College Football Results Against The Spread Week 8 2017
By Mike Marteny
College Football Results Against The Spread Week 8
We had another big week with 56 FBS vs. FBS games over our college football weekend. It was a decent week in pick em, and I know I hit one of my five pointers, so I am pretty optimistic about the rest of the week.
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I ended up with 43 points in pick em this week, which was my most since week 4. pitt2534 led the group with 51 points and took back the FantasyCPR reader’s group lead.
Here we will recap my picks against the spread. The winner against the spread will be in BOLD. My result will follow. Let’s get to it!
In case you want to follow along:
Thursday-Friday
Early Saturday
Saturday Afternoon
Late Saturday
Louisiana at Arkansas State(-12.5): HIT! I had a feeling that I should have put more on this. Arkansas State is sound offensively, and not many Sun Belt defenses can stop them.
Memphis at Houston(-2.5): MISS! This is becoming quite the rivalry game. It has all the ingredients to keep it going: it routinely decides the conference championship, the schools aren’t that far apart, and they play really close games.
Western Kentucky(-9.5) at Old Dominion: MISS! Ray Lawry got near his full compliment of carries in the offense again, and the Hilltopper defense didn’t stop him enough. This was a big road win for WKU though.
Marshall(-2.5) at Middle Tennessee State: MISS! This was an absolute beating. The Marshall defense stepped up big time here. They didn’t even need Chase Litton to have a big game. The defense was really good!
Air Force(-6.5) at Nevada: HIT! The Wolfpack didn’t take this straight up, but this was quite a game! Both of these teams are back on track after a rough start, but Air Force has the inside track at a bowl now.
Colorado State(-7.5) at New Mexico: MISS! If the Lobos hadn’t laid that egg in Fresno, I would have picked them here.
Maryland at Wisconsin(-24.5): HIT! The first game decided by a half this week goes my way. That’s a good sign, right?
Oklahoma State at Texas: MISS! I was really impressed by the Texas defense in this one. This is easily the best defense Texas has had in the last decade. Of course, that makes them very dangerous in a conference full of offense.
Tulsa(-4.5) at Connecticut: MISS! What got in to the Huskies? This was a huge letdown for Tulsa, who played their best game of the season the weekend before.
Akron at Toledo(-16.5): MISS! Apparently I underestimated the Rockets. Logan Woodside threw for five touchdowns in the rout.
Iowa at Northwestern(-1.5) HIT! Is overtime close enough? Kidding aside, this was a typical Big Ten(14) game. Great defense by both sides and a whole lot of running the football. Which should have favored Iowa, strangely enough.
Purdue(-9.5) at Rutgers: MISS! This looked more like the Purdue of 2014-15 than 2017. The offense couldn’t move the ball against an admittedly improving defense. This throws a wrench into the Boilermakers’ bowl hopes.
Louisville at Florida State(-6.5): MISS! The Seminoles couldn’t get out of their own way in this one. Way too many mistakes on offense and penalties on defense that never really allowed them to get in a groove.
Idaho at Missouri(-14.5): HIT! This looks like a completely different team from the one that stumbled through September. Missouri’s defense is still not great, but that offense is steamrolling people right now.
Iowa State at Texas Tech(-6.5): HIT! We are going to be looking at the first Iowa State bowl team since 2012, and perhaps the best Iowa State team since the 2004 team that won a share of the Big 12 north title.
Temple at Army(-6.5): MISS! Really Army? You couldn’t do me a solid and score a touchdown in overtime instead of a field goal?
Pittsburgh at Duke(-7.5): MISS! This was just a bad game for uke. And further evidence that Max Browne was holding the Pitt offense back.
Boston College at Virginia(-6.5): HIT! There was nothing close about this one. Boston College just blew the Hoos off of their own field.
Troy(-8.5) at Georgia State: MISS! I knew better. What my pick should have said was that if Troy can beat LSU in Death Valley, GSU has no chance…..
Kent State at Ohio(-18.5): HIT! Yep. Kent really had no chance of stopping the Ohio offense.
Northern Illinois(-14.5) at Bowling Green: MISS! I talked myself out of another one that really should have been an easy pick.
Western Michigan(-3.5) at Eastern Michigan: HIT! The Eagles didn’t win outright, but they made their point. They aren’t a MAC doormat anymore.
Buffalo at Miami(OH)(-2.5): MISS! Yeah, this makes perfect sense. Miami lost to Kent, who I still believe is the worst team in the MAC, then dumps Buffalo by double digits. That seems legit. Everyone saw it coming, right?
Central Michigan(-3.5) at Ball State: HIT! Even seeing how badly the Cardinals got smoked here, I stand by my above statement. Kent is worse.
Tennessee at Alabama(-36.5): HIT! So, uh, maybe the Vols shouldn’t have scored a touchdown. That only made them mad…..
Syracuse at Miami(FL)(-17.5): HIT! This was not an indictment of Miami. This was more that Syracuse is much better than they are getting credit for. That was way too many points, and I think most of us knew it.
North Carolina at Virginia Tech(-20.5): HIT! The Tarheels may be looking for a new coach if this keeps up. This was ugly.
Indiana at Michigan State(-6.5): HIT! Just how good is Michigan State, really? We are about to find out. They have Northwestern, Penn State, and Ohio State in the next three weeks.
