin and Treshaun Ward combined for 220 rushing yards. Against the pass, Notre Dame thrived recording three interceptions and tallied four sacks.
For Toledo, they thumped Norfolk State 49-10 in their opener. The Rockets were pretty balanced as Carter Bradley threw for 183 yards and a touchdown and on the carpet, DeQuan Finn and Bryant Koback combined for 134 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns.
I just feel like Notre Dame wants a blowout win to make up for almost blowing the game against the Noles on Sunday and the 16.5 point spread isn’t enough for the Rockets to cover. Give me the Irish -16.5 against the Toledo Rockets at home.