Week 2 College Football Recap – Week 3 Betting Lookahead

College Football Betting Recap For Week 2

Football content contributor Ron Marmalefsky offers his college football Week 2 betting recap as well as his lookahead to Week 3 of college football kicking off on Thursday! What are his takeaways and look aheads from a betting perspective? Read below now!

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College Football Week 2: Betting Recap

Welcome to my Monday recap of last Saturday’s college football action. Part of one each week’s article will be a “what did we learn” segment as I put in print some observations from last week’s action. Part two will feature a 1st look at a few games on next Saturday’s slate.

College Football Week 2: What Did We Learn

We could go on and on about what Colorado has been doing, but one fact has been slightly overlooked. Deion Sanders seems to be a great judge of player talent, but he’s also got a good eye for coaching talent.

Sean Lewis was the former coach of Kent State, where his overmatched team showed the ability to put points on the board.

He comes to Colorado and with a team’s worth of new faces, he has them putting up video game numbers against last year’s title game runner up (TCU) and a decent Nebraska defense.

Word to the wise. Do not forget to evaluate changes in coordinators before making future plays and week to week plays.

All eyes were on Texas A&M last week but I was very careful to point out that Miami Florida came into the game just as deserving of praise, and in fact, had the pedigree to “upset” A&M outright.

The line did not mesh with my Power Numbers, and Miami had the more experienced team and was at home. In my college football team preview (posted on Wager Talk), I discussed how A&M was building toward 2024.

Meanwhile, Miami, which underachieved a season ago, was expected to compete now. I can’t predict if Miami will fold again in November after a loss or two, but the better team won last week.

Speaking of team previews, I am not a fan of current Pittsburgh (transfer) QB Phil Jurkovic. He had some past injuries, but when healthy I have questioned his accuracy and pocket presence.

Playing at home, Pittsburgh lost to what was thought to be a rebuilding Cincinnati Bearcat team with a new staff. Instead, the Panthers lost outright and Jurkovic was just 10-32 passing the ball, which is unheard of for someone with his experience. This may not be the team Pittsburgh fans are used to.

Misleading scores, part one: Oregon was -7 at Texas Tech. This game went back and forth until Tech was driving to try to win the game down by one point. Instead, Oregon got the defensive TD and covered the spread. In the college game, each turnover is worth 3.75 points.

With Texas Tech -4 in turnover margin, that’s 15 “free” points that went Oregon’s way. The yardage on this game was near even.

Texas Tech fans are used to close games, both last year and the previous week this year, when they lost in overtime to Wyoming. I expect more of the same with their style of play.

Misleading scores, part two: Arizona took Mississippi State to overtime, losing 31-24 when their final play came up inches short of a first down.

Like Texas Tech, Arizona was -4 in turnover margin, losing the ball five times overall. Amazingly, Arizona won the yardage battle 431-307, but Mississippi State had touchdown drives of 6 yards and 30 yards.

By the way, this is not the Mississippi State team fans are used to. Would you believe they attempted only 17 passes, counting overtime! Factor that into your handicapping arsenal when looking down the road.

College Football Week 3: Early Betting Observations

Kansas State at Missouri: While this weekend’s slate is not compelling, Kansas State has asserted itself, building on it’s Big 12 title game win from a year ago.

This week they travel to Missouri, who had a closer than expected affair with MTSU. This is Kansas State’s 1st road game of the year, and this veteran team (all five OL starters returned) will be expected to handle the challenge. Still, Missouri has QB stability and an upset may not be out of the question.

East Carolina at App St: East Carolina seems down this season after losing it’s veteran QB. They didn’t look too good at home in a convincing loss vs. Marshall last week, and now must travel to play a team that nearly upset North Carolina as a wildly inflated near 20-point underdog.

I’m always interested in how teams rebound from painful losses. For App St, this one had to sting. Remember, they also lost 63-61 in overtime to North Carolina a year ago.

On paper, App St is a deserving touchdown favorite, but does this loss linger more than most, especially since this is not a conference game where they can just turn the page and work on winning in the Sun Belt.

Finally, let’s keep an eye on three teams who may be looking ahead to games on 9/23. Notre Dame has done everything right thus far and shouldn’t have much trouble disposing of visiting Central Michigan.

What will their focus be with an important date coming up with Ohio State? Mississippi caught a break last week when QB Pratt was a game time scratch for Tulane.

The Rebels took care of business, and now host Georgia Tech. Up next however is Alabama, and there’s no question they’ll have one eye on that upcoming matchup. I doubt this will be an upset, but watch out for a closer than expected result.

To complete this section, Florida State goes on the road to face a mediocre Boston College team this Saturday.

This should be a routine win, but I always like to check the local media for these types of games to see where the mindset might be. Florida State’s next game? It’s on the road, at Clemson.

Follow me on twitter @ronacesports to be alerted of future articles, and my weekly podcasts with @lasvegascris.

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