Central Florida(-7.5) at Navy: HIT! This was the first of two hurdles standing between UCF and a New Year’s Six bowl. Scott Frost is going to be the hottest pick to fill any of a dozen coaching vacancies because the Knights are winning at least ten games this year. That game against South Florida is going to be HUGE.
Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State(-23.5): HIT! I didn’t expect the game to be this close, but hey, a win is a win.
Georgia Southern at Massachusetts(-7.5): MISS! What the……..UMass scored 48 points in the first half! Again, what the…….?
Arizona State at Utah(-10.5): HIT! Well, I was wrong about one thing: this wasn’t a one score game…..
Illinois at Minnesota(-13.5): MISS! I went from saying I wasn’t making any more excuses for Minnesota to picking them in a two TD spread against a bad team. That one’s on me.
Oklahoma(-13.5) at Kansas State: MISS! I keep expecting something, anything, to light a fire under this secondary. A loss to Iowa State wasn’t enough to to it. Neither were playing two teams that can’t pass. Oklahoma right now is essentially Michigan three weeks ago. We may not be ranked at the end of the carnage ahead, which is unfortunate because the offense is special.
Kentucky at Mississippi State(-11.5): HIT! Is there another SEC coaching job coming open? After this mess, there may be. So by my count, Tennessee is a definite. LSU, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Florida are strong possibilities, and Texas A&M is a maybe. Turning over five coaching jobs in what is supposed to be the premier conference is unprecedented.
Oregon at UCLA(-6.5): HIT! Oregon is a mess right now. Not having Herbert is a big part of that. It goes to show that Oregon wasn’t as loaded as people thought when Helfrich was let go. Willie Taggert has his work cut out for him, but he is a good enough coach to start turning it around by next year.
SMU(-7.5) at Cincinnati: MISS! This was a step in the right direction for Cincinnati even if it wasn’t a win.
Louisiana-Monroe at South Alabama(-4.5): HIT! This is what I expect to see from South Alabama week in and week out. They have consistently been a thorn in the Sun Belt’s side since making the jump to FBS.
North Texas at Florida Atlantic(-3.5): MISS! 69 points? Really, Lane? Now you’re just showing off!
Utah State at UNLV(-3.5): MISS! You know I’m thinking too much when I take UNLV with any confidence over anyone. This team is impossible to pick this year.
UAB(-7.5) at Charlotte: MISS! Then UAB loses in overtime to Charlotte. Charlotte! Did anyone actually see this coming?
South Florida(-11.5) at Tulane: MISS! The Bulls were well on the way to covering this until falling asleep in the fourth quarter. They weren’t the only heavily favored team to do so Saturday night.
Southern Mississippi at Louisiana Tech(-2.5): HIT! The Bulldogs did a great job on Ito Smith. It was Keon Howard’s 300 yard day that did them in.
Rice at UTSA(-19.5): MISS! The Roadrunners led wire to wire and still couldn’t cover this.
BYU(-6.5) at East Carolina: HIT!This was just an ugly, ugly game. Not that I expected anything better. On the bright side, this was the best that the ECU defense has looked all year.
LUS(-7.5) at Mississippi: MISS! What? I picked Ole Miss? Of course I did…..
Michigan at Penn State(-9.5): HIT! Anyone that didn’t see this coming had huge Maize and Blue blinders on. That means you, ESPN! Oh, and if you bet the under like I did, Penn State beat that by themselves!
USC at Notre Dame(-3.5): HIT! Josh Adams was like a wrecking ball to that USC defense. I didn’t think this game would be a blowout, but I’m not all that surprised either.
Auburn(-15.5) at Arkansas: MISS! I knew better. The Hogs have been getting worse for a while now.
Wake Forest at Georgia Tech(-4.5): MISS! Well, this pick looked good for a half, at least.
Kansas at TCU(-38.5): HIT! Now you see why I hate spreads like this. TCU dominated this entire game, and still barely covered.
West Virginia(-9.5) at Baylor: MISS! West Virginia was running off with this until allowing 23 unanswered in the fourth quarter. You know, if Baylor started playing before the fourth quarter, they would have at least two wins by now.
Arizona(-3.5) at California: MISS! Why couldn’t Cal just kick the extra point and give me another chance? Arizona looked really good for a half. Then Cal figured out that they need to stop Khalil Tate.
Wyoming at Boise State(-14.5): HIT! Josh Allen, that huge can’t miss NFL prospect that people can’t stop talking about, was 12-27 for 131 yards. He is more Christian Hackenberg than Jameis Winston, I’m afraid.
Fresno State at San Diego State(-7.5): MISS! This ship went down, all right. This was total domination by Fresno.
Colorado at Washington State(-10.5): HIT! This was a solid showing by Washington State when they desperately needed one.
I was a shade under .500 again this week at 26-30. That drops my season total to 222-200. I still have my head above water at 52.6%, but I was still hoping for better than that. Let’s see how the points did.
This week’s totals follow the number. The season totals are in parentheses.
1. 4-2 (35-31) = 4
2. 13-9 (77-67) = 20
3. 7-10 (66-55) = 33
4. 1-8 (27-34) = -28
5. 1-1 (17-13) = 20
My poor week picking the four pointers did me in as a lost 27 points on the week. That puts me at 49 to the good on the season, but I am now down to just nine betting points in two and a half seasons.
Next: ESPN College Pick Em Picks Week 9
